How to Finish a Wooden Barbecue Table

Summer is already here and what could be more enjoyable than to spend unforgettable moments with family and friends outside on your patio, around the BBQ.

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Actually, BBQ is an indispensable tool for outside living. It is quite rare to find someone who does not love a fresh grilled burger. And also, you cannot neglect the pleasure of cooking on a professional BBQ. You do not need anything else but your burger and several tools. But, when you have many guests, a cedar wooden table can help.

However, you need to protect the surface of your new cedar table from splashed hot barbecue grease.

There are three ways to handle this situation.

One way is to live with this greasy mess of splashes scattered all over the table.

Another option is to create an outside very tough film that can seal the wooden surface of your barbecue table preventing in this way, the grease absorption.

The last option is somewhere between the first two. You can spray your wooden table surface with an exterior oil finish. Unfortunately, you have to repeat this operation every year, which means stripping, sanding and reapplication of the exterior oil finish. The advantage of using exterior oil coating is that the oil never peels and it is quite easy to renew.

But back to the second option, namely the creation of an outdoor tough coating. One of the best products is “Minwax’s Helmsman Spar Varnish”. A spar varnish coating provides a higher level of protection, higher than exterior oil coating.

Minwax’s Helmsman Spar Varnish 

This amazing urethane product is a protective clear finish that can be used interior or exterior to preserve and protect wooden surfaces from water, extreme temperatures, sunlight and UV sun-rays. It prevents even, the wood to contract when the environment temperature is changing.

It can be Satin, Semi-Gloss or Gloss. Application is extremely simple. You need only a natural bristle brush. After applying a coat, you should allow 4 hours to dry before applying the second coat. However, for a quality work you need to apply two or three coats.

Maintenance is also, easy. You can use a cloth soaked in mineral spirits.

However, any outdoor finish, even a spar varnish coating, has to be renewed after two or three years. It is the same procedure as for exterior oil coating, stripping, light sanding and redone.

It is possible that an exterior oil coating to be enough to protect your wooden table if you are careful with your grill. However, if you are not pleased with that, you can always apply another coat of spar varnish. You need only, to scrub thoroughly your cedar wooden table with soapy water to remove all the grease spots. Allow a few days to dry and apply two or three coats of spar varnish.

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