Customer Reviews for Varathane 1 qt. Matte Triple Thick Polyurethane (2-Pack)

I finished a table and bench seat for my granddaughter. I used Dura seal stain. Let it sit for three days. Use the matte finish spray polyurethane gave it two coats and did a scratch test one week later. It’s scratched right off like nothing. I used a quart can for the top of the table and it says self leveling formula. It is 100% not self leveling. It leaves every brush mark worse than paint does. I’ve been in the business for 30 years and thought I would try this product. I have probably used 40 different types of polyurethane in the last 30 years, refinishing furniture, refinishing floors, custom work, etc.. I have to strip the table and the bench seat down completely and finish it with a product that I’m used to. Like Minwax, Dura seal Bona deft. Not happy.

Pleased with outcome. Applied with a foam brush and steel wool between coats. Super smooth.

Worked great on new counter top looks good so far will see how it holds up

I am very sensitive to chemical smells…this product did not smell at all plus it is water based so it is easy to clean up. Love this product

This has been my go to top coat for my projects that need a tough protective finish. Even though it says it’s a matte finish it still has a slight sheen but one that I can live with. It feels like it will hold up to heavy traffic like for bar stools that were my latest project. I like that it takes only one coat making projects finish quicker. I will use again!

I have been using this poly exclusively for about three years for all my woodwork. I make and sell handmade home decor. I use all Varathane Stain and lacquer. This enables me to work faster than if I used oil based stains or lacquers that require sanding between coats. This rarely does unless I don’t properly sand the pieces I am coating. The finish is perfect and buttery smooth EVERY TIME. Here is how to get a perfect finish with this: 1. Work in a well lit area and pay close attention to how well you cover your piece. 2. Your brush should be almost DRIPPING when you apply this. You want a thick coat so it can level out. 3. Use light, continual strokes and work quickly. 4. You don’t want this looking “milky” when applying. That means you used JUST a little too much. Run your brush back once or twice over until the milky look is just really wet looking. 5. Don’t go back over it once you have applied. Wait.

Spent several days prepping my table for a grey weathered look using a verathane aged wood stain. Table was awesome and ready for final step. The poly step. Omg this stained the whole table dark brown! The can say “amber affect” but why call it clear coat.? It ruined the whole project! Extreme amber affect!

Timesaver and easy to use! I stained my interior doors using a stain/polyurethane combo product but with a satin finish. I then applied two coats of this product and achieved a matte (flat) finish that was easy to apply with a 2 1/2 inch brush. I found it best to apply product vertically in sections of about 8 inches wide. The overlap areas did produce a different texture which actually looks really nice on my wooden doors.

I used another brand of poly on our smooth maple plywood and it was super shiny and sticky and looked terrible. I bought this and 1 qt went a long way! It went on incredibly smooth and dried even better. Love the matte finish!

I bought this to use with the Rust-oleum Cabinet Transformation kit as the reviews said it was easier to apply & no bubbles. It really was! I applied it with a paint brush, removing any small thickness in the corners with a small foam brush. It turned out great, and using the Varathane Triple Thick, I only had to apply one coat with NO bubbles. Love it and will use again on the upper cabinets!

We were intending to make a tabletop, so we got a thick $50 birch slice of plywood, HD's best high quality synthetic brush, and we applied this product to one immaculate virgin side. We applied it at 75-80 degrees, did not shake he can, and let it dry for 4 hours. The product is not self leveling, dries very fast so you can't avoid brush marks, and there were little bubbles. After sanding, we dusted the sheet off and applied it again. Same issues. Then carefully did a 3rd and final coat. We've done a lot of painting, staining etc. We had success before using a different product. Do not expect a good outcome with this product. After all the time, money and effort, the result was bad.

I repair, refinish and build custom furniture for a living, I like this product because it's easy to use, it's gives a strong and beautiful finish to my projects, it doesn't require a spray gun to apply and it is very environmental friendly and l can use it over any kind of paint or stain. l highly recommend it.

Great stuff

Very easy to coat and dried pretty fast for handling. I did two coats and turned out nice.

I’m not sure I believe this is equivalent to 3 coats of regular poly, but it seemed to work well. I wouldn’t recommend this for a fine piece of furniture because it doesn’t leave a smooth finish. It’s gritty and needs to be buffed out. More steps, work, and time. Maybe the same amount of time and effort to get a couple good coats of regular poly. Weigh your time. The purpose I found it helpful was for sealing a loft bed I made from builder lumber. That project didn’t require smoothness. After I used this and got the gritty feel, I saw other reviews online that stated the same thing. So it wasn’t just my skill or application.

Love Varathane Matte! Recommended to all my DIY friends and they love it too! Just goes on smoothly and so durable! Give 5 ⭐️ Meets all guidelines and have used it after purchasing it 6 months ago.

Good but tricky to apply. Results with high density foam roller came out great, just the right texture. Apply thinly and evenly. Do not backroll.

For someone(myself) who doesnt want to spend a lot of time refinishing and adding several coatings to projects, this triple thick polyurethane worked great. Easy to use and only needed to do one coat on the cabinets in our house. I highly recommend. J.S.

I recommend. 17 year old painter. I like products very much.

Like it much better than comparable Minwax Polycrylic, less applications & better results, stronger, more durable.

Found myself refinishing some oak cabinets in an old house I bought. Had intended to do a color coat using General Finishes Java gel stain in a standard way (brush on, wipe off). Discovered that flaws and discoloration of the old wood was going make this plan unsuitable unless I completely stripped the cabinets and did considerable work. Changed the plan to using the stain as you would paint (brush on, let it dry, repeat as needed). This gave better results but I found that each coat of brushed on stain further reduced the oak grain texture that I wanted to retain. I also found that the cold winter weather was making the stain dry very slowly (3+ days instead of 24 hrs.) making the job take forever. Finally got the formula all worked out and settled on 2 coats of stain as being adequate and was ready to move on to a poly coat. The grain was still mostly visible but not as strong as I'd hoped. This is where things started to really go south. Since the GF gel stain was oil based, I decided to go with an oil based poly coat. I went with a Cabot satin finish. I applied one coat on the lower doors and waited for it to dry. And waited. And waited some more. 3 days in, it was mostly dry but still very tacky in some areas. I re-read the label and confirmed that this poly was 'fast dry' and that I hadn't made any mistakes. I hadn't done anything wrong but the finish was a high gloss one that didn't seem to be getting any duller with time. I waited some more and eventually moved the doors to an area near a heater duct. After about a week, it finally dried but I still had a finish that I would describe as 'high gloss'. The temps in the house were above 60 and indoor humidity was in the 40-50% range so I don't really know why it took so long to dry. I could have lived with the long drying time but the high gloss finish looked terrible and I hadn't done the extra prep work needed for a glossy finish. Now it was time to do some research. I found that GF made both a 'matte' and a 'flat' poly coating that I could switch to but it would cost twice as much as everything else and I'd have a 2 week wait. Looking online, I found that I could buy this Varathane product from my local Home Depot. It was in stock, cost far less that the GF product, had the 'matte' finish that I was looking for, was water based and a claimed drying time of only a couple of hours. I considered the 'not thick' version but when I saw that 3-4 coats was required for a good, even protective layer I went with this '3x' version. 3-4 coats would have taken lots more time and many more chances to screw something up. Got a quart and tested it on a sample piece of dark stained flooring. On opening the can I discovered it was milky white and almost as thick as latex paint (the Cabot poly had been like water). I applied my test coat with a foam brush and was so surprised to see that it looked almost dry after about 30 minutes. Wasn't so happy about the finish with the foam brush so I switched to a fine bristle paint brush and applied a second coat. The paint brush gave a much better finish but I found that you need to work pretty quickly because it starts drying so fast. As would be expected, this thick poly doesn't level as well as the thinner stuff. You need to work in small sections and work fast. Also, be careful to not get any drips or blobs in corners or gaps. If you do, it'll look like tree sap and never dry completely clear. If you go with a single coat, expect some faint brush marks. A second coat will improve that some and give a more even gloss. My situation was probably different than most people since it was being applied over gel stain and I wanted the grain texture but I decided that 1 coat looked OK. I'm not so sure about protection though and may eventually go with a second layer. Overall, I was very satisfied. The gloss level was only slightly more than the finish of the stain alone. It was slightly darker but that was no problem. Best of all, slight imperfections don't really show with the matte finish making this the ideal top coat for older wood that you don't plan to put tons of effort into. It can also be touched up without being obvious. I loved the quick drying time compared to my previous experience with the Cabot poly. The water based formula makes for simple and easy cleanup. This will save you money as you are able to reuse the same brush over and over. A couple of minutes in the sink and the brush is almost the same as before you started. No wasting time and money with mineral spirits and no waste to get rid of. One quart goes a long way. Maybe not quite as far as the single thick but I should be able to do my whole kitchen with just the 1 can. Got a couple of small drips on the counter. It dried for a day and was very hard to clean off with a scrubber pad. This speaks well for durability. The brush marks left were fairly minimal. A second coat will reduce them without a noticeable change in the finish. I had no issues apply this water based poly over the barely dry oil based stain. 24 hours of drying was plenty for the stain although it supposedly takes up to a month to fully cure. This stuff may not be totally idiot-proof but it's as close as you can expect and far better than the thin stuff that loves to drip. What did I not like? The drying time is actually a little too fast. Within about 5 minutes you'll notice it getting too tacky to work with. The cost is also a little steep compared to the single coat polys but for the work you save, it's probably worth it. It's still way cheaper than the premium GF stuff. That's really the only negatives I noticed. Make this your go-to top coat and you'll most likely be satisfied with the results. I am. Now the real work begins as I have to waste hours fixing the 'satin' Cabot mess on the lower doors.

Nice finish. Looks like hand rubbed and very durable.

Great product works on every project

Used this on a kitchen table that was gray stained for the farmhouse look, put several coats on, sanded in between, it's holding up nicely! Also use it on a pantry door project for the same farmhouse look, came out beautiful!

This is a good water based polyurethane that is easy to apply and clean up afterwards. The product is a thick milky fluid that turns clear when it dries. The milky color helps because I can see where it has been applied. It is very thick but the claim that one coat is enough is not accurate as I had to apply 3 coats on my raw wood shelf to get the smooth finish I desired. Because it is water-based, it does not have a strong smell and is not volatile which makes it ideal for babies' or children's furniture. It also dries pretty quick. I will stick to the oil based polys for my floors or items that need to endure a lot of use and wear, but this is good for furniture or shelves and the clean up with soap and water instead of mineral spirits is very nice.

This seems to be a nice product for indoors. It is very thick , levels nicely, low voc. When you open the product it's is Mikly white this clears as it dries. Good for building up a finish dries fast and levels nicely. I mainly use oil base products and was happy with this product for it Low VOC along with being much clearer than oil base . See my pictures where the darker yellowing color is the Oil base product from the same manufacture other than being exterior the Same color Clear. Drying time is quick however it takes a while if your sanding between coatings. My sample pictures were on dirty wood to see how long it really took to,sand the product not peel it. Overall on a finished product I was happy with end results. Time will tell if this is really as durable as an oil base product. Easy to apply, fills voids , clear . Easy to clean up, low VOC.

This Varathane Triple Thick Polyurethane is 3X thicker than traditional polyurethane. The advanced water-based, self-leveling formula allows most wood projects to be complete with just one coat. I applied one coat on my white painted hand rail leading to my basement. With this Matte finish providing a soft look, the railing stays cleaner than before. I just wipe with a damp cloth occasionally. After heavy usage of the railing, I see no signs of wear or scratching. I thought I was going to have to apply at least 2 coats for my desired finish, but the one coat was all that was needed. I did notice a slight "ambering" of the white color, very slight...as advertised. Be sure to follow all of the instructions for the best results. This is NOT your traditional Varathane. Use a high quality synthetic brush. Cleans up with soap and water.

I so much wanted to be able to use a water-based polyurethane on my jewelry boxes instead of an oil-based poly. This one does no better than others I've tried. I am a big fan of Varathane water-based semi-gloss polyurethane for my wood floors, so I wanted to give this a try. It goes on thick but does not even appear like it has put a protective coat on a sample piece of cherry wood. I applied a single coat (supposedly equivalent to three) with unsatisfactory results, so I sanded as directed and reapplied (now six coats). While I can tell that there is a protective coating on the wood after the second coat, it is nothing to write home about. I put my wood sample under the kitchen faucet. Although both the oil-based and water-based polys did repel the waterl, the oil-based was noticeably better. In the attached pictures you will see an oil-based spar urethane that has a gloss finish on the left and the Varathane water-based triple poly with matte finish on right. Although it is not an apples to apples comparison as the oil-based is gloss and the water-based in mate, it honestly is hard to see much of any improvement over the bare wood.

The Matte Triple Thick Polyurethane is easy to apply with a brush. Clean up of the brush can be done with soap and water. The Polyurethane is white when it is applied and dries to almost a clear finish. I painted it over painted white stool. When it dried, it has a slight yellow tint, but is only noticeable under certain light. This would not be a problem if use over wood tones. Although this only took one step, I prefer using multiple coats of the traditional Polyurethane.

Easy to apply, dries in a nice smooth finish. Very happy with the end result. Used sponge brushes to apply and worked great.