New Teak

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Uisteach

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What is the best way to treat new external teak, leave alone for a while to "weather in", or apply teak oil from the outset?

It's a blue water boat so will experience a wide range of climates - hot and dry to cold and wet.

Anyone tried different approaches and found one that works the best?

Thanks in advance for any input.
 
I would advise that you leave it untreated. It will go silver which is quite ok.
We did try oiling some of the teak on our boat---there's lots of it---but we found that the oiled teak quickly went black in the sun. We've rubbed back all the oiled stuff and going to leave it natural. That's one of the great things about teak--you can just leave it.
 
No wood is best left without protection but teak will weather better than any other wood. All depends on how you want it to look. And how much time you can spare to keep it that way.

narnish verds do it with a brush....
 
Imho use no oil. But if you do nothing it will go silver. Some like that look, others (incl me) hate it. If you want it to stay light straw brown, just clean it often with water+teepol or similar and deck scrub, and use something like wessex chemicals cleaner and brightener every few months. It will look literally brand new (light brown unoiled) if you do this. Mine is in western med, by the way, and this works in such a climate
 
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Imho use no oil. But if you do nothing it will go silver. Some like that look, others (incl me) hate it. If you want it to stay light straw brown, just clean it often with water+teepol or similar and deck scrub, and use something like wessex chemicals cleaner and brightener every few months. It will look literally brand new (light brown unoiled) if you do this. Mine is in western med, by the way, and this works in such a climate

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If you need further assurances - I'd back this view - and I've had two teak decked yachts we kept in the Med.
JOHN

JOHN
 
But wouldn't chemical cleaners remove the natural oils from the wood, at least close to the surface? One view I came across was that no kind of cleaner at all should be used, just sea water! You are right though, the wood does go grey and that can look unattractive.

I appreciate the points made about blackening with teak oil. I hadn't known that, I thought teak oil would stop the wood drying out over time through loss of the natural oils.

I guess so far the view here is that it's best to leave it untouched, but if the greying becomes important then some specialised cleaner could be used. In terms of "maintenance", leaving it untouched is probably the best approach?
 
In salt and UV environment, you lose any oil close to surface early on. All the added teak oil does really is give pretty appearance, which is countered by fact that it has drawbacks. Teak is a softwood, and after a few months/years weathering it has no surface oil, and what you see is actual structure of wood grain, which can be kept clean with chemicals, which will have far less effect on that structure than even light brushing.

Don't ever scrub, use a sponge, or you will start damaging the structure (fibres) of the wood
 
Hi Brendan, your general point about cleaning is appreciated, thanks.

Should mention though that teak is a hardwood. Softwoods are conifers. (But, some softwoods are harder than some hardwoods, such as balsa which though a hardwood is, of course, very soft.) Cheers.
 
Not sure I can explain it all chemically, only from experience and virtually living in Antibes where there are lots of pro yacht crew pass on their advice

I dont at all agree to no cleaning. It does get dirty, eg from rain near airports. So a sponge scrubbing with teepol (washing up liquid type stuff) works wonders in getting it clean. My crew paroably did this 4 or 5 times to our boat, this summer (the boat is heavily used tho...)

You would think all the oils get washed out, and I suppose they do a bit, but this seems not to matter. If you keep it clean with soap and very occasionally use the treatments as mentioend above (I mean the wessex or teak-brite stuff, not oils) then although the surface will not be oily the wood will still be straw brown colour.

There is a misconception that it goes silver when it loses oil. That is wrong, it can lose the oil and still be straw brown. You do not have to oil teak to keep a light brown brand-new looking colour

Everything I say is based on a starting position that you want it straw brown colour, not silver grey. If you do want the silver grey look then let it weather more, dont clean it as much /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Here are my decks, 2 years old exposed 100% of time to Med weather, and in need of a clean which they got a week after this pic (taken off Elba, incidentally). The wood is dry and grippy, but keeping it clean maintains this light brown colour

IMG_1440.sized.jpg
 
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