When is the best time to stain or clear coat interior wood materials
…before or after they go up?
Definitely before. You won’t hear much debate on this one, either. The reason is simple. Wood is a living material which tends to expand and contract, mostly due to temperature and humidity changes. The normal settling of any new house doesn’t help matters. Your walls, floors, trim and ceilings move!
If you finish your wood after it’s in place bare wood that didn’t get a coat of finish is going to show, especially if you’ve stained. This is particularly noticable with tongue-in-groove material. Unless you’re a big fan of zebras, you’re not going to be very happy with the appearance of your walls a year or two down the road. When wood is finished before it’s put in place, all areas of your material receive a finishing coat…and when things begin to move around, you won’t see a difference between what used to show and what you see now.
There are a rare few that prefer to apply finish after the house is completed on the theory that, if you stain or clear coat later, any remaining trapped moisture has a chance to escape from the wood before you finish it. To these people I say:
- Hey…you try hanging upsidedown while you’re putting finish on a 26 foot high ceiling [not me]! Do you put your socks on after your shoes?
- ‘Fat’ items like beams or purlins are all you need to be concerned with and most of these only show 3 sides. Just don’t finish the 4th side where it isn’t necessary. That way any moisture has a permanent way out.
- If you’ve purchased your wood wisely, it should be pretty dry by the time you get it. Any trace of harmless moisture that remains is a good trade when compared with the two-toned appearance of a mottled wall.
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