Painting garden furniture

[haggis]

I am in the middle of painting some old wooden garden furniture at the moment but if it is anything like the last few years the paint just wont last. It doesn't seem to matter what sort of paint I use - even the stuff with the 5 year guarantee. I wondered about putting a coat of varnish on over the new paint (a snazzy mint coloured paint ). has anyone else got any suggestions or can you recommend any paint that you have found which has lasted? Every hour spent painting is an hour out of the garden so if I could get a few years out of this it would be great.

[Geoff]

I've had pretty good results with this http://www.wickes.co.uk/bin/venda?ex=co ... ure+finish

[haggis]

Thanks Geoff,
I will give it a go - lots of furniture to do!

[Tony Hague]

IMHO, painting anything wooden in the garden is just making work. An oiled finish is so much easier to maintain and degrades gracefully.

[John]

I agree with you there Tony. A quick clean up once or twice a year then some teak oil is the best treatment.

John

[FelixLeiter]

Our teak garden bench has been outside all the year around now for 5 or so years. It was bought from B&Q, not expensive. It isn't painted with anything nor cleaned up, and it has weathered rather fetchingly and has some interesting lichens growing on it. No sign of rot or creakiness. I think most wooden garden furniture these days is pre-treated, therefore no maintenance required.

[Shallot Man]

haggis. I have a ceder seat that every couple of year's I borrow No:1 sons pressure hose and give it a good old spray, brings the ceder up like new.