You’ve made a beautiful piece of furniture or a cabinet, but you aren’t, ahem, “finished” yet. You need to finish the wood, primarily to protect it from moisture and the environment. But the big question is, should you do it yourself or hire a professional wood finishing shop in Ottawa for the project?

There are many benefits to going with the professionals. Here are four reasons why you may not want to go it alone when it comes to wood finishing.

1. You Won’t Have to Wrestle With a Complex Job

When it comes right down to it, finishing is a tough job simply because you really have to know what you’re doing. You have to use the right finish for a given application. For instance, is the finish going to come into contact with a heat source, such as a coffee mug or dinner plate? Or is the piece and its finish going to be rarely handled? You have to really think about those things, and apply the right finish that will work with the piece in question.

That’s also why it’s a great idea to use a professional wood finishing shop in Ottawa, such as the Finishing Shop by Swedish Door. Experts such as us know what finishes work well with a given product. Spend less time thinking about the right finish to use, and spend more time working on your masterpieces.

2. You Won’t Have to Worry About Contradictory Product Information

If you’re a woodworker, you may find finishing hard to perfect. There’s a reason for that. Though things have gotten better in recent years, there’s still a lot of information out there on finishing that is contradictory and misleading. What one magazine says to use could be contradicted by what a paint store clerk or a finishing product representative says. Sometimes even the instructions written by the manufacturers can be misleading, too. You may also run into the sketchy problem from some vendors where you’ve been sold a product that is not exactly what it says it is -- for instance, a can of teak oil could be called that by the manufacturer, but it’s really just regular varnish mixed with paint thinner.

If you want to avoid the confusion, your best bet is to hire a professional wood finishing shop in Ottawa. We know what we’re using, and we’ll apply the finish exactly as you want it with no confusion.

3. You’ll Save Time and Effort

You might think your showpiece just needs a few coats of paint slapped on it, and you’re done. However, finishing is not a quick and easy job. Before you even get started, you may have to prepare and prime all of the pieces, which includes doing things with cabinets such as removing all of the doors, drawers and hardware. Then you’ll have to meticulously scrub and sand the pieces before priming. Throughout all of this, you’ll have to stay pretty organized. Think about the fact that once you have everything ready to put back together, you could be missing a few crucial screws or find that the cabinets now just don’t fit quite right!

Plus, some experts say that you should spend four to seven days to really clean and prepare cabinets going into a home alone before you start. Then, you’ll need time to allow each coat to properly dry. Why deal with the hassle? When you go with a professional wood finishing shop in Ottawa such as us, we’ll take care of the cleaning for you for a reasonable extra cost -- leaving you time to do what you do best, which is build things.

4. You Won’t Have to Worry About Making Mistakes

Once your cabinet or coffee table is coated with finish, there’s no going back -- unless you’re willing to put up with the labour-intensive job of sanding and stripping the wood, and then refinishing it. If you spray on a finish, you risk overspraying it, too, which will mean having to redo everything over from scratch. So you really have to be sure that the job you’re doing is going to look excellent from the outset, or else you’re looking again at lost time and money.

When you use our professional wood finishing shop in Ottawa, you can be guaranteed that the job will be done right the first time. We have technicians with more than 30 years of combined experience, and we use state-of-the-art equipment and spraying techniques. That alone will alleviate a lot of the frustration you may experience in applying finishes.   

Contact Us

If you’re convinced that we’re the professional wood finishing shop in Ottawa for you, be sure to reach out. Our staff is ready and equipped to meet your finishing needs, and are willing to help your projects get ready for your customers.