In this study, we investigated the effects of re-finishing on the extension of service life for water-borne wood-preservative semi-transparent coatings. In previous reports, we exposed sugi heartwood vertical-grain specimens finished with one of six commercially available water-borne (semi-film-forming) or two solvent-borne (as control samples;penetrating and semi-film-forming) wood preservative semi-transparent coatings to natural weathering for 24 months( Exposure I). We then re-finished the specimens with the same coatings( either unsanded or sanded before re-finishing), and recommenced natural weathering (Exposure II). In this study, we measured time-dependent changes in the color difference and water repellency index of the specimens over 54-68 months of Exposure II (accumulated total of 78-92 months), then evaluated the weatherability of the samples. From these data, we calculated the service-life extension ratio( months over which the color difference or water repellency index reached the reference service life in Exposure II/ months over which the color difference or water repellency index reached the reference service life in Exposure I). The calculation results were 1.7 and 2.3 for the unsanded and sanded-before-re-finishing specimens, respectively. These results indicate that specimens that had been sanded before re-finishing yielded greater service-life extension. Moreover, we found the performance ranking before and after re-finishing to be relatively highly correlated.
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