Cleaning teak with a brush and treating it

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haydude

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Sorry if this has been discussed before.

When I clean my teak cockpit and seats with a brush, water and teak cleaner there is always a lot of muck washing away. At first I thought I was removing lots of moss and dirt, but it looks also as if I am scrubbing the wood away leaving pitted patterns.

Am I doing it right? Should I be using a (medium) brush?

On my previous boat I used to treat teak with teak oil, but then the teak never took (!) that nice light grey colour, it was always honey to begin with and getting lighter and duller with time.

On this boat I have never treated the teak, so the teak, when clean, still has that lovely bright colour. What do you recommend? Should I treat it? And using which product.
 
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up on top of Hurst Castle in the Solent there is a brick wall. The soft brick has weathered away, leaving the cement in between. Beautiful honeycomb effect, but that's what you are doing to your teak. Leaving the hard stuff behind, and scrubbing away the soft stuff. Teak is a lot like the brickwork It has hard structural parts, and soft part.
 
haydude said:
Sorry if this has been discussed before.

When I clean my teak cockpit and seats with a brush, water and teak cleaner there is always a lot of muck washing away. At first I thought I was removing lots of moss and dirt, but it looks also as if I am scrubbing the wood away leaving pitted patterns.

Am I doing it right? Should I be using a (medium) brush?

On my previous boat I used to treat teak with teak oil, but then the teak never took (!) that nice light grey colour, it was always honey to begin with and getting lighter and duller with time.

On this boat I have never treated the teak, so the teak, when clean, still has that lovely bright colour. What do you recommend? Should I treat it? And using which product.
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Really soft brush (ie paintbrush) and you can brush with the grain, anything harder avoid, but if you must scrub do so across the grain. And don't pressure wash teak.
 
If you want the teak to last, never use a brush. About the most abrasive thing you should ever use is a mild Scotchpad, across the grain.
 
haydude said:
Sorry if this has been discussed before.

When I clean my teak cockpit and seats with a brush, water and teak cleaner there is always a lot of muck washing away. At first I thought I was removing lots of moss and dirt, but it looks also as if I am scrubbing the wood away leaving pitted patterns.

Am I doing it right? Should I be using a (medium) brush?

On my previous boat I used to treat teak with teak oil, but then the teak never took (!) that nice light grey colour, it was always honey to begin with and getting lighter and duller with time.

On this boat I have never treated the teak, so the teak, when clean, still has that lovely bright colour. What do you recommend? Should I treat it? And using which product.
Click to expand...

Dealing with good quality teak from new, it is easy to maintain a routine that is safe. You will not need to use a brush, in fact a sponge will suffice when regular cleaning, for a little more grunt a scotch pad will work well and not rake the teak.
If we could keep the teak in this new form then it would be easy, but we are using the teak and exposing it to the elements daily.

If the teak has got to the stage where it is 'ribbed' then a brush may have to be used in order to get access to within the ribs.
Of course the reason why 2 part chemicals are used is due to the chemical doing the hard work for you, with the brush you should not be 'scrubbing' just delicately removing what the chemicals have already softened.

Here's a shocker, I sometimes use a pressure washer!!! used in a controlled manner and on a fan jet, at the correct distance and correct pressure it is safer than any scrubbing when used with a 2 part cleaning system. If it is safe on your skin at 6" then it won't harm your deck, regardless of condition.
It is when using a pressure washer 'alone' without the aid of chemicals the danger starts.

I know this won't go down well with most people, I have a tin hat, but also have completed well over 500 teak deck rejuvenations in various conditions, a pressure washer has been used on nearly all of them, even if just as a dirty water run off broom.

What happens to exposed teak:
The natural oils within the teak will be forced to the surface in a weeping manner (there is no bark to contain it) these natural oils will oxidise or carbonise on the surface turning the very top parts grey. Over time if all of the natural oil within the teak is allowed to escape and oxidise then there will be no flexibility within the teak to handle the expansion and contraction due to weather changes, so it starts to fail.

The natural oil needs to be kept sealed within the teak, the exposed surface needs to be protected from UV and water ingress.

Semco has been my choice for years, it ticks all the boxes.
 
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This is the best possible advice I ever received for teak, from a bloke wot had a 23m mobo to keep clean......


TCM Teak thread reproduced. All credit to original git.

You'll see new looking decks at (some) shows that are actually selling secondhand boats. There are even one or two forumites boats with secondhand but sparkling new decks. Here's how. My own background is having swankyish boats in the south of france, having built annd maintained 3 teak patios outside houses one of them 200 square metres, employed know all and notso know all cleaners and skippers, spent hundreds on all sorts of jetwashers, brushes, gizmos, and chemicals.

1. First decide if you want you teak to look like teak - or teak covered with something else. I can tell if it's oiled, or if it's got semco onnit, and so can everyone else. It looks a bit yellowish, uniform and non-natural, and it's clear that you trying to short-circuit the actual cleaning. Ultimately, it's a bodge, cos you either can';t or can't be bothered with cleaning. There's also fake teak, which if you talk to sealine they can tell you is actually twice the price of real teak. But we humans are very good at identifying tactile materials even from a good distance away. Teak should look like teak, imho.

2. First off, the chemicals. You need two-part cleaner which can be obtained from wessex chemicals. You get this in 5-litre plasrtic containers, about 20 quid per container. Mark the containers "part 1" and "Part22 very clear cos the coloured dye can go off after year and yer can't tell which is which.

3. Now , the kit: NO BRUSHES, NO JETWASHERS. You need the mildest possible way of swooshing around the boat, and on new teak this means a sponge. But a sponge on a stick, so a vileda floor mop thing that squeezes out is excellent. For outside teak tho, esp teak which is a bit nackered, the floor mop is not quite spongified enough. The Surehold range (pretty sure that's the right name?) sure summink anyway haven't got it in from of me - you get a long stick and put attachements onnit , red handle - is the one to get, and get the flat attachment to which you can stick on a pad that looks like a panscrub. You want the very mildest one, white one that is soft enuf to wash your face with - only just not a sponge, not as severe as a loofah. Plonk this on the flat face of the attachment.

Key thing is that you need this to take a short amoujnt of time - so hands and knees is a bit rubbish cos you will never do it more than once - an effective AND quick clean is what we want.

3. Cleaning even a colossal floor takes minutes, not hours. get everything out of the area, tables chairs etc so no water goes on anything cept the teak. Screw-down tables need to be out as well. Hoover dusty inside areas if neccesary, then wet the area with hose NOT blasting, just dribble about.

4. Now use a mild dilution of part 1 in a bucket and bosh it on the teak. 5 to one is the most severe you shd use ever on mossy grreenish teak, but try 10 to 1 to start if it's just greyish. The teak will go uniformly dark, the colour of mahogany. Agitate the stuff over the teak, across the grain. That floor mop to sloosh it around, always acros the grain, or the soft spongy pad. As it goes dark, there's a tendency to not bother rubbing everywhere, but you do need to "apply" it to the wood with the sponge/mop thing, not just rinse over.

5. Pretty much as soon as the stuff is is on, it's done the business. So once it is all uniformly wet and dark, rinse the area, and tons of brown **** will come off. You need it all off. I use a rubber window wiping blade on a stick to swoosh it all out. You can use a bit of rag to get the edge bits up against a wal where to mop didn't agitate - you get toknow after doin g it the first few times. Again, don't blast with water, low pressure and lots of it.

6. Now the part two, the red stuff. Again , mild solution. 10 to one on wet teak after part 1. This isworrying to put on cos it bleaches back the colour, and the bucket seems to make a mark. Argh! Don't worry - it will all come off, as the bleachiness goes all over. Provided you stay at a mild dilution, you can't put "too much" on - it retuirns to it';s natural colour, so it won't go white or anything like that. On big patios or on the pontoon (yep, you have to clean the pontoon too soon, see below) i use a garden watering can and a rose to sploosh it on. The teak is clean now, and just needs this part two (which is dilute oxalic acid) to be rinsed off. If you missed an area with p1, it'll be silvery grey after p2, so yerd have to start again.
Again, rinse and wipe with a blade to speed up the drying process, and get the dirt off without tons and tons of water.
Walking on the teak whilst it's drying meanns you lose the "utterly fab clean new-boat" feeling, but the footmarks do evaporate so it's ok, ish. The rubber blade v significantly reduces drying time. The teak looks brand new when it dries. Is it clean tho? Get a white tissue and wet it, wipe over tyhe teak, and the tissue will remain clean. It's clean enough to eat food from.

7. Soon the teak will get filthy again. Why's that? Well it's cos of the rain, or the air or (mostly) cos you did it. In the south of france, big boats are "no shoes" - you step aboard in bare feet, not deck shoes, not socks, but Bare Feet, even if you charter the boat and pay a zillion pounds a week. All those swanky boats , look at the pics v closely and none are wearing shoes. Ok, on some they ARE wearing shoes, but they are either deck pumps (that always stay on the clean deck) or boneheads.

8. To keep the deck clean, i'm afraid that you need to try a bit harder than you are doing. You have a deck that is utterly clean and visibly so, like white carpet. But the pontoon is filthy. It's like having muddy garden path and muddy driveway, and white carpet indoors. You need to instigate a regime to limit the dirt arriving on board, or do more cleaning, and more cleaning means more wearing away the teak dunnit, so you have to be nice but then again, look after thhe boat, difficult i know, but anyway.
Clean the pontoon where you step aboard for a start, using 2-part teak cleaner again, and this time a stiff brush cos it will be filthy. If the quayside of you normal berth is concrete, clean and paint it with garage floor paint. put a mat down on the quayside for changing shoes. The mat will fly away in high wind so make sure you have spare mats and take it away in a gale. I lose about one mat per year, mebbe two. If you can't be shoes-off on board the boat cos in the uk it's cold, have one pair of shoes for schlepping over to the car park etc. and dedicated shoes on board that are only for on board, never ashore.

9. Knackered ridgy teak. Teak is inherently quite weak, really. To keep it from disintgrating, you need to never clean it and never wash it, and never step on and keep it covered. UNfortuntately, this aint possible on a boat. But a winter cover (over the whiole boat or at least over the teak) makes it last longer. If you have bare teak indoors perhaps in a wheelhouse, and also outdoors on the deck, you'll see how the indoor stuff stay flat and not-ridgy for much longer. The rain does this - its a moderate jetwash that happens lots of times per year. So, if you had a cover, or individual covers for bitos of the deck, your teak won't go ridgy anywhere near as quickly. I haven't got this, cos it's a bit anal and i can't be bothered. If you have a professional skipper, he could get it done, but there will be protests: this is cos it's work. But the name of the game is to have the teak under cover , accessible with air to stop it going mouldy a bit, but never with rain landing on it. Le Grand Blue is abramoviches ugly ship with loads of boats incl a big 70 foot powerboat - now replaced with a sunseekker predator, but the first powerboat they had on there (Sirius) had individual covers for the teak held on with poppers - and the teak is lovely, even after a several years.

10. Sanding the teak. Yeah, well, you need a machine to do this, and make it flat. Easy to decsribe, hard to do and makes a right mess. Once the teak is flat, you can make it smooth with finer and finer sanding, tho it will be slippery if you go on too long. It will need sanding eventually.

11 Finally about the semco and other protective coverings: at the cost of it looking like real natural teak, these stop dirt from entering the grain. So, it's sort-of protecting the teak for the next owner of the boat. I spose you could use the semco over winter, that would be okay. Would a top-class superyacht or classic racer use semco. No they blimmin well wouldn't, they'd be chucked out of st tropez and the skipper doomed to everlasting ridicule, the lazy git. Teak means teak.
 
+1.... Just use the Wessex Chemicals treatment as they prescribe - used it many times - works great, dead easy, no scrubbing or ruining of the teak.
 
Teak Deck Cleaning and Treating

I have a Site which specializes in Deck Treatment and I have been selling Boracol 10RH for over 30 years, previously as Sales Manager of a large Chemical Formulator.

The Boracol products are perfect for Teak Decks - I have owned several Yachts and found that a twice yearly treatment kept the decks clean without any need for pressure washing or scrubbing.

You can see the Boracol, a Patented Scandinavian product at:

http://www.deck-treatment.co.uk/decktreatment.htm#Yacht

Hallberg Rassy actually specify Boracol for their decks and it is written into the Owners Manual.

Happy Sailing,

David Moore
Partner, Property Repair Systems
Free Advice - 01626 331351
 
I was a little confused by the original posting... does the OP want to end up with teak colour or grey? I suspect the latter, in which case chemical cleaners will always disappoint him. As others have said, for a silver grey surface, just wash as often as possible across the grain with a sponge and seawater - but if the surface is already ridged, then it will need to be sanded back (which will make it honey coloured again) and then allowed to oxidise to grey.

Rob.
 
davidcmoore said:
The Boracol products are perfect for Teak Decks - I have owned several Yachts and found that a twice yearly treatment kept the decks clean without any need for pressure washing or scrubbing.
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I'd agree with that, having used Boracol (or equivalent) for years. It's just so easy, too, no need to spend ages on my knees rubbing the deck. Also great for sprayhoods and other canvas.
 
davidcmoore said:
Hallberg Rassy actually specify Boracol for their decks and it is written into the Owners Manual.
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I wish they had done this 12 years ago!

Once you have treated cockpit or deck with Boracol or similar you will be surprised by how little you have to clean the wood. Almost all the "dirt" is actually fungal.
 
Please note that TCM is a Mechanical Engineer. Treat his guide as gospel because real Engs (not repair 'engineers') tend not to spout rubbish. Real ones spend three years getting a degree, and when they focus on a problem, it does tend to give the right answer.

Getting them to focus on a problem that you want solved is rather harder.

So. For gorgeous Teak. Do what he says. Verbatim.

But. I did a bit of Eng too. And if you want smartly coloured Teak that gives an excellent cross-grain coefficient of friction, wash it and when wet go along the grain with a stiff nylon brush.

This scours out the softer wood leaving clean harder and ridged material. My way looks niceish, and grips feet well.
 
boguing said:
But. I did a bit of Eng too. And if you want smartly coloured Teak that gives an excellent cross-grain coefficient of friction, wash it and when wet go along the grain with a stiff nylon brush.

This scours out the softer wood leaving clean harder and ridged material. My way looks niceish, and grips feet well.
Click to expand...

Utterly, totally, completely bad advice. (Unless of course you have shares in a teak deck business!)
 
KellysEye said:
>with a brush

Never use a brush even a soft one, use a sponge and soapy water.
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Soapy sea water, gives the impression of cleaning but puts in salt to keep the teak good.

Otherwise USE BOROCOL brush it on a few times each year and in the sun it goes a pretty silver colour similar to the colour of the owners hair :-))
 
boguing said:
Please note that TCM is a Mechanical Engineer. Treat his guide as gospel because real Engs (not repair 'engineers') tend not to spout rubbish. Real ones spend three years getting a degree, and when they focus on a problem, it does tend to give the right answer.

Getting them to focus on a problem that you want solved is rather harder.

So. For gorgeous Teak. Do what he says. Verbatim.
Click to expand...

You're easily impressed by qualifications. Did you read this thread about problems after using Wessex Chemicals?
 
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