Which Selleys wood glue do you need, and how do you choose?

Selleys wood glues were developed to bond both natural and engineered timbers, and the range covers everyone from crafters and casual hobbyists to passionate woodworkers. Four products are published here, all under the Aquadhere name.

Two questions decide which one you need. Will the joint ever get wet? and is the other surface timber, or something else? Get those two right and the rest — clean-up, clarity, set speed — is convenience rather than performance.

The chemistry that drives the choice

The range splits into two technologies, and the difference is not cosmetic.

Aquadhere Interior, Exterior and Quick Set are PVA based. They dry clear and can easily be cleaned up with water. Water clean-up is a genuine convenience on a glue-up where squeeze-out has to come off a surface you intend to finish.

Aquadhere Durabond is a solvent-free polyurethane wood glue. It bonds all woods and timbers, but unlike PVA-based glues it is resistant to acids and most chemicals. That resistance is also what widens its scope beyond timber: it is suitable for bonding other materials such as glass, metal, ceramic and concrete. If your joint is timber to something that is not timber, this is the product in the range built for it.

Interior or exterior — the limitation that matters most

Only Aquadhere Exterior and Aquadhere Durabond are weather resistant and suitable for exterior use. The other two are not.

This is the one thing to get right. A PVA interior glue in an outdoor joint does not fail on the day you build it — it holds through the first summer and then lets go after the timber has been through wetting and drying cycles, by which time the piece is assembled, finished and in service. Aquadhere Exterior bonds stronger than most woods, is weatherproof, and does not stain timber, which is why it is the one Selleys names for decks and fences.

The products in this range

• Aquadhere Interior — the interior woodworking adhesive, for furniture, cabinets and similar work. PVA based, dries clear, cleans up with water. Not weather resistant.
• Aquadhere Exterior — weatherproof adhesive for outdoor woodworking such as decks and fences. Bonds stronger than most woods and does not stain timber.
• Aquadhere Quick Set — the fast-acting option for small repairs and projects. PVA based, dries clear, water clean-up. Not weather resistant.
• Aquadhere Durabond — solvent-free polyurethane. Bonds all woods and timbers, resists acids and most chemicals, is weather resistant, suits exterior use, and bonds glass, metal, ceramic and concrete as well as timber. Heat resistant up to 140°C.

Selleys also names Fix&Go PVA, which is designed specifically for craft projects and bonds mosaics, cardboard, cloth, leather and wood. Being water based, it is meant for interior projects only. It does not have a published product page in the current catalogue.

If you are filling rather than gluing

Wood glue joins two pieces of timber. If what you actually have is a hole, a crack or a gouge in one piece, that is a filler job and belongs in the wood putty or wall filler categories instead. Using a glue as a filler leaves a bond line that will not sand or take stain the way the surrounding timber does.

The safety divide in this category — four glues, three different hazard levels

The four Aquadhere products are sold as one family. Their safety data sheets do not agree with that. Two carry no hazard classification at all; one carries a single skin classification; one is classified at the highest signal word GHS uses.

Group	Products	Classification
Polyurethane	Aquadhere Durabond	Danger. Eight hazard statements, including H334 (respiratory sensitisation, Category 1A — may cause allergy or asthma symptoms if inhaled), H317 (skin sensitisation, Category 1A), H351 (suspected of causing cancer) and H373 (organ damage through prolonged or repeated exposure), plus H332, H335, H315 and H319
Fast-setting PVA	Aquadhere Quick Set	Warning. One statement, H317 — may cause an allergic skin reaction. The safety data sheet states specifically that it is not corrosive or irritating to eyes
General-purpose PVA	Aquadhere Interior, Aquadhere Exterior	Not classified as hazardous. No signal word and no hazard statements on either. Interior still carries the label note “contains isothiazolinones — repeated contact may cause sensitisation”, which sits below the classification threshold

Durabond is the outlier, and not by a matter of degree. Respiratory sensitisation at Category 1A — the highest sub-category, assigned where there is evidence of a high frequency of the effect in people — means the immune system can learn to react to the vapour. Once that happens it is generally permanent, it is afterwards triggered by exposures far smaller than the one that caused it, and it worsens with each contact. H351 and H373 sit alongside it, and both describe accumulated exposure rather than a single use, which puts them on the person who glues up week after week in a workshop rather than on the householder repairing a chair.

The practical reading: where a PVA will do the job, choosing it removes a respiratory and a carcinogenicity classification from the room. Durabond earns its place where the joint is timber to glass, metal, ceramic or concrete, or where acid and chemical resistance is needed. It is the wrong default for ordinary cabinet work, and the wrong glue for an unventilated room or a space a child or an asthmatic will be in for the next few hours.

Quick Set sits well below it. Its single H317 comes from in-can preservatives present at well under a tenth of a per cent apiece. Sensitisation is still permanent once acquired, and it builds from exactly the pattern the directions describe — wiping wet squeeze-out off a joint with a bare finger, dozens of times over a weekend. Wear gloves, and hold the cloth rather than the glue.

If hazard is the deciding factor, the two ordinary glues are the two clean ones. Aquadhere Interior and Exterior carry no classification at all, and Interior's tested VOC content is 2 g/L against a 50 g/L limit — which is why it is the sensible default for gluing up in an enclosed room.

Comparing the glues on the numbers that decide the job

Clamp time governs your afternoon: it is how long the workpiece is tied up before you can move it. Maximum bond time is when the joint can be loaded.

Product	Technology	Clamp or hold time	Maximum bond time
Aquadhere Quick Set	PVA	Twice the strength of a standard PVA after 3 minutes on softwoods, 8 minutes on hardwoods	See product page
Aquadhere Exterior	Cross-linked PVA	Softwoods 30 minutes; hardwoods 1 hour	24 hours
Aquadhere Durabond	Polyurethane	4 hours	Up to 24 hours, depending on humidity and material porosity
Aquadhere Interior	PVA	See product page	See product page

The clamp range across that table is roughly eightfold, and it runs opposite to the product hierarchy. Quick Set gives useful early strength in minutes; Durabond, the most capable product in the range, needs four hours in clamps. With one set of sash cramps and six joints to make, that difference decides whether the job is an afternoon or four days — and it matters more than any strength figure, because every glue here is stated to outlast the timber.

Durabond's other number catches people out. Its working time is about ten minutes but its clamp time is four hours; the two are unrelated, and a long clamp does not buy a long assembly window. Dry-fit the whole job and have every clamp open and positioned before the bottle is opened. Polyurethane also expands as it cures, so the clamps are not optional — an unclamped PU joint is pushed open by its own foam.

Hardwood costs you time on every PVA here. Quick Set goes from 3 minutes to 8; Exterior from 30 minutes to an hour. That is the same effect twice: a PVA sets partly by losing water into the wood, and dense, less porous timber takes it more slowly. Plan hardwood glue-ups on the longer figure rather than the number on the front of the bottle.

Two limits are worth carrying away. Only Durabond publishes a heat figure, a maximum of 140°C. And Aquadhere Exterior has a pH of 2–3 — the cross-linker that makes it weatherproof is also why it stains where it meets steel fixings or the tannins in oak and cedar.

Common questions about Selleys wood glue

Which Aquadhere can I use outdoors?

Only Aquadhere Exterior and Aquadhere Durabond are weather resistant and suitable for exterior use. Aquadhere Interior and Quick Set are not.

Which is the strongest?

Aquadhere Exterior is described as bonding stronger than most woods — meaning the timber fails before the glue line does. Durabond bonds all woods and timbers and adds chemical resistance.

Will wood glue stick timber to metal or concrete?

Aquadhere Durabond is the one for this. It is suitable for bonding other materials such as glass, metal, ceramic and concrete, which the PVA-based products are not described as doing.

Which one cleans up easiest?

The PVA-based products — Aquadhere Interior, Exterior and Quick Set — dry clear and clean up easily with water.

Does Aquadhere stain timber?

Aquadhere Exterior is specifically described as not staining timber. The PVA products dry clear.

Which one sets fastest?

Aquadhere Quick Set, described as fast-acting and suited to small repairs and projects.

Can wood glue handle heat?

Aquadhere Durabond is heat resistant up to 140°C. No heat figure is published for the PVA products.

Is Durabond a PVA glue?

No. It is a solvent-free polyurethane, and unlike PVA-based glues it is resistant to acids and most chemicals.

What should I use for craft projects?

Selleys names Fix&Go PVA for craft work — mosaics, cardboard, cloth, leather and wood — but it is water based and meant for interior projects only.

What about gluing a timber floor?

Flooring adhesives are a separate range in the flooring category, not part of the Aquadhere wood glues.