Temperature fluctuations, water and sunlight can damage your outdoor educational furniture. Luckily, a few simple practices will restore dried-out wood, prevent water damage, bring back colour, and strengthen the joints of your outdoor furniture. You will also get more life out of your outdoor space as your students will be able to engage with each other outside.
Use sandpaper to keep the surfaces smooth
Heat, sun, and rain can cause greying, fading and splintering in unfinished wood. However, do not fret because a little sandpaper will go a long way and restore your furniture piece. You should start by sanding off splinters. When sanding off the splinters, you should move from using course-grade sandpaper to fine-grade sandpaper. Work with the grain of the wood to clean up any snag spots.
You can get project packs for sanding at your local hardware or your home improvement store that comes with a fine, medium and coarse grit sandpaper. Each type of sandpaper will be marked with a number that refers to the size and distribution of the abrasion surface on the sandpaper. The lower numbers are coarser whilst the higher numbers are finer.
To select the right grain of sandpaper, you should examine your piece for large, medium and small splinters. Match your sandpaper to your splinters. Start with the course grain to get rid of the larger splinters and go down to smaller grit sandpaper until you achieve your desired surface smoothness. You can use a sanding block to save yourself from frustration when restoring your educational furniture.
You should wrap your sandpaper around the block to get more rigidity and save yourself from hurting your fingers. Sanding blocks can be found in hardware stores and are made of dense and slightly flexible foam.
Age your surface to get a rustic look
If you think that your furniture looks a little new, you can give it a rustic look by applying a ferrous sulphate compound. Ferrous sulphate is a non-toxic substance that can be used to turn your furniture into a natural-looking and weathered grey. It is often hard to find this compound in stores but you can easily buy it online.
Condition your wooden furniture
After preparing the surface of your furniture, you should move on to treating the wood. If your furniture is bare wood, you are most likely aiming to keep the look. To gain natural-looking results that last, you need to apply wax designed for outdoor furniture. There are different types of waxes you can use for your outdoor furniture so make sure you choose one with weatherproofing properties.
A few more maintenance tips
Check your educational furniture for rusted or loose hardware and tighten any loose screws. If it is a loose bolt then you need to use an adjustable wrench to tighten it. For rusted parts with minimal damage, apply a rust or corrosion remover and use a wire rag or brush to take off the discoloured surface. If it is heavily damaged then you should consider replacing the hardware.
