I have a small shelf next to the front door but on the outside. It's basically a top for a small brick wall at the edge of the step, only 20" X 10" and made of softwood which is now rotting.
Me mate up in Cumbria sent me home yesterday with a nice piece of planed oak, pale in colour with a nice grain. What do I use to protect it without spoiling the grain and can I attach it on top of the bricks with silicon or similar ? I don't want to drill it and use screws.
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www.wood-finishes-direct.com/blog/wood-oils-best-used/
Or decking oil.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Tue 23 May 17 at 14:35
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It will warp and bend in time and I'm not sure any adhesive will be man enough to prevent that happening. Ideally you want a long brass or stainless steel screw in each corner plus 2 each at third points on the long sides and centrally on the short ends - 10 in total. Over the top maybe, but you really don't want it bending up.
I used resin to bond some oak post caps to the posts but the resin/oak bond failed and I've now got curly tops!
You can buy oak plugs to fill the screw holes too.
Or, you could think about some form of 'secret' fixing but I don't have any ideas how just now.
Last edited by: Dulwich Estate II on Tue 23 May 17 at 14:46
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I don't care what you try and hold it down with. If the Oak wants to win it will.
Left untouched outside it will go a silvery colour.
Rubbing Lime mortar in to it and washing it off bring out the best in Oak. As for protection I'm not too sure I'd bother.
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Danish oil. My new oak fireplace surround came with a bottle of the stuff.
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"Danish oil. My new oak fireplace surround came with a bottle of the stuff."
We were also given that advice and have used Danish oil on our oak dining table ever since. You'll need to apply it more often initially as it is absorbed. That reminds me, we really ought to give the table another application, we haven't done it for a while.
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>>silicon or similar ? I don't want to drill it and use screws.
Surely screws are less damaging... Why not use them?
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>> >>silicon or similar ? I don't want to drill it and use screws.
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>> Surely screws are less damaging... Why not use them?
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Countersink the heads with a plug cutter and then cut wooden plugs and glue them in.
Depending on your tools and skill you can make the screws nearly invisible if you use matching wood and choose the grain pattern carefully.
The trick for aligning bored holes is to mark them with the masonry bit by initially drilling into the brick through the wood. Fix the first two temporarily and then the rest have no choice but to align perfectly with the wood.
Even more craftily if your masonry drill is long enough you can drill straight through the wood and the brickwork and then poke the rawlplug right through the wood and into the brick.
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>>Even more craftily if your masonry drill is long enough you can drill straight through the wood >>and the brickwork and then poke the rawlplug right through the wood and into the brick
www.diy4u.co.uk/Item/cut-to-length-wall-plugs-red
Available in a variety of diameters
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IMO, whilst you say you don't want to screw it, the best way is to use a plug-cutter, sink the screws into the resulting cut hole (and use 'rawlplugs') and then cover the hole with the plug.
I have a length of light oak, bought and stained to match the bathroom units, capping a low stud wall at the foot of the bath. I mounted it as above.
I've protected it with clear varnish, which has maintained the grain nicely, but that was interior, water-based stuff.
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Thanks for all the tips and advice. I really don't want to spoil the look by drilling it and then trying to match some plugs to it. I did all that when I fitted a hardwood banister some years back. The brick pillar is L shaped so there will be a void under a lot of the shelf.
Perhaps I ought to forget the idea in view of the warping factor and fit a similar sized flat piece of stone instead. My pal in Cumbria has quite a lot of pink sandstone which he used to cap his outside walls with. I'm sure there is a lot spare.
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You could screw in some screws to a depth three quarters of the wood thickness on the bottom. Maybe put some washers on the screws first to improve the concrete bond to help with 'pull-out'.
Make up a 50mm high wooden shutter around the top of your wall and fill it with small aggregate (say 10mm) concrete. Smooth the top level and then push down your plank with the screws into the concrete. After a couple of days or so carefully remove the shuttering and chip off any overspill while the concrete is still soft-ish.
Beware - cement stains do not come out of oak so to protect it it's probably best to wrap the top and sides with cling film.
Well, you did say you didn't want to drill the top !
Last edited by: Dulwich Estate II on Wed 24 May 17 at 11:01
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For exterior oak - use Sikkens. It's not cheap.
It will lose a lot of the look you get with newly oiled oak, but then once an oiled piece has been outside for a winter it won't look the same anyway and as others have said it will warp no end.
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Oak - Old Navy
