How to Protect Bathroom Cabinets from Water Damage
July 22, 2011 in Bathroom Cabinets
Because most of the activities done in the bathroom make use of water, bathroom cabinets are often subjected to a great deal of moisture. This could potential damage the surface of wooden bathroom cabinets over time. Although most wooden bathroom cabinets do come with a protective layer of varnish or paint, it might not be enough to protect them from the heavy moisture which is present in a bathroom environment. If you have wooden bathroom storage facilities and would like to protect them from damage caused by water and moisture, you can coat them with polyurethane, which should be able to provide great protection without changing the color of the surface.

The first thing you need to do would be to disassemble the cabinet and take out all hinges and hardware. Lay out all the pieces neatly and mark them so that you would be able to put them back together later on.
You should then sand the cabinets using a sander with medium-grit sandpaper. Make sure that you would be running the sander over the entire surface of the cabinet, being careful to dull each section so that gloss and grime would be removed. Afterwards, sand the surface again but use fine sandpaper so that you can smoothen and clean the surface. Once you finish the sanding, wipe the dust away using a tack cloth.
After sanding, you can then brush a light coat of oil-based polyurethane using a refinishing paintbrush. Be careful to keep the coat thin and smooth and allow it to set for at least 24 hours.
When the polyurethane has completely dried, sand the surface using the fine sandpaper to make the surface flat and dull. Remove the dust using a tack cloth.
Apply another layer of the oil-based polyurethane and allow it to set for another 24 hours. Hand-sand it once again and brush on a last layer and let it set for at least 48 hours before putting the parts of the cabinet back together.




