Finishing a Home Bar

LESLIE: Neal in New York is about to have the party house. (Tom chuckles) You’re building a bar, huh?

NEAL: Yeah, it’s about time. Twenty-one years in the house (Tom chuckles) and I finally have my dream bar. (Leslie chuckles)

TOM: You’re finally old enough to drink, huh Neal?

NEAL: I’m old enough to drink a long time. A long time. (Leslie chuckles)

TOM: How can we help you?

NEAL: My wife and I have been having, you know, conversations on how do I finish the top of the bar. She’s concerned, you know. My wife’s very neat and she likes everything nice and she doesn’t want me to scratch it or, you know.

TOM: What did you make the bar out of, Neal?

NEAL: It’s plywood.

TOM: OK.

NEAL: It’s plywood. I did all of the wood. The entire basin and the shelves and everything is finished. I’m about to finish the top and what I did was I went and I bought a three-quarter, you know, 4×8 plywood sheet. It’s a red veneer oak.

LESLIE: Mm-hmm.

TOM: Oh, nice. Mm-hmm.

NEAL: Yeah, so I’m just about – I was going to cut it tomorrow night when I got home from work and I was going to just give it, you know, five coats of the Minwax polyurethane; sanding in between coats. I figured four or five coats because when I did – I used birch on the bottom of the bar and I stained it red mahogany and then did three coats of the polyurethane, the clear polyurethane, with sanding in between and it’s like glass.

TOM: Yeah. Let me give you one more suggestion for the top.

NEAL: Yes, sir.

TOM: Use a sanding sealer first.

NEAL: A sanding sealer? Yeah, my nephew uses that, right.

TOM: Yeah, put a sanding sealer on it and then sand it for the first time because what happens, if you put a sanding sealer on it, it seals in the grain and it kind of raises it a little bit and it gets a little rough.

LESLIE: Interesting.

NEAL: OK.

TOM: And then you sand it down and this way, when you put the coat of polyurethane on it after that …

LESLIE: It really grabs it.

TOM: Well, not only does it grab it but it doesn’t bring those little fibers of the wood up, so you don’t have to sand nearly as much.

NEAL: Fantabulous. (Leslie chuckles)

TOM: Alright, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.