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In our newest video, Chris Adams and Tom Monohan of General Finishes show you how to apply GF Waterbased Topcoat to a bench. 

It's a wrap! General Finishes next round of tutorial videos are on their way! We will be releasing one per week for the month of November so stay tuned.

While Gel Stain can be applied over an existing finish, it was originally engineered for raw wood surfaces. We prefer applying the Gel Stain over a slip coat of mineral spirits instead of topcoat as shown in this video, "How to Apply Gel Stain to Raw Wood"

In our newest video Chris Adams and Tom Monohan of General Finishes demonstrate how to update your existing cabinets with GF Water Based Wood Stain and Dye Stain with a technique called toning. Toning does not require any messy stripping or sanding.

It is normal to see a bit of stain on the brush when applying the first coat of topcoat. Topcoats often pull a bit of color on the first pass, but good preparation will minimize this.

To prepare open grains woods such as raw Oak for a water-based stain, we recommend sanding with 180-grit followed by no more than 220-grit sandpaper.

General Finishes Enduro Sanding Sealer

There are four benefits to using sanding sealer as the first seal coat prior to topcoat

Yes! But you must follow a few simple rules to be sure you achieve the best possible finish.

Chris Adams and "celebrity guest" Nicole Genz of Rescued Furnishings show how to apply General Finishes

All bright white paint will yellow slightly with time, even without topcoat. You have probably tried to touch up white woodwork in your home after several years and noticed that the new paint is brighter.

But white and light paints can react if clear coated with a waterbased finish; water-based topcoats are reactive and may draw out substances in the wood such as tannins, dyes or unknown substances in existing finishes causing the topcoat to yellow. This is an industry-wide issue and can happen right away, years later or never.

Vinyl or paper veneers can be often found on the end returns of lower price-point cabinets. We cannot guarantee that our paints will adhere well to a paper veneer - we have no idea what the actual material is or what adhesives were used to apply the veneer to the surface. The resins and additives in our paints may break down the adhesives used for the veneer.

And Milk Paint does NOT adhere to vinyl.

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