Health Of Your Wood: Pros & Cons Of Types Of Wood Stains

Every household has all sorts of wood articles fixed in some or the other places. From furniture, floor, stairs, storage and more, you would find your house covered with kinds of wood work. The potential harm can be done to all of it by moisture, pests and physical aging.

These damages are protected by stains that come in 3 different types:

1.  Oil Based
2. Water Based
3. Gel Form

These products are formulated to overcome the drawbacks of one another to give overall solution to wood problems. Why do we any way need it?

• Beautification of house & improving it’s texture
• Surface finishing and protection
• Add a protective layer on degrading surfaces
• Reduce UV effects & other weather condition from spoiling the health of wood

Oil-Based Stains

It has pigments in resin/solvent similar to oil paints.

Pros are:

• They take time to dry up which acts in the favor while maintaining a single and even tone on the wood.
• They are way easier to handle than the water based paints.
• Oil-based pigments take less maintenance.
• Striping, scrapping and sanding are not required while renewing the paint as it does not easily penetrates.

Cons are:

• Extreme odor due to toxic chemicals
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• These are highly flammable
• These aren’t environmental friendly
• Doesn’t dry quickly also become ineffective suddenly

Water-based Stains

The pigments in resin/water mixture makes water-based stains similar to latex paints.

Pros are: 

• Color remains for a longer time. Hence, giving the texture a longer stay and quality look.
• Unlike the earlier oil-based, this one doesn’t smell pungent.
• Vaguely flammable in comparison to other.
• They allow air flow to pass to and fro from the shielding surface which makes water vapor trap almost impossible. No moisture decay happens.
• The dry up quickly on application.

Cons are:

• Pigments are pretty dark and leaves a opaque impression.
• Needs training and specialized painters to lead the job with perfection.
• It requires scraping, striping and sanding to before painting the surface again.

Gel Stains

The most advanced in the list these are expensive than both but it has an easy application due to a pigment mixing.

Pros are: 

• They can be applied like a paint without disappearing inside the wood
• Thick layer of gel stain to prevent the surface abrasion
• It brings out the underlying texture of the wood

Cons are:

• They take moderate amount of time to dry out
• Thick layer may be a problem with corners
• It needs to be applied evenly else they build up 

These lists of pros and cons will help you to know where you should put the money to bring out the best results.