# Sansin Product Line - Thoughts?



## RH (Sep 7, 2010)

Have a really expensive front door to do (Doug Fir) inside and out and my local supplier is really pushing me to use the Sansin conditioner (foundation), stain, and clear top coat. They seem to swear by it and say once I use it I will never want to use Cetrol, or anything else, ever again. 

Thoughts from anyone who has used this product line? Anything to be aware of or look out for specific to this line of products? Thanks!


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## DeanV (Apr 18, 2007)

It has been around in our area for a while. I have not used it though and do not know if it is the greatest thing ever or not. Sorry, no help here.


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## RH (Sep 7, 2010)

Yeah, I knew that it wasn't really "new", but it is for them. That's why I was hoping to get some experienced feedback. 
Started using it and found out you need to work it fairly fast since the stain begins to set up pretty quickly.


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## DeanV (Apr 18, 2007)

What do you know. I found a gallon of Sansin ENS on my shelf. I recall testing it on an oak cabinet door IIRC when I did a test of various door finishes. But, I lost my pictures of that in a computer crash and the search function here does not pull up that post as far as I can tell.

IIRC, it did not far particularly well in my testing, but I might have used it wrong. I think I just used the Sansin ENS and none of the other steps since I did not stain, but it was a while ago now that I did this testing.

I found Modern Masters to be the best exterior clear when I ran a test of a few different finishes.


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## RH (Sep 7, 2010)

Thanks for the update Dean. I plan on posting a brief update on my session with it and my take on how it went on. I will say that the end product looks pretty good but most stain jobs end up that way. It's how it will look four or five years from now that I question.


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## Romanski (May 4, 2008)

It has bad lap marks when applying so plan out exactly how you are going to stain the piece before you go for it. Applied 2.5 yrs ago to some really, really nice cedar garage doors. Look brand new when I checked them out 1 month ago even though they get direct sun all day.

I had to brush 2 coats to achieve the color on raw cedar. 2nd coat darkened it up a lot.

All in all, I like the stuff.


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## PACman (Oct 24, 2014)

You bought a stain and finish from the people who want you to have to replace that door in a few years? Does that really make sense?


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## RH (Sep 7, 2010)

PACman said:


> You bought a stain and finish from the people who want you to have to replace that door in a few years? Does that really make sense?


No - the door belongs to a customer. My supplier deals in paint related products only,


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## PACman (Oct 24, 2014)

RH said:


> No - the door belongs to a customer. My supplier deals in paint related products only,


Oh. I thought they supplied the door. Just a general question I have in my mind whenever I hear that someone has bought a finish from the people who also sell them the wood product. Always kind of makes me wonder how good of finish they are actually selling when that happens. (I.e, Home depot, Lowe's, Menard's, etc.)


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## DeanV (Apr 18, 2007)

RH said:


> Thanks for the update Dean. I plan on posting a brief update on my session with it and my take on how it went on. I will say that the end product looks pretty good but most stain jobs end up that way. It's how it will look four or five years from now that I question.


I found a review I wrote that is lingering as a pictureless draft on a secondary website I had been working on a few years back.



> You know it. Certain areas of your home are beautiful, but require constant maintenance. For the exterior of your home, stained front doors are often the most demanding areas to maintain. They can also be one of the most challenging areas to finish. Lets face it, leaving front doors open in a residential setting for a slow drying spar varnish is not always an option. In a new construction setting, allowing one day to dry for a minimum of 4 days is not feasible on many new construction sites (and a lot of dust can settle into a finish with 8 hours of dry time). In addition, traditional oil exterior finishes are getting more difficult to purchase in some regions due to tightening environmental regulations.
> 
> For many of our exterior doors, whether we are finishing brand new doors or maintaining existing doors, we use waterborne finishes. There are several reasons for this. First is convenience for the client and to keep new construction projects moving on schedule. The faster dry times all for the clients to close and secure their doors more quickly. For new construction projects, it lets us keep the project moving forward more quickly by limiting the amount of time we need to protect a door from dust which is generated from prepwork or carpenters on a job site. We also believe that long term, the greater flexibility of waterborne finishes will be benefit. Finally, when all other factors are equal, we choose the most environmentally friendly product we can for the job.
> 
> ...


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## stelzerpaintinginc. (May 9, 2012)

DeanV said:


> I found a review I wrote that is lingering as a pictureless draft on a secondary website I had been working on a few years back.



Great little nugget of info you dug up there Dean.


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## Gurnoe (Sep 5, 2015)

RH said:


> Thanks for the update Dean. I plan on posting a brief update on my session with it and my take on how it went on. I will say that the end product looks pretty good but most stain jobs end up that way. It's how it will look four or five years from now that I question.



RH what are your thoughts on the Sansin products at this point? I have a project coming up that involves renewing some exterior stained fir trim and I'm not completely settled on what stain I'll be using. Some of the wood needs a complete strip/stain/clear. I know it's going to be a blotching nightmare but I'm also concerned that if I do something like spraying a solvent dye stain it'll look too nice compared to areas I'm not stripping. I'm leaning toward a Mohawk solvent-based stain because they perform great and it's possible to get a topcoat on the same day. I know all of the pressure is toward water-bornes, especially here in CA, and I was hoping Sansin might fit the bill but Dean's post has me a bit wary. I'll try it out on my own at some point but any more input would be great! Have any of you used Mohawk's water borne products?


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## RH (Sep 7, 2010)

Gurnoe said:


> RH what are your thoughts on the Sansin products at this point? I have a project coming up that involves renewing some exterior stained fir trim and I'm not completely settled on what stain I'll be using. Some of the wood needs a complete strip/stain/clear. I know it's going to be a blotching nightmare but I'm also concerned that if I do something like spraying a solvent dye stain it'll look too nice compared to areas I'm not stripping. I'm leaning toward a Mohawk solvent-based stain because they perform great and it's possible to get a topcoat on the same day. I know all of the pressure is toward water-bornes, especially here in CA, and I was hoping Sansin might fit the bill but Dean's post has me a bit wary. I'll try it out on my own at some point but any more input would be great! Have any of you used Mohawk's water borne products?


Worked pretty well. I wasn't spraying so working time was something to pay attention to. I think spraying it would be great. Will post some pics as soon as I can get over there to take a few.


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## Jazz_Painter (Feb 22, 2015)

Sansin has a few lines of products that can be confusing. I had a good briefing about their products with my supplier, and still can't remember all of the subtleties of what product for what use. For example, not all the ENS products work the same way. There's an ENS clear, ENS solid stain (which my supplier swore by it's the best solid stain out there, better than Cali that he sells too).

So far I've only used their DEC product as far as stain (I've wrote about it in another threads). It's a great semi trans stain that I'll have a chance to see evolve since I've used it also on my parent's deck. It's their best semi trans stain, better than SDF that is preferable to use on sidings. The DEC is highly adhesive and looks great if proper prep is done, it has a slight satin finish which makes the wood shine discretely, it's quite classy.

I've also used their paint and stain remover (which comes with their bleach and neutraliser powder) and it worked great to remove previous stain (Sikkens).

Other contractors who go to the same supplier have told me the same thing about the Sansin products I just talked about, so it's safe to say I can vouch for them. Unfortunately that doesn't help you much RH cause you're trying other lines of their products which I don't know about. Hope it gives you a good performance!


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