Cleaning Reclaimed Barn Wood
However due to the age of many barn wood planks a thorough cleaning is required to make them safe to use in projects or in your home.
Cleaning reclaimed barn wood. Make sure not to use too much. I washed down the old barn wood first then using the water hoes brush and adding 1 part bleach and 2 part water in the attached container i went to work. And unfortunately i learned this the hard way. It s a fact that reclaimed wood is usually dirty.
Cleaning reclaimed wood salvaged wood often comes with an intriguing backstory and a unique appearance but also with embedded dirt dust and debris. Next once the wood was dry i took it to the planer this cut the sanding process. I used minwax polycrylic water based protective finish in clear satin you guys this stuff is amazing. If you re planning to use it in a project the first step of that project will be to clean the old wood assuming of course that you re like me and you want to install clean reclaimed wood into your home.
This tutorial shows you how to do it. The most important lesson i ve learned with reclaimed wood is when to lightly clean it vs. Picture frames and furniture can be constructed out of reclaimed barn wood and this is a good way to reuse old wood at the same time. Years ago when i started cleaning reclaimed wood i would sand it down with a hand sander which would get rid of that beautiful patina and some of the character.
Once the wood was dry from its cleaning i used a regular paint brush and sparingly applied the minwax finish. Barn wood can add weathered rustic charm to your home. I love how pretty reclaimed wood is. A friend and i managed to find a beautiful barn door and so i took it home and it sat in my garage for quite some time.
Then the idea was born to use this as the top of my craft room work table. Within minutes the wood was looking much cleaner and i had lots of fun scrubbing that old nasty barn wood.