Thread: help waterproofing paper

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Last year we did a "walk of fame" for a summer fund raising event. Printed up the "names" and designed little icons for each star but here in the PNW wet goes with the territory. Last year we just glued the lables down and brushed spur sealer over the whole thing... the walk looks great except for the lables which all leeched color and ran a bit despite the sealer.

I'm going to peel off all the lables and try again if I can come up with a way to waterproof the new lables. Any ideas?

I used plastic /vinyl shelf paper to water proof a cardboard brochure that I put outside for a couple of months.

A semigloss spray wood laquer. I use a water based printer for my bottle labels. I age them by soaking them in wet tea grounds until most if not all the water evaporates. I still sometimes get a little bleeding, but then they they are really soaking in the water for an extended time.

There is also I believe a Plasti-coat clear coat spray that should work, but haven't tried that one.

Yup, spray-on lacquer. Or a quart jar and a lamb's wool applicator, like those used for refinishing wood floors. The lamb's wool will let you slather it on thick and solid, but no bubbles from brushes or foam rollers (trust me, clear poly's or lacquers really hate foam rollers/brushes, so don't bother trying those) and two coats will really be weatherproof.

But make sure you're printing these signs with a laser printer, like those super-duper Xerox color-laser printers at Kinko's.

For future projects. You can buy waterproof inkjet or laser printer paper. It's costly but Divers even use them. Here is one site:

Waterproof-Paper.com | The Web's Best Selection | Fast Shipping!

Looks like some cool stuff, just print a sample on some cheap-o paper first before you commit!!

What about heavy duty laminate? Sorry if that is not at all what you're looking for...
Or maybe yacht sealer? I read a blog once where they tested different sealers on paper mache and they said that worked the best for them.

Thank you all for you all for you suggestions. What I had originally I done was use an ink jet printed sheet of paper glued down onto plywood and then sealed with Spar-urethane. But the Spar while protecting the paint job on the wood made the ink on the paper bleed and fade. So the paper held up just fine it was the ink I had a problem with.

So maybe my problem with with the jet printer and not using a laser printer. Will try that before I go paying waterpoof paper. Have to keep this project on the cheap.

Go hit up Kinko's and use their color laser printers. They can print up toi 11x17" for 2 bucks a page, and their paper is usually quite nice. The image will definitely not bleed.

Depending on how wet it gets, you might want to seal the wood first, then paste on the labels, and seal again.

Water and moisture can seep in from the other side of the wood if both sides are exposed to the weather, or seep in from the edges.