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Best treatment for door threshold

Trevor_Lambert | Posted in General Questions on

I have door thresholds made of black locust.  What is the best surface protection for them? I made the mistake of using Helmsman outdoor urethane, and it didn’t last a year. It’s claimed to be great against sunlight, rain and movement from temperature, but what it clearly wasn’t up for was foot traffic. Ideally I’d like something that lasts a long time, or failing that, something that doesn’t look awful while it’s wearing out, and/or can be touched up without having to prep the whole surface every time. Is plain old deck stain the way to go? Olympic Maximum claims to be good for 4 years on decks. I feel like decks probably see less traffic, especially in the winter, so maybe that 4 years would still end up being 1 year. 

How crazy would it be to put a sacrificial wood layer over top, like 1/8″ or something? I could either replace it annually, or at least remove it to refinish in the comfort of a workshop.

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Replies

  1. Expert Member
    Michael Maines | | #1

    Trevor, I haven't used it in a few years and think I heard that they changed the formula, but I used to like this penetrating oil/stain. You just need to reapply it every 1-3 years. https://www.cabotstain.com/products/product/Australian-Timber-Oil.html

    This is another good product: https://www.penofin.com/wood-stains/hardwood-formula-wood-stain.

  2. Trevor_Lambert | | #2

    Thanks. The Penofin, being specifically for hardwood, is probably the better choice. Doesn't need removal for future applications either, which is exactly what I want. Most shockingly, you can get it in Canada.

    1. Expert Member
      MALCOLM TAYLOR | | #3

      Trevor,

      Penofin is good stuff. The only downside is it smells for about a week after you apply it. Probably not too bad on a threshold, but doing a whole deck is almost en0ugh to stop me using it.

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