Restoring Teak Outdoor Furniture

[John Motzi]

My teak outdoor furniture has that weathered gray appearance & I would like to restore it to a color somewhat like it had when new. What should I use?

[Jim Becker]

Um...not much you can really do about that without removing a lot of wood. Even if you "treated" it when new (and kept re-treating it), it would still eventually weather to that nice grey color. UV radiation contributes greatly to it.

[Steve Cox]

Your best bet is to go to a marine supply store (I don't know where you are in relation to the water) and get some of their teak cleaners and refinishers. You won't get it back to a like new state but they will help. After that, you want to oil it frequently.

[Jim VanBramer]

I actually had some luck last Spring using my pressure washer ... it's worth a try. ;)
Jim

[Al Lupone]

Please do NOT use a pressure washer on teak. Yes, it does clean it very nicely. However at the same time it is blasting away the soft growth between the (rays?).(Don't know the technical term. Just know the result) If you go to a marine store, Teka part A & Teka part B work well. (They also take a little of the soft growth out. Only not as much as a pressure washer). One part is an acid cleaner, other part is a neutralyzer that also brightens the teak. I assume that deck cleaners & brighteners from the Borg would be similiar at half the marine price. Wear gloves & brush ACROSS the grain, not with it. Once again you do not want to be digging out the soft growth. If you just want to clean the teak, you can use sudsy ammonia.

After all the cleaning, if you want a good long lasting finish, you can use Sikkens Cetol. Three coats the 1st year. Every year after, just scrub with a Scotchbrite pad & lay on one new coat.
Good Luck
Al
P.S. If you do finish, it helps to wipe everything down with acetone before finishing. That removes the top layer of oil native to teak. You will then get better adhesion of your finish.

[Ian Barley]

The only way your gonna get it looking like it was when it was new is to buy it again.

All of the "restorers" that I have seen either etch or abrade away some of the top surface to restore the fresh timber below the previous surface layer. Basically the grey colour arises because the top layer(s) of cells have lost their contents (oils etc..) because of the action of UV. This leaves just cellulose which looks grey as it filters the light that hits it.

The only way to get back to the colour of teak is either to refill that cellulose layer or remove it. In theory tinted oils could do the first job (refill) but in practice the results are generaly not good (patchy and poor colour match) and need to be reapplied frequently, at least once a year - depending on sunshine levels.

The pressure washer will very effectively abrade the surface away. Sadly it does so very unevenly and you will generaly be left with a surface which is the right colour but feels like the surface of a rasp. If you want to go the abrasion route try a piece of sandpaper on a less conspicuous spot to get some idea of the work involved. It may not be too bad. This will give you a reasonably even surface removal and you can then get into an oiling regime. Just remember that you will have to re-oil at least once a year and that , like Jim says, you are retarding the colour change , not arresting it. If you start oiling and don't keep it up, black pin mould will colonise your furniture to feed on the decaying oil and it will look pretty shoddy for a couple of years until they have finished the job.

The third option, the one that I personally favour, is to learn to love the natural appearance of timber weathering in the outdoor atmosphere. Keep it clean using a nylon bruh and some warm soapy water, about once a year, and it will look great, you will have less work to do and you will be pushing fewer chemicals inti the environment.

[Mark Singer]

We have a lot of teak outdoor furniture, I gave up trying to maintain it a long time ago. We just use bleach and an abrsive pad every spring....that removes and real dark areas and lightens it but it is still a grey

[Carl Eyman]

Al's suggestion is what I've done and recommend - for boats that is. My dearly beloved but departed sailboat had a lot of teak trim. I used a product to maintain it after cleaning called Deks O Lay ( I believe). But I had to use the two part cleaner first. A sailing friend of mine liked his teak almost white; so he used clorox on a regular basis. It was clean, but didn't look like teak to me.