# How bad is water for wood furniture?



## zBernie (May 25, 2014)

I found my wife had laid out some of my clothes on my dresser to dry. She's done this at least one time before that I can recall. I asked her not to place wet clothes on the wood furniture. Can placing wet clothes on wood furniture cause problems with it's finish?

-Thanks


----------



## johnnie52 (Feb 16, 2009)

A lot of things determine how much damage can be done to the finish and/or the wood by water.

NEVER put anything even slightly damp on a shellac finish! Other varnishes aren't effected as badly, but over time all finishes will become damaged by moisture.

Solid wood can handle slightly damp things better than pressed board. Water will destroy cheap pressed board furniture.


----------



## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

While it's not a good idea to routinely put wet clothes on furniture a lot depends on how wet the clothes are and what kind of finish the furniture has. It would take a very long time before it would damage the wood, it's the finish that would suffer. If it has a polyurethane finish on it then it would take the abuse a lot longer than if it was finished with shellac or a nitrocellulose lacquer.


----------

