With the plasterers due to start on Wednesday this week, I am trying to get a protective coat of liquid wax onto the old oak beams.  This means that if anything gets spilt on them, then it should simply wipe off. We sand blasted this oak beams when we cleaned the outside stone, so the timber is very absorbent and anything that gets spilt on them will be soaked up straight away.

I really wanted to keep the light colour of the sand blasted oak, but unfortunately everything that I looked at caused the oak to darken.  In the end, I have opted to use Osomo PolyX.  This seems to get some great reviews and will hopefully protect the timber.  It is expensive though and painting all of the timber is time consuming.  It looks as if the next two days are going to be spent painting!

I am using Osmo Polyx Hardwax oil to treat the oak timbers. It actually dries out a lighter colour, but it does protect the old timbers from stains (including plaster, water and paint). Putting a coat of liquid wax on the old oak beams.

This product seems to get rave reviews for protecting wood. Unfortunately, in our case, it does darken the wood down considerably. However, having tried a couple of alternative products, I think that whateve product we used would have darkened the wood. This isn't cheap (around £60 for a 2.5L tin), but it does go a long way.

This product seems to get rave reviews for protecting wood. Unfortunately, in our case, it does darken the wood down considerably. However, having tried a couple of alternative products, I think that whateve product we used would have darkened the wood. This isn’t cheap (around £60 for a 2.5L tin), but it does go a long way.