Wood Finish

The Grothouse Lumber company offers two distinct finishes on our wood tops: A food-grade oil finish and our Durata® permanent finish. The food-grade oil finish is ideal for applications where the top will be used for direct food preparation such as cutting or chopping. The Durata® finish — which is only available on tops manufactured by the Grothouse Lumber Company — is a no-maintenance finish ideal for use around water or applications that do not involve cutting or chopping.

Food Grade Oil Finish

The food grade oil finish is a basic mineral oil based finish. We soak the block through with a low viscosity mineral oil finish. The positive aspect of this finish is that it is completely inert and FDA approved. It also allows re-sanding and ding or dent repair at any time. The negative aspect is that the finish will have to be renewed on a regular basis with either retail mineral oil or our Glumber Oil. The renewal basis will vary based on use, but once a month is an average treatment interval. Maintaining the oil finish is very important to the long term life of the block, and water protection. This is the finish you will find on most commercially available Butcherblock. This finish may give the appearance the top is still wet on delivery, the top is ready to use. At left is an example of a top with a food-grade oil finish.

Durata® Permanent Finish

The Durata® permanent finish is our recommended finish for non-chopping applications and low maintenance applications. The finish is excellent for high wear, commercial applications such as bars and tables. This finish is composed of a special sealer washcoat top and bottom to seal the wood. That coat is followed by a polyester seal coat for physical toughness and hardness. The final finish coat is a catalyzed polyurethane for scratch resistance and chemical resistance. This finish has received the highest possible rating for durability from ASTM International, a worldwide standard setting organization.

This finish is completely resistance to water or chemical penetration. Very hard solvents such as lacquer thinner or alcohol will not affect this finish. Once fully cured this finish is highly resistant to scratching. This finish is approved for FDA indirect exposure (ie. Kneading dough), but not chopping. Chopping applications should be avoided. Available in a 35 sheen (satin).

Stock Stain and Glazes

We offer over 40 stock stains and continue to add to our stock stains and glazes based on current trends and customer requests. We have a stain and glaze sample kit available for purchase. The kit includes examples of stains and glazes on Oak, Walnut, and Cherry woods. Our Durata® finish will be required with all stains.

Custom Stain Match

We offer custom matching to your stain sample on all of our surfaces. We use a color lab for all matches. Matches will be within a delta E of 0.5 or less. Our Durata® finish will be required with all stains. Below is a sample of a custom stain match with the original matched item.