Expert: Eileen Cronk - 4/11/2008

Question
I have a cedar plank wall in my sauna and surrounding bathroom. The wood is dry and needs something to bring it back to life. Suggestions?
Thanks

Answer
Hi Randy
Nice to hear from you.
I know this look LOL
My son has a sauna, and the procedure is to sand this dry dull look off rather than applying something over it.
If you think about it, anything you apply over the cedar will surely cause a smell and add the heat to that it could make you sick.
My neighbour has a cedar lined shower room (no sauna though and of course the cedar is not in the actual shower just the surrounding room) and she wipes on a coat of tung oil every year or so.
She started out originally wiping on boiled linseed oil which was recommended to her and after about a year it actually started to run.
Strangest thing I ever saw but it seemed the steam from the shower caused this.
The tung oil works great and keeps the cedar looking nice.
Now having said that, I did do a search to see if perhaps there was in fact a product you apply on cedar sauna walls and could find nothing but perhaps someone reading this will post a comment, but personally I feel sanding is the ticket.
Hope this helps
Regards
Eileen