Cleaning Reclaimed Barn Wood

It s a fact that reclaimed wood is usually dirty.

Cleaning reclaimed barn wood.

Before i could turn the barn door into a table top i needed to clean the wood up. 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. Cleaning reclaimed wood salvaged wood often comes with an intriguing backstory and a unique appearance but also with embedded dirt dust and debris. Within minutes the wood was looking much cleaner and i had lots of fun scrubbing that old nasty 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. This tutorial shows you how to do it. I love how pretty reclaimed wood is. And unfortunately i learned this the hard way.

The last step to clean and refinish your reclaimed wood is to properly seal the wood. 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. Next once the wood was dry i took it to the planer this cut the sanding process. Give it a scrub or sand down.

The most important lesson i ve learned with reclaimed wood is when to lightly clean it vs. I used minwax polycrylic water based protective finish in clear satin you guys this stuff is amazing. 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. 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.

Make sure not to use too much. 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.