Re-treating a wooden summer-house, how to prep?

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This wooden summerhouse came when we bought our house, best guess is it's 5-10 years old and clearly due for some attention. Generally in good nick but I would like to re-treat it. It nestles into some bushes on the far side (which I am cutting back) so one wall has quite a bit of green starting to develop.


My two questions are:

  1. To prep it for applying a new coat, what is required? Clearly it needs to be clean, but how best to do that and does it also need some sanding... and if so can I just sand it to get all the dirt off too?
  2. I'm torn between wanting to use a traditional stain like Sadolin, or an oil-based product such as Osmo/Treatex which are expensive but apparently outsanding. I cannot find out what it was originally treated with but I think it was Sadolin or similar... does this mean I cannot use a different sort of product? I want to keep the look generally the same if possible, it's nice to see the grain through the stain rather than use an opaque paint.
Thanks! Products are not cheap and though it's not a massive structure it's clearly going to take a bit of time. It was obviously quite an expensive sort of thing and I missed the chance to do it last summer, so keen to get it done.

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Wash it thoroughly with a pressure washer and detergent.

Let it dry back out again (don't want to trap in the water behind the paint/wood treatment)

Most manufacturers say you should sand the wood first, but you can get "restorers" mainly used for decking where you don't need to sand first before applying your preservative of choice
 
I might have some restorer that came with a wooden log cabin we built, I'll check that because sanding is going to take a while... and all those fiddly bits between planks and around windows will be tricky.
 
I'll get some sample packs if I can, but is there any particular reason to think a wood oil product wouldn't 'take' in wood previously treated with a stain such as Sadolin Classic? Both penetrate into the wood rather than coating it, I think(?)

There seem to be only a limited number of white-tinted products out there which is giving me fewer options than I would normally have.
 
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I'll get some sample packs if I can, but is there any particular reason to think a wood oil product wouldn't 'take' in wood previously treated with a stain such as Sadolin Classic? Both penetrate into the wood rather than coating it, I think(?)

There seem to be only a limited number of white-tinted products out there which is giving me fewer options than I would normally have.

From Osmo website

Can I recoat an unknown surface finish?
No, this should not be done. If the existing finish is a lacquer, our finish cannot penetrate the wood pores and it will not adhere to the surface.
 
Suggestion

Clean a smalll, out of the way, area of your structure.
On a dry day paint a small patch with white spirits or turps etc, paint second patch with cooking oil and third with half cooking oil half white spirits , turps etc mixed well together.
Let it dry and see how the small patch areas took the mix..
 
Interesting idea. The back is hidden so I can test this. Osmo at least sell testers for about a quid so I might try that for the same purpose.
I'm pretty sure a normal stain like Sadolin is not a lacquer but it sounds like if I can find a tinted stain this would minimise chances of problems. I think they might only make it to order. Or of course I could just paint it :)
 
OOerr

You might be right. I thought it was a coloured oil.

Good job one of us is paying attention
 
Osmo do a "Natural Oil Woodstain" - 901 White.
Yeah this one I like the look of, IF it will take - hence @Jabbanut 's suggestions.

I was sure one of the big names did a custom-coloured stain that wasn't oil-based but I couldn't find it, turns out it's Sadolin all along but they hide the full colour range: https://www.sadolin.co.uk/products/sadolin-classic-wood-protection/#tab-tab-colours (not in the colours drop down at the top, but the colours tab next to the description below).

Sadolin also do a high-pigment woodstain which I hadn't seen before, https://www.sadolin.co.uk/products/sadolin-woodshield-superior-flexible-paint-for-wood/
 
So how have you gone on? What did you do in the end.

I got some free samples of a couple of Osmo products - the oil-based woodstain, and their Country Colour paint. Both seem to 'take' nicely so I'm going to go with the stain and hope to do it next week, weather permitting.

I forgot I have 5L of some special wood-cleanser from our log cabin build (https://www.tuin.co.uk/carefree-protect-wood-cleaner.html). It claims you spray it on, then either paint right on top or just rinse off. Not 100% convinced but I'm going to give that a go and then rinse the whole building down (might still use the pressure washer on a gentle setting), leave it to dry then paint it on a nice summer's morning. That's the plan anyway!
 
Their stain is just a blend of oils and Wax given a brand name. Like buying unbraded Aspirin for £1 or a Brand Aspirin for £2.50. You will as you say need a compatible top coating to protect the Oil,Wax stain from the weather.
 

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