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Hello all.

I have just purchased some garage shelving, which is metal frames with MDF board shelves.

The website states 'If used in a damp or humid environment, we recommend MDF shelving decks are treated with a high quality wood varnish or sealant'.

I've had a Google around but there's so many different options. One said that shellac is the best way.

Anybody have any recommendations what brand and type of stain/sealant to go for?

Is your garage damp or humid ?

The edges are most critical. As this is in a garage I would use a polyurethane varnish which is a solvent-based varnish that gives a hard and resilient finish. A bit of a pain to apply as it has a long drying time than water-based varnish, use mop type mini rollers and chuck them, it should do the job.

DWD

I also use foam brushes with this type of varnish.

Good coat of Gardz.

Sbr 50/50.

Neelix wrote: ↑Fri Dec 03, 2021 8:04 am Is your garage damp or humid ?

Damp

Rover7895 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 03, 2021 8:54 pm

Neelix wrote: ↑Fri Dec 03, 2021 8:04 am Is your garage damp or humid ?

Damp

Good call to protect your racking

Would simply replacing with ply be an option? You wouldn't have to faff around coating the shelves which would almost invariably get knocked about and probably require redoing at some point. It would be stronger to .

Personally, I'd buy a sheet of OSB3 and cut out the shelves using the MDF shelves as a template. At some point, the MDF will be Weetabix.

I painted my mdf shelves with cuprinol fence paint, the ducks back stuff which is water repellent. The shelves are fine, where as previously unpainted ones got mouldy due to damp.

Grendel wrote: ↑Sat Dec 04, 2021 10:16 am Would simply replacing with ply be an option? You wouldn't have to faff around coating the shelves which would almost invariably get knocked about and probably require redoing at some point. It would be stronger to .

Good call from yourself and Argyll and thank you.

There are 15 shelves all in all. 5 shelves on both straight units and then 5 on the corner bay unit, so could be quite costly on top of paying £250 for this.
But, I will definitely upgrade it as I go along with either ply/OSB3. I guess treating ply/OSB3 will make them solid for a few years?

That's not to say i've always followed my own advice. . Luckily my own garage isn't damp and i have some racking built with timber and mdf and it's been fine. I've also had some Axminster racking which I've recently taken down because my wife has a strange idea of putting her car in there. The Axminster shelving was 1/2" chipboard and while there's been no trouble with damp some of the shelves have sagged over time with the weight on them. Something thicker and stronger would probably have been better but i never got round to it.

Some good replies there I would go for solvent Polyurethane as has been suggested. You could use yachting varnish which is very cheap, you might want to dilute it with white spirit to keep the application nice and thin. Thick applications can cause drying problems.

Thanks for all your replies.

I went for the Rustins MDF sealer in the end. Gave each board three coats.

When a board is looking a bit worse for wear, I'll replace it with plywood or OSB3 as I go along.