finish for cabinet in the bathroom

Dan Noren

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falcon heights, minnesota
with all the moisture from showers, and my wife's :blah: mopping of the floor, what would be a good, long lasting finish? i was thinking along the lines of poly spar varnish.
 
... i was thinking along the lines of poly spar varnish.

I know the borg sells stuff called poly spar for use on entry doors and other exterior purposes. I have never understood where they got the name since poly is hard, scratch resistant (brittle), and intolerant of UV, while Spar varnishes are soft, flexible, and more tolerant of UV rays. If you want an oil based brush finish, this is probably a good choice, but it is likely to have an amber tint.

As everyone knows, I am a bigot of Target Coatings waterbase finishes. I would personally use their EM8000cv which is a conversion varnish, very clear, very water and chemical resistant, durable to wear, sprays great with less than 30 minutes between coats.
 
Spar varnish is called a "long oil" varnish. Varnish is a resin cooked with a drying oil. Typically the resins are urethane (or polyurethane), alkyd, or phenolic (and some others). The drying oil is typically linseed oil, tung oil, soya oil, and a handful of other. What makes a "long oil" varnish is a higher level of oil to the resins, this makes the finish more flexible for wood movement. That said, I still wouldn't use a spar varnish in the bath. A good quality alkyd or phenolic would hold up very well. Waterlox Original is a phenolic/tung oil, and would really serve you well. A couple of others would be Sherwin Williams Fast Dry Oil Varnish (alkyd/linseed oil) or even Pratt and Lambert 38 (alkyd/soya oil). Waterlox is likely the most durable for your use.
 
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