How to Repair Outdoor Wood Furniture & Fix Rotten Wood | Woodworking

outdoor wood furniture is exposed to a lot of the elements and the worst one is moisture moisture can get into the wood and cause rot I've got a picnic table I'm gonna repair I'm gonna show you how I do it as a furniture repair business we're opening the doors to our workshop to show you the tools and techniques to repair furniture what I need to do is take that apart repair it and put it back together so I can get this chair in working order we give you tips to make your repair projects easier let's get into the workshop and start fixing furniture I'm on-site today at a customer's home and they've got a picnic table here that's missing some parts and has some rotted wood I'm gonna show you how I replace those parts and get this table in working order there are a few boards in this tabletop that are rotted out so I need to replace them here there's an upright missing and you can see here the wood is rotted out so I'm going to replace this bottom section as well sometimes repairing outdoor furniture is unpredictable and I sure get a surprise when it took this road well the seats in this picnic table are pretty sold this top is just shot the problem is the way it was constructed this top is a beautiful design but unfortunately there are supports that run this way and the problem with that is when you look underneath here this is capturing all the moisture so the seam here the moisture is going inside and it's rotting the board's both the support board here and these boards underneath here so unfortunately I can't rebuild this the way it's designed to make sure that it's gonna last what I'm gonna do is run the board's this way what supports across this way to minimize the amount of space where the supports are between the gaps and the wards I'm now back in the shop to create the tabletop and the replacement parts that are rotted out I want to make sure that these parts look exactly the same as the old ones so when the table goes back together it won't look like a repair job I'll show you how I round over these edges and get these parts put together here I'm using an acrylic semi-transparent stain so I'll get to see the wood grain through this but it's really dark it's got to match the existing pieces and it's acrylic so I'm doing this in my shop that means it's got lower chemicals lower off-gassing than other type of finishes so what I'm going to do is apply this on the underside of this tabletop and the supports and that makes sure I've got good coverage on these pieces before they come in contact with each other and that will help preserve the wood when the board's get wet and they need some time to dry out so if I just put them bare wood to bare wood that would open it up for opportunity for some rot so this is just taking that extra step to make sure that this tabletops gonna last as long as possible the finishing process for these boards is fairly straightforward just a few tricks and what I do is load up the brush a little bit and cover a little half the side just spreading out that material and then turning the brush sideways and just going back and forth at this point don't worry about spreading of the material too much in terms of getting a consistent look just need to spread it initially and then take one long pass with a brush and that way you can see the wood grain through it you don't see the brush marks so I flip this over again I'm doing the underside of these boards so the underside is the worst part of the board the best sides on top so the process doesn't take a whole lot for each jet forward again just making sure you run your brush across this and this is a technique called tipping off and that's just touching the surface of the finish to make sure you get a nice smooth look now I will left a mark on this side here right there right there just a matter of taking the brush all the way across the top flat surface is just a matter of spreading the stain out again don't be worried about brush marks at this point and if you do have a knot that's got a bit of a crack in it then just put some finish in it and get it filled up so once I've gone all the way across this and I have finish on all the surface then I'm going to go through that tipping off technique again and I'll show you what the difference is so if I just leave this like this there's a bit of blotchiness that's happening through here but by tipping off and going from one end to the other you get a nice consistent look on that finish and what that allows the wood grain to do is show through it's not getting muddy up by the various strokes in the paint brush so that's it let it dry and you're done with the finish in the bottom of these boards I'll dry I'm now almost ready to assemble I have a two-way 8 in the middle everything else is a 2 by 6 and the reason I've got a 2 by 8 is I need to cut a hole in the middle for umbrella and wanted to make sure I had enough meat on either side of that board so it will be stable so cut that hole first and then lay it out to assemble [Applause] I've got the board's assembled the way I want them and what I'm going to do is put spacers in between them as I assemble it to make sure I've got proper spacing in here and enough space for water to drain through and not trap moisture because I've sealed the bottom of this tabletop and the braces as well as these go on I'm gonna have a sealed joint between the two again so I don't have rot establishing between the two pieces of wood I'm going to be putting screws through these underneath and that again helps prevent rot from happening through the surface where I have a screw penetration so I've got three braces here two for the ends and one for the middle I'm gonna use a framing square to make sure I've got everything nice and square and then I can screw it all together and I've got the assembled top in one piece I pre-drill holes in the support to make sure I don't split the wood with the top flipped over you can see here how I've got the board's spaced and there's a few things left I have to do first I have to round over the saw cut out here but also I'm going to profile the edge this is the edge of the old table and you can see here there's a nice profile here and the customer wants that retained so I've got a rotor bit that's exactly the same so I need to run that around the outside of the table because I'm writing this on the outside across the ends of these boards I need to make sure that they're all level so that when the router goes across that profile is the same on the end of each board I've got to their high so I'll take those down on the plane and then start reading [Music] [Music] to avoid taro Don boards I first of all trim the end and they can go across straight and not having additional terrible [Music] with all the parts ready I'm excited to get on site and get this table put together I've got the table on its side right now so I can replace this bottom part in this upright I've got the replacement parts all made so once I've done that I can then put the table top on [Applause] well this table is now a working order and all set to go if you enjoyed this video and want to subscribe to our channel you can click on the link over here and click on the bell icon you'll get notified when our next video is coming up thanks for watching fixing furniture [Music] [Music]

Channel: Fixing Furniture

Views: 60,097

Keywords: furniture repair, woodworking, outdoor wood furniture, outdoor furniture, rotten wood, fix rotten wood, repair rotten wood, repair furniture, how to, restore furniture, picnic table, outdoor stain

Id: DyaP0ktA8zg

Length: 12min 6sec (726 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 20 2019