Wood balcony rails peels every year

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GillObrien

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Hi all,

We have a small.balcony rail that dates from the 1970s and has a wood top bar over a metal frame. We varnish/stain/treat the wood every year, and by July it has peeled off.

It is heavily cracked and the cracks are quite deep in places. It also faces south and is in the sun all day and summer temperatures average over 30 degrees.

We have tried filling the cracks with wood filler, not filling them and just using the "varnish", tried standard wood varnish for windows, stain, resin based products that claim to withstand the sun, but every year is the same. I don't mind doing it but does anyone have any advice on how to deal with it so that it at least lasts the summer! Fill or not fill, sand back a lot, put a strip on top etc.

The window sills are the same but these are concrete painted white.

Many thanks,
Gill
 

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I would say the wood is too far gone it will always allow water in.
I think I would try capping it with new timber and using a wood stain like.

Sikkens Cetol HLS Plus | Sikkens HLS Plus Exterior Woodstain

Buy Sikkens Cetol HLS Plus. A high quality, exterior low build base coat and wood stain. Resists UV light, mould, algae, peeling and cracking.
www.wood-finishes-direct.com www.wood-finishes-direct.com

Varnish is overrated in my view always seems to flake and then needs rubbing down to sound wood and redoing , Cetol will not flake and a light sand and recoat will bring it back without effort.
 
Best thing may be to fit a strip of hardwood to the top as a capping and this will protect the rail better. 15-20mm so as not to raise the height too much, and round the edges to allow coatings to adhere.

But yes, choose your coatings carefully. You want a quality oil or stain, not a surface coating.
 
Why did the wood filler shrink? Get 2 part fillers and fill everything flush and flat. Then prime and paint.

Paint failed because the wood is allowed to get wet. Stain will not be adequate. You need multiple coats of 10 year oil paint. I would suggest oil primer as well. All this will be a waste of time if you don't seal every part of the wood, including the joint for the pieces.
 
Thank you all. I think I will go with putting a strip on top. In this case, do I do something like sand the existing rail flat, put glue between the strips and then nail them together? Do I need to seal on the vertical faces between the original wood and the strip?

I don't know why it got wet or the filler shrank. My theory is that there is a metal structure that sits inside the wood, which expands and contracts with the heat at a different rate than the wood, so it opens the joints/cracks. But I am just making this up!
 
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