Seal or paint a picnic table?

[PILOON]

I like stain best as you can simply add more from time to time with but minor sanding.
Paint flakes, chips and always has to be sanded back to bare wood.

LOL, my patio table is cedar.
I had stained, painted etc but I now do nothing else but a very light occasional scuffing with a 3M pad.
We have decided we like the light grey 'patina' of aged cedar.

 

[Komrade]

I agree, I hate sanding.
Maybe we'll try staining with something tung oil based. Not excited about 5 coats, but much less excited about sanding later.

 

[oosik]

I don't think it matters. Paint or stain. Get a good product - do proper preparation - repeat as necessary.

I have two small decks attached to my house. Every five years or so I reapply an oil stain product. Both decks are in good shape after 40 years.

I think your local weather and what type of wood will play just as important a part as what you put on the tables.

 

[Gem99ultra]

Forget stain. BT-DT. Wasted a number of benches and Adirondack chairs thinking that the stain was 'so much prettier'. Yep - that is for the first 4 or 5 months.

I've gone to only enamel outdoor paint and made of cypress lumber. Two coats; first primer then finish coat. Even then, they'll need repainting in 5 years or so.

 

[AWSubie]

Boiled linseed oil is what I like to use. Easy to use and reapply.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

The prototype table has been sitting outside 10 yrs now, still in decent shape. It was never painted or stained.

 

[civilian]

The prototype table has been sitting outside 10 yrs now, still in decent shape. It was never painted or stained.

We received a used unstained pressure treated picnic table before 2014. Don't have any idead how old it is. Looks like crap, still usable, has some scale to it in places. Worst deterioration is the bottom of the legs. The end grain is against the ground all the time. Table sits outside year round on its legs in the dirt or grass. I have thought about adding a PT 2x4 on the end grain and raise table up a bit. To hard to get in and out of. Flat side of 2x4 would not deteriorate as fast as the end grain. Been a project for years, but still not done yet.

 

[bigtiller]

Talk about bad shape, mine got ran over in 1990 by a Farmall M.
The rear left tire ran up one end of the seat and the metal table legs folded.
We straightened the legs and welded a gusset to them. It looks dangerous but it has been over 30 years without a failure.