Sikkens-Making Porches and Cabins Look New Again!
It's important to know what I learned, if you're going to use this amazing product! Cetol SRD is appropriate for all exterior wood, but its penetrating non-filming properties need to be weighed against the long drying time. The product stayed tacky for several days with a thin coat. It is designed to penetrate so that it will perform better on raw wood. I wouldn't have noticed the tackiness had I not needed to walk on it and return furniture to the deck. Thankfully, that was the only issue. After doing some research and having a local Sikkens dealer visit the job site, I found that Sikkens Cetol DEK has the properties closer to that of a polyurethane and dries quicker and harder than SRD. The DEK is about $30 more than the SRD, but if you're looking for a harder, poly- type product, the DEK is the way to go.
To remedy the problem, I wiped the existing SRD with a mineral spirits rag at the recommendation of Chris, our local rep., and applied one coat of the DEK. It dried overnight and held up well over the first year on this mostly protected porch. Sikkens clearly determines reapplication times on their specs which is largely determined by how much sun the surface receives. For the southern and eastern exposures, Sikkens recommends two to three years, and for northern and western exposures, four to five years. I reapplied the DEK product again this summer after one year. You can see the finish from the summer of 2015 in the background and the new application dried overnight from this past summer. I'll keep a close eye on this prominent front porch in historic Saratoga Springs keeping it beautiful and well protected because... that's what I do! Thanks to Tom and Nicole, the homeowners, for their understanding and patience as I navigated my way through this project. There is one part of this porch that gets heavy sun and ice, so it will see my brush annually most likely!
Later in the fall of 2015, I started another Sikkens project, this time with Cetol Log and Siding. The existing Sikkens had lost its lustre and UV protective quality by the time I started this project having been approximately five years since the original application. I washed and hand-sanded the logs prior to application, then used a mini roller to apply the product followed by brushing. The customers chose the color, Butternut, and the results were beautiful! I did two coats on the southern and eastern exposures as well as some western exposure that receives a long afternoon sun. In the picture you can see the richer color of the second coat on the top half.
