Ronseal 5 Year Woodstain – does it do exactly what it says in the brochure – give it 5 years? (Ronseal 5 Year Woodstain)

Member Name: libertybell

Product:	Ronseal 5 Year Woodstain
Date:	24/07/01 (1948 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Guaranteed 5 year protection, no odour, satin finish

Disadvantages: sticks your windows, requires many layers to cover sanded wood, horrible stuff to get off hands

If you’ve got wooden window frames, you’ll sympathise with me when you notice peeling paint. Its that time when you will spend hours with sandpaper, putty and paint making those windows look as good as new. You will need to climb up ladders and apply many layers to get that professional finish to make your neighbours jealous.

Let’s be honest. It’s a pain in the bum. Sunlight, rain and the wind will attack your windows. What you want to do is to repaint them yourself in the knowledge that the finish will last sufficiently long enough that you won’t have to go through the bother for another 3/4/5 years.

This is where Ronseal’s 5 year Woodstain comes in. The brochure says its been independently certified to last a full 5 years by something called the ‘British Board of Agrement’. Yep that last word is french sounding and suspicious. But a guarantee is worth pursuing.

Convinced by this stuff, I went out and bought a can or 2.

The woodstain comes in 8 colours ranging from mahogany through to rosewood, and including teak, dark oak, and redwood. The finished product dries to a pleasant satin finish.

I went for a dark stain – Rosewood. Tins vary in price from about £5 for a smallish one up to £9 for a bigger one.

Before painting, the affected areas need to be sanded down and cracks filled with wood polyfilla. At this point I found the first problem. The woodstain is literally a stain and not a paint. Light coloured bare wood or polyfilla will show through the woodstain unless you go for slapping on numerous layers. Although the tin mentions you don’t have to use a primer, the downside is that you have to use many coats instead.

The stain is quite runny and you need to make sure that you don’t slap it on unless you want it dripping onto your patio/lawn or whatever. It also has a tendency to become sticky when drying. If you can do, leave any windows
being painted open as long as possible. If you don’t you will find that a tap with a mallet is required on the frames to open them the next morning!

On the positive side, the satin finish is very pleasing on the eye. To get a good overall finish, 3-5 coats are needed. I would go for the latter where doorsteps are involved.

Like many modern paints, the woodstain-coated brushes can be washed out under the tap. This is more than can be said for getting it off hands. It’s a pig to remove. So much so that I took to wearing latex gloves to protect my ‘fairy like hands’!

I can’t tell whether it’s going to stand up to its guarantee – only time will tell. But on balance, I’ve been impressed so far.

Further details can be found at the Ronseal website which is: www.ronseal.co.uk

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