I have a bunch of old-growth Douglas Fir flooring that it’s breaking my heart to rip out of another part of the building. Does anyone know if enough epoxy will enable me to recycle this wood into a viable sink-surround? It’d be quite handsome in my kitchen and bathroom, where the same flooring remains and the present counters are nasty.
My thought is to plane the flooring flat and square* and then laminate up a block a couple of layers thick, with maybe a third layer at the edge, which would then be spokeshaved & routered into a pleasing curve. Would several coats of epoxy overtop make this waterproof enough to work?
If you are going to use epoxy I would suggest coating all six sides. You could also use some water borne or aniline wood dyes to enhance the grain without impacting the adhesion of the epoxy. There are some other finishes that are usable for wood counter tops, you might check with Rockler, Lee Valley, etc. I have a maple top for my prep area that is oiled every so often, it’s over twenty years easily but it is not a sink surround.
I concur 100%. I had a flute that was sealed with marine epoxy. There was no way any moisture was gonna get through it, but it was sealed over the entire surface.
Top, sides and end grain for sure, but I’m not certain of the wisdom of sealing the entire underside, because that seems likely to trap any moisture* that works it’s way in. I think I need a roof, not a bag. As long as I’m careful to prevent moisture wicking routes from below & via the rest of the carcase, leaving enough open surface inside underneath to enable the wood to shed moisture when it must seems like the smarter way.
*You can’t keep wood from absorbing moisture by any means short of impregnanting the entire block, and I can’t epoxy every screw or nail hole to make a perfectly impermeable skin.
Actually you can seal every screw hole if you place them before you mount the counter top. Drill a larger hole with a brad point bit, fill it with goober goop(thicken epoxy) let it set up with a wax coated screw in the center remove screw mount counter, reapply screw. You can also improve penetration of the epoxy by warming the wood(heat gun) before you apply the mixture. I use Bristol Finish urethane over epoxy for my boat work, it will show wear(patina!) but it is extremely durable.
But I would also give serious consideration to using an oil, tung, monocoat, etc.
If I were going to use this wood around a sink, I would prepare it the same way you would for boat hull planking. The first thing I would put on it would be CPES (Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealant), made by Smith & Co. http://www.smithandcompany.org/. It is available from many distributors. I buy mine from Jamestown Distributors http://www.jamestowndistributors.com, but the price varies little from place to place. The CPES is a thinned two-part epoxy (1:1 mix), that gets down into the wood better than unthinned epoxy. It’s greatest drawback is that the thinning agents are all nasty organics, so ventilation and proper safety gear are essential. The volatile organics all dissipate within a few days (weather dependent). After the CPES, I would probably put a coat of unthinned epoxy, such as West System (but not necessarily), and then a varnish that could stand the abuse that a counter top has to endure. If there is a window that allows direct sunlight on the counter top, the varnish will need to have UV inhibitors since epoxy breaks down over time with exposure to UV light.
Hope this helps.
Thank you; the last last several posts (in particular) have contained very useful into.
I also love the trick for creating an epoxy-toughened but removable screwhole. I can think of a whole bunch of other contexts in which that would be a perfect solution. Epoxy is famous for being brutal to tool steel.
I would point out that my well founded prejudice for Bristol Finish as a varnish with substantial UV resistance plus a one hour re-coat time versus say about twenty four hours for traditional spar type varnishes. A little scientific experiment I ran one time showed that bugs will fly into traditional varnishes at a rate directly proportional to the need to keep the finish blemish free. I’m not saying that wouldn’t be interesting on a counter top… and don’t forget cat hair is everywhere.
It should be OK as an ordinary counter, although I’m not sure that I’d want to get it all that wet. Given it’s past, & the fact that bowling lanes get waxed, the decision may well have been made for him years ago. The wood is quite likely so impregnated with wax that most finish options are out of the question. A bowling lane’s also made from much denser wood than my Douglas Fir; it’s usually maple or something similar, at least.
People have been building stuff out of wood for millennia, and for the vast majority of that time wax was all the finish there was to be had. It’s really only this century that durable waterproof fininshes began being available.
There is an architect in Vermont, Karolina Kawiaka who makes bathroom sinks out of pieced together maple. She uses epoxy and urethane as her finish. This one is a topographic map cut with a CNC.
A map of the valley where she grew up in Vermont. Our eldest likes to use his CNC to cut three dimensional music sound waves, some of his pieces look like overly congested large cities full of skyscrapers.
Whatever finish you put on top, you MUST put the same finish on the bottom and ends.
If part of the wood is sealed differently than another part, you’ll get unequal absorption of moisture.
Wood swells when it absorbs moisture. If you seal the top and not underneath, you’ll have cupping on top if the underneath absorbs more moisture or a crown on top if the bottom dries out more.
Definitely, seal all six surfaces thoroughly with the same sealant everywhere.
Right and it moved, I’d bet big bucks it moved a lot. If it was a table top you could let it move some, but as a rigid counter top around a sink you can’t have movement. But give it a shot Fine Homebuilding Magizine loves those kinds of stories if you want to sell it.
