Frequently Asked Questions
For planters I’d recommend that you use Royal Exterior as it’s a hard-wearing protective coating that is suitable for vertical and horizontal surfaces. It is suitable for use around plants and once dry, won’t cause any harm.
The coating will be degraded by contact to soil so I would recommend using a liner internally to protect the coating. If you don’t then the coating won’t cause any harm if any of it is chipped or worn away by digging.
No, our Stable Coat isn’t very compatible with Shed & Fence although works well as a top coat with Wood Stain & Protector and Royal Exterior. Clear Top Coat will go over the top really well and give you a far greater level
of water repellency than just with Shed & Fence.
Yes you can use Royal Exterior on any timber product you like. For fencing one coat should suffice with a second coat extending the lifespan of the coating and depth of colour.
All of our wood stains are suitable for both planed (smooth) and rough sawn surfaces. The only difference is that rough sawn surfaces are a lot thirstier so coverage rates will go down. The first coat will be very thirsty then
the second will be normal.
Royal Exterior should be used as a beach hut will be prone to high levels of exposure and attack from the sea spray.
Yes. Once dry the coating is perfectly safe for children’s play equipment. We don’t suggest that you allow children to use the wood stain or paint with it but it does conform to BS EN-71 and is suitable for use on products
carrying the CE mark. Protek retail wood stains have been tested and show that they do not contain any elements of antimony, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury and selenium.
We would only recommend Decking Stain for use on decking. Although Royal Exterior is hard-wearing it is not designed for decking so would prematurely wear away and lift off.
Protek wood stains and coatings are suitable to be around a pond but only when dry. We do not recommend that any of our products be painted in-situ if there is a possibility for any liquid product to run off into the water
course/pond. Our paints are safe and suitable once they are dry and then placed back over the water, or if the water can be fully covered from any possible drips and splashes.
We would recommend that you use the Royal Exterior range as other coatings are too soft to withstand sitting water and higher levels of wear & tear. For general product advice please see the ‘What Wood Stain’ guide.
Cedar has natural preservative qualities meaning that it won’t start to rot for 20-30 years. Because of this there’s no need to use any preservative treatments on it until much later in its lifespan. For further protection
against the elements or to change the colour we would recommend a water-repellent coating of Royal Exterior.
If your plywood item is to be used in a damp garage or externally we’d recommend that you pre-treat the plywood with our Wood Preserver as ply is susceptible to mould. I would recommend that you use Royal Exterior as
a protective coating. Royal bonds well to plywood and will produce a hard-wearing water repellent coating.
Due to the high levels of moisture in the timber and the fact that the grain is so tight, it’s very hard for the wood stain to penetrate the timber and fix properly. We would recommend that it is left to weather prior to
treatment allowing it to dry out and the grain to open. We would then recommend the use of Royal Exterior for colour and protection.
For all hardwoods you should use Royal Exterior or Royal Interior as other wood stains won’t penetrate the dense grain of hardwoods.
Coverage depends on surface porosity but you can expect to get between 8m2 and 12m2 per litre. For further details please refer to the ‘Retail Products Range’ comparison chart
No. Our wood stains are designed to be flexible and move with timber as it expands and contracts. It will not freeze the timber solid so when new timber is drying out the movements can be quite extreme so timber may
split causing the coating to split too.
Protek wood stains Wood Protector and Shed & Fence contain a borate fungicide. This is a natural borate mineral salt. This natural form of boron is actually good for plants and harmless to people and animals. This borate
is said to be only half as dangerous for humans and animals as table salt but effective against fungi and insects.
The industry recommends that decking is allowed to weather naturally for 12 months before applying a stain or an oil. Decking is pressure impregnated with chemicals to stop it rotting and this treatment needs time to
settle before applying any top coat.
If your timbers have been freshly pressure treated the industry recommend that it is left to weather and settle down for up to 12 months before applying a stain or coloured top coat. This is for 2 reasons; (i) there may be
salt residue from the preservation chemical on the surface of the timber that needs to come off. If you apply a coating on top of these salts the coating won’t be able to adhere fully to the timber and when the salts come
off, they could take the coating off as well. You could help speed up this process by rinsing off the surfaces then allowing them to dry. (ii) depending on what preservation chemicals have been used, there may be waxes that
need to weather off as they may block new coatings from adhering fully to the timber. Again this could be speeded up by washing surfaces with water and detergent. You can check with the manufacturer to see whether the
preservative used on the timber has wax additives. Please read the document ‘To Stain or not to Stain?’ for further advice.
Our water-based wood stains will go over the top of a spirit-based coating as long as it has had long enough to weather and for the spirits to evaporate; about 6 – 12 months. In an ideal world you should sand back old
coatings but otherwise for surface preparation, wash the building down with either warm soapy water and a stiff brush or a pressure washer to remove any dirt and any loose previous treatments. When the building has
dried we recommend a 2 coat application.
If many years have elapsed since oil treatment you should be ok to overcoat with a water-based wood stain. However oil can create future problems and cause coatings to be repelled and not fix properly. If it’s a large job
you’re undertaking I would try a sample and treat a small section first to make sure it overcoats without any problems.
Yes you can paint over old treatments even if they were spirit based or creosote. The coating must be well weathered and the surface must be cleaned as much as possible. For new wood stain treatments to work to their
optimum performance and longevity it is advised that old coatings are sanded back to bare wood prior to new treatments being applied.
Yes, Protek use acrylics and waxes that leave a microporous coating that allows timber to breathe.
Protek is best suited to low pressure spraying or airless spraying. The type of pump up garden sprayers that are common in most gardens, knapsack sprayers, electric fence and shed sprayers are all ideal. As Protek’s wood
stains create a water proof coating it is important that you keep the nozzle clean. Rinse them with water if they are not going to be used for a while and after use to make sure a film doesn’t build up and block the sprayer
or nozzle up. You can use a standard high-volume low-pressure pump-up sprayer for all ranges bar Royal Exterior which due to its thicker consistency, requires a spray gun set to low-pressure.
You will be applying a light colour on to a wood surface that will be of a darker brown shade compared to the stain, even if it’s new fresh fairly light timber. This means that you will need 2 – 3 coats as opposed to when
you’re applying a darker shade where the colour is a lot stronger so you’ll get the true colour within 1 – 2 coats.
Our products are designed to work most effectively on a 2 coat application basis. On rough sawn timber one coat is usually enough, unless you are treating a building in which case a second coat will improve the
waterproofing. A 3rd coat will enhance the solidity of the coating and depth of colour. Further coats may de-stabilise the coating as coats will start sticking to each other rather than the timber and could lead to
premature peeling.
The two products we’d recommend are Ronseal Colron Knotting Solution Clear or Liberon Knotting Solution (which is not strictly clear but pale in colour). Both products are widely availabel in most large DIY stores.
The pressure treatment chemicals won’t prevent knots from bleeding resin out so we would advise you apply knotting agent to knots if you don’t want any resin bleeds to stain the coating.
Please refer to our ‘Winter Weather Advice’ sheet for information and advice on applying wood stains in bad weather conditions.
Wood preserver chemicals are used to protect timber against rot and fungi attack. Pressure treatment chemicals do not offer any protection against the weather so you need to apply a top coating to protect your timber
from damage caused by rain and the elements.
A couple of coats of a dark Shed & Fence stain such as Nut Brown, will tie in new to old in a uniform colour. For best results or when trying to match up dark to light we would recommend you use Wood Stain & Protector or
Royal Exterior as they create solid colour coatings.
Changing a dark colour to a light shade can be tricky especially with wood stains such as Shed & Fence. Ideally the old dark coating should be sanded back to make application of a lighter shade easier. The best ranges to
use for over-coating dark colours are Wood Stain & Protector or the higher grade Royal Exterior as it creates a solid (opaque) coating within 3 coats.
Yes you can but we would recommend that you only mix within the same range and use a cheap electric hand blender to make sure that pigments & waxes etc. are fully mixed together.
No. Our wood stains offer UV protection as the resins and acrylics will filter UV and slow down colour fade but timber will still grey naturally over time. Please see ‘Wood Greying Advice’ for further information