How To Use Wood Fillers before staining In 5 Easy Steps

SaveSavedRemoved 0

One fine morning, you are having the most gratifying experience of a cup of warm fuzzy coffee and you suddenly notice a scrape on your table. It starts to taunt you so bad that you decide not to look at it out of chagrin. It haunts you all day in your work, in your afternoon nap, even in the long desired date you go on. It ruins your day. We all are a bit sensitive when it comes to our pieces of furniture’ maintenance. You can easily use a wood filler in order to make holes, scrapes, and scratches disappear. So, How To Use Wood Fillers before staining?

How To Use Wood Fillers before staining

Most of us, at some point in our lives, had to call a plumber to fix a mare hole, just because we don’t know how to use a wood filler. Here in this article, I am going to describe using wood fillers in 5 easy steps:

  • Buy a Wood Filler: Buying an appropriate wood filler is as crucial as applying it. A wood filler should be capable of retaining the color of the wood when stained for a long time. If it loses its color within some days, then it won’t be worth the effort. Moreover, it should be strong to endure pressure load put in daily usage of the furniture. You can opt for a water-based wood filler, but it takes longer to dry up and supposed to be used indoors. You can mix up glue and sawdust to prepare your own wood filler. Above all, an epoxy based wood filler is a way better choice.
  • Prepare the Surface: Preparing the surface is really important for applying wood filler. Remove the falling off wood paint chips before you apply wood filler, otherwise, there will be irregularities in the surface of the wood, which is not at all appreciable. You can just use a scraper to flake them and other splinters off. Use an emery paper to sand down the damaged area. It will make the surface smooth and uniform. Any debris left in the area will not let the glue stick up to the surface, so use a damp cloth to let the debris go away and wait until the surface dries off. Using a shop vac is also a favorable option.   
  • Fill the hole: Take the tube and press it for applying the filler to the hole. Insert the tube and fill the hole towards the farthest corner and work your way towards outside part of the hole. Make sure you overfill it by 5% because the filler shrinks in the area by the time it dries off. Also make sure you are not using more than 5%, as it can the drying time longer. You can check this guide also, How To Fill Wood Holes 
  • Leave it to Dry: Leave the filler to dry off for at least 8 hours before you start finishing the surface. Otherwise, the filer will clog up and make it harder for aesthetics of your furniture.
  • Render a Good Finish: Finishing the surface of the filler is the most important phase of applying wood filler. You can use a fine grain sandpaper for smoothening effect. Sanding down the surface will make it better looking and uniform in surface and more ready for staining. Now you have to run an errand by running your finger over the hole. See if it is still depressed or not. If it is, then apply some more wood filler and repeat the previous steps. Then, you have to increase the anchorage of the surface for it easier for the stain to form a firm bond. Applying a solvent wipe or MEK primer can be of great usefulness. It prevents the surface from being repelling towards wood dye. Just soak a cloth or pad in the solvent solution and rub it on the area gently.

Now, you are ready to stain your wood furniture. Make sure you with a paint that is compatible with the wood filler chemically. Before applying the stain on the furniture, paint a conspicuous part of the furniture or a scrap wood to see if the color matches. Then proceed on to take a nice cup of coffee maybe.

We will be happy to hear your thoughts

Leave a reply

Ten Reviewed
Logo