Maintenance of Teak Decks

[jfm]

Sorry I know it may have been covered before, but can anyone recommend a product to make teak decks look new? I'm talking about the teak veneered decks on a modern Fairline/Princess/Sunseeker boats. Ours are going a bit grey/silver. What I want is some wonder product that you slosh on with minimal elbow grease, to make them return to the light-brown look that they had when brand new.

I've tried a few things including some oxalic acid based two-part gunk that cost about 20 quid for a bottle and it made a small improvement but I did not get the "as new" look.

The owners handbook (Fairline) says do nothing and let them go grey/silver but I don't want to do that. It looks messy as the cockpit wood is covered so that looks new, only the bathing platform is grey/silver cuz that is open to the weather all year.

Or is it time to trade in the boat?

JFM

 

[Guest]

Re: Mild acid but...

the effect doesn't last long. Hull cleaner works, but need a short stubby brush as the greyish silver is of course, dirt muck from sky and diesel fumes. Hard work in the uk as the hose pipe doesn't chuck out lots of water, as in fr when water tanks takes under 3mins to fill up.

I also have about 100 sqm of iroko as teak deck in garden, and altho patio cleaner worked (the dangerous concrete-fizzing stuff, not the biological crap) the rain makes it go all silvery greyish, so soddit. This incidentally, is the only thing guadiennage people are good at, but after a few seasons the wood grain gets revealed/raised with the acid the water and the scrubbing, so....

It's always time to trade the boat in, praps a nice ferretti 58, with no stupid fake teak cept hidden away under cover and it's real stuff... or another trip to the fairline factory for some bits.

 

[petem]

Re: Mild acid but...

BA Peters use TeakWonder on their boats, available from Peters!

 

[Guest]

You want Burgess Woodsealer! It was invented by the same guy who invented Hammerite paint. You don't even have to clean up the wood [they say] but I have found a light sand to get the silver stuff off does improve the finish. I swear by it and you still get the grain of the wood, its non-slip, its brilliant and its not too expensive. Look at their website for more details http://www.woodsealer.co.im/

 

[mikeh]

I use a commercial solution called Protec during manufacture of hard wood furniture for outdoor applications. It is designed to protect hard woods from exactly the problem you have encountered caused by UV weathering. I am planning to use it in a marine environment soon. The trick with this product is you need to apply it before the sun gets to work. In the past I have had success bringing teak and iroko timber back to the original colour with a good random orbital sander and a selection of sanding grits - not too bad a job. I will dig out the address for Protec and post it.