My roof terrace has a wood flat railing around it which was painted several times but the paint is now falling off. It is occasionally falling like snow onto people below so I have to deal with it, I have bought paint stripper to remove the more stubborn areas.

My question is due to the wood being exposed to full sun all day and of course it expands and contracts all of the time would it be better to varnish the wood rather than paint it or should I repaint it or have any of you found a product that would be good. The wood is similar to the wood used for decking and is meant for exterior usage so that is not a problem.

Rosemary

Paint and varnish don't like Spanish sun. After you have cleaned it up I would be inclined to use a wood preservative. You can get that in various colours and it just needs topping up after a few years.

You could use the following or something similar

NEW - Exterior UV Danish Oil | danish-oil.comdanish-oil.com

Yacht/boat varnish may do the trick?

Something like fred said or a wood stain, far better than varnish, you need something that's going to soak into the wood. Then all you need to do in the future is give it a light sanding over & add some more on top.

Suzi

Our pergola is in full sun and we use a wood stain from Leroy Merlin. It has a 5 year life and you can get it in a range of colours.

Or even linseed oil, which is pretty cheap.

Thank you all so much. I have been putting off dealing with it as I was so unsure of what to do. Mind you it is going to take ages to prepare it as I cannot work on it until around 9 pm at the moment.

Rosemary

I agree that oil works well. But make sure it's an oil that ants and wasps don't like. Don't use olive oil. Tried that on a work surfgace and had a hell of a job dissuading the ants after that.

I would avoid any sort of oil based product. They look good initially but can go very dark when they suffer a wet winter.

Stick with the solvent based wood preservatives. They just soak in deep and give the protection from the UV and insects and damp.

When to wood starts to look a bit faded and dry, put some more on.

Thank you. Have you discovered any that you could recommend?

Rosemary

Xylazel or Xyladecor from Leroy Merlin and just about anywhere else.

Definitely agree about varnish - a big no-no in the sun.

These products come in many colours from clear to black and are very easy to use - just whack it on with a brush. Important to remove all the old paint as it needs to be able to soak into the wood.

They are the ones I use.

Thank you both for this as I have never used these products before and want to use something tried and tested.

If I had not asked I would have gone down the varnish route and had the same problem so you have all saved me a lot of time, angst and money.

Rosemary

Your biggest problem will be to remove the old paint. It may not be so easy to do.