exterior door finishing

[Len Coleman]

For the finish guys, I am going to start to refinish an exterior front door. while there is a security door in front of it and some shade from a tree, it does face west into Arizona sun.

I am looking for the best stain and UV protection to apply. any suggestions?

 

[NorfolkNgood]

I would suggest a Epifanes yacht varnish ,poly single pack ,use it a lot in the Caribbean on various projects .Great colour on teak ,mahogany etc

 

[Tyler Ernsberger]

I would look at Sikkens.  We use it a lot for exterior staining and finishing.  It should be available locally. 

 

[Cheese]

I helped my neighbor sand and put Sikkens on a cedar garage door that faces West. He got about 5-6 years out of it before he had to touch it up.

 

[rizzoa13]

I'll admit I haven't had much experience with the epifanes but when I went to use it and saw just how thick and "plasticy" the finish was on my test piece I immediately went to something else. I'm sure if you need the ultimate protection like on a boat out in the sun, salt air and water then the epifanes is great. But it is not subtle and imo kind of ugly and overdone for a front door.

Just a thought and sorry I don't have an answer to your original question.

 

[elfick]

Check out this post, I haven't tried it but it is certainly interesting. In your application it would be after a separate stain process.
http://community.woodmagazine.com/t5/Steve-Mickley/quot-Paint-quot-your-exterior-projects/ba-p/1657

 

[Cheese]

[member=20971]elfick[/member]
Thanks for the post. I finally got around to reading it and it was a very interesting article. I'm going to talk with my local SW dealer about this. A quart of base should yield some preliminary results, either good or bad.