Caring for wood: protecting and saturating with the Textrol range

However, these steps are essential if you want to maintain its beautiful appearance and make it last properly.

Why is it absolutely essential to protect wood and not just clean it regularly?

Just draw a parallel with skin. Wood is a natural material that ages naturally and is subject to external aggressions, just as skin deteriorates without care, without hydration, without protection, with age, sun, wind, etc. Similarly, wood, unprotected and without maintenance, will age prematurely and deteriorate.

Does all wood need protection?

All wood species require proper care, from the softest to the hardest, such as exotic woods. Don't be fooled into thinking that hard woods are naturally resilient. Just as hard as they are, they will surely deteriorate under external stress.

The softer ones (such as pine, Douglas fir, larch or spruce), which are more porous and less dense, need nourishing and filling protection.

The harder and more exotic ones require a very impregnating solution to counteract their density and penetrate their tight fibers.

What are the risks for unprotected and unmaintained wooden structures?

Water and UV rays are the two enemies of wood.

Water is the number one enemy. Under the effects of humidity fluctuations, wood swells and shrinks, and wears out. It can crack, split, warp, and warp, leading to more or less irreparable deterioration of the structure. Humidity also promotes the development of greening and fungi, which cause all wood to turn gray and black.

UV rays attack lignin, which, as it deteriorates, causes the wood to discolor and turn gray. The fibers are then damaged and the wood weakened. Without protection, wooden structures will inevitably become damaged.

Saturator, oil, stain: what are the differences?

• Oil is generally applied to cladding and rarely to horizontal exterior supports. Good quality oils (i.e. not mixtures of linseed oil or worse, used oil) will give a nice warm finish at first glance but can age badly. Indeed, oils will eventually clog the wood and the support will blacken under the effects of UV rays. It will then be necessary, more or less quickly, to carry out fairly significant maintenance, stripping, sanding.
• A stain is often used for the facades of mountain chalets, and it provides a film that resists harsh weather conditions well. But when a film is applied to the surface, it's prone to abrasion and flaking. And when maintenance time comes, sanding and/or stripping are generally required.
• A saturator, as its name suggests, saturates the surface to which it is applied. This means that it is worked "wet" on "wet" until the wood can no longer accept the product. Thus, a saturator penetrates and soaks into the wood to provide lasting protection.

3 good reasons to saturate

• The impregnating qualities of a saturator allow it to penetrate the wood to nourish it from the inside by diffusing the effects of its components throughout the structure.
• When entering the support, the saturator does not leave a film on the surface and therefore greatly limits the abrasion resistance.
• Maintenance is simple because since there is no surface film, there is no flaking or cracking film to strip, and no sanding to do either... the wood is protected from UV rays but also from humidity and inevitably from dirt. So during maintenance, there is no need to strip and sand, just clean it and then apply a coat of saturator.

The warning sign that the wood is about to turn gray is a slight whitening of the color of the support... You should therefore start thinking about maintenance in the months that follow.

To allow for more spaced maintenance of your surface, choose a tinted saturator, rather than one that is colorless or too light, because dark pigments provide better resistance to UV rays.

To know the effect of the colorless version of a saturator, simply wet the wooden support on which it will be applied to see.

"At Groupe Durieu, saturators are the house's specialties. In the 90s, Durieu introduced the "saturator" designation for its entire range of wood-impregnating products, which had already existed for 10 years.

Drawing on its expertise, Groupe Durieu offers a wide range of solutions with its Owatrol® brand to meet all situations and all types of wood. With the requirement of impeccable performance respected for each specialty, guaranteeing the longevity of protected structures.

Focus on the Textrol range of softwood saturators

The Textrol® range offers saturators specially formulated for softwoods with total and perfect impregnation of all decking or cladding wood, in order to guarantee real durability of the protected structures.

TEXTROL® impregnates deeply to diffuse all its protective agents which combine with the wood fibers to ensure optimal protection.

Based on vegetable oils combined with high-quality flexible alkyd resins, TEXTROL® has exceptional penetration qualities with a strong impregnation power which fully nourishes the wood in depth and perfectly protects it from daily aggressions.

The wood is nourished for a long time, prepared to withstand bad weather.

TEXTROL® HES (High Solids), ideal in areas with strong sunlight.

The secret of TEXTROL® HES:

• A concentrated composition of active ingredients with 70% dry extracts.
• Completely optimal protection thanks to its composition rich in active elements (*).
• Maximum resistance of the wood to the aggression of the sun's rays with a formula boosted with UV filter (*)

Please note: on certain woods with not too much porosity and with correct preparation, a single coat may be sufficient.

Renovation of a city terrace in Red Cedar

This terrace was de-oiled with AQUANETT® then stabilized with NET-TROL®BIOSOURCÉ, then sanded and finally protected with Textrol® saturator.

The owners wanted an oiled finish close to the natural color of the wood and colorless TEXTROL® provided the perfect solution.