Wooden windows - Carpenter advises against oak wood

Hello dear forum,

we are almost finished with our shell construction and now our wooden windows are to be produced and painted by the carpenter. Due to our construction method (no roof overhang, flat roof, large, floor-to-ceiling window glazing (11m) on the west side), the carpenter advised against oak wood with thick-layer glaze and recommends the somewhat cheaper meranti wood with an opaque coating.

We would like to have the wooden windows still in the wood look - so we are looking for a color tone that would come closest to a wood color. Does anyone have an idea or has faced a similar question? Thanks!

We would like to have the wooden windows still in the wood look - so we are looking for a color tone that would come closest to a wood color.

The main reason if I were to choose wooden windows would be that it is actually visible wood. However, in my opinion, this does not depend on the color tone alone; I have not come across one yet that would be highly typical of wood. Rather, it depends on the translucence of the structure (grain) of the wood. In this respect, no color tone would seem particularly suitable if it were very uniformly pigmented. The more irregular - possibly also iridescent - or transparent, the more suitable I would consider it. I believe you will not find "the absolute" super wood tone. No, for example, Roe brown in the world guarantees a particularly "wooden" impression of the windows.

If the ordering decision has not yet been made, have a look at the program of Pax AG - they are "our" preferred provider in the wood sector. Windows nowadays are such a highly developed product that I would no longer go to a furniture carpenter for this (even if he also worked in organ building). It not only requires skill but has also become very specialized.

Take a varnish oil from shipbuilding. Example: Epifanes hard wood varnish oil. About 30.00 euros per liter. You can order it at svb dot de.
What is it? An oil that penetrates deep into the wood and soaks it, but dries to a high gloss like varnish.
How do you work with it? The stuff is, as the name suggests, an oil based on turpentine. It therefore dries slowly, but does not become glass hard, and thus allows the wood to move without cracking. Dilute it a bit and brush the wood with it until it absorbs no more. Wet on wet. Then wait a good 24 hours, and apply the finish undiluted. Possibly twice. Result: extremely weatherproof, mirror-bright, beautiful glow in the wood, warm tone. Epifanes is the top candidate among wood varnishes. And not overpriced, the stuff is very economical.
Alternative: Similar to work with: Le Tonkinois., possibly a bit cheaper. Karsten

Hello!

Thank you very much for your feedback and the tip about the oil. I will discuss this with the carpenter and the architect.

The carpenter might still be familiar with something like that, the architect, unless he has a background in boatbuilding, has no idea. Still familiar means that in the past there were such paint products in the construction industry as well, but since these paints and varnishes are slow, that is, have a repaint interval of at least 24 hours or more or are not dry before that, and dust-dry only after several hours, and since time is money, they were replaced in construction by the ubiquitous acrylic products. However, and this is not a rumor!, they are by far not as weather and UV resistant as these old-fashioned turpentine products; they neither reach their level of gloss nor their depth of penetration into the wood. In boat and shipbuilding, however, such varnishes and oils survived, since acrylic products, for example on the superstructure of a fishing cutter in the Mediterranean, are a total failure and are ruined by sun and salt within a few weeks, while the candidates I mentioned last for several years. Give it a try. Karsten