B&Q Garden Timbercare > Reviews (4)

At the beginning of the summer I decided it time to actually get round to doing those jobs that had been put off over and over again, one of these jobs was the addition of a couple of new fence panels in the garden. The reason for this is basically my neighbour and the fact that there is only a small 3 foot high mesh fence between us and I need more than that, so, 6 foot timber fence panels it was!, don't get me wrong I like having neighbours, on one side we have a lovely couple but on the other offending side is a single woman whose a right old so-n-so (there's a thought for another Op there...) But Anyway, I bought the new fence panels and got them home, they were untreated, rough sawn timber on purchase and looked a bit, well, orange really, so I thought I'd treat the panels with something to make them last longer and look a bit more attractive in the garden. I chose B&Q Garden Timbercare as it was a good colour (Forest Green) and was a very reasonable price at £3.99 for 5 litres (Ronseal was 3 times the price at £9.99 for 5 litres), 5 Litres proved to be more than enough for my 2 new panels. I'm not sure if this product is available in any other colours as the green was the only one available at the time, but other manufacturers offer a red, green, blue and several browns, so B&Q may offer these too, but I'm not sure.

The tub boasts that the product goes on easily, repells water, is harmless to plants & animals, safe & easy to use, fade resistant and the brushes should even wash out in water. Well, as Ronseal say "It does exactly what it says on the tin".

On opening the tub, the green looks quite bright, but once you paint in on and it begins to dry it gets darker and more natural looking. The stain goes on very easily even on rough sawn timber and soaks in to the timber well, giving a nice even coat all over without dripping and making a mess everywhere. There was no real noticible smell to the treatment either, some products stink to high heaven, but this was almost odourless. Being the neighbourly person that I am, I painted both sides of the panels & the posts and had plenty to spare in the tub for future use.

On finishing the job, the lid snapped back on to the tub to keep the remaining liquid from going off and forming a solid lump in the tub as can often happen with tins. The brush was also easily rinsed through and after a brief wash there was no trace of the stain on the brush, I do think you need to wash the brush straight after using it though for this to be effective. If you're not keen on using a brush this product is also sprayable, which can be achieved by using one of a range of paint sprayers that are available (B&Q offer one at £24.99 for exactly this purpose), but these are probably only beneficial for larger areas.

I painted the panels some 6 months ago and the finish looks the same now as it did on first application and hasn't faded at all. Even through the recent torrential rain, the water just ran off the timber without soaking in at all. You could use this product on any external timber such as sheds & gates etc. with great success and I've been very pleased with the results in my garden. For continued protection of the wood, it's probably best to give the timber a fresh coat every year or so. All in all this is a good product that does the job well.

This product should be available in all B&Q stores and also at B&Q's website - www.diy.com