Oxalic acid vs teak cleaners?

[Tim Good]

I want to clean up my teak cockpit and use a tin of Semco I have. But it first I need to clean it.

I have a good tub of oxalic acid. Is this sufficient to clean or should I really look at using something specific like teak wonder cleaner.

I appreciate I need the best results prior to then applying the Semco and sealing it.

 

[Daydream believer]

Brick cleaner does it for me

 

[upcountry2]

You need to get the dirt out before you use oxalic the acid only lightens and maybe removes deeper seated stains, so yes use a cleaner such as you suggest, usually red and green in colour . The red one is for cleaning green for lightening. Use plenty of water to wash off then apply the semco.
Plenty on here will tell you not to bother and just leave it natural ie dirty and just use boracol to get rid of the green algae, I personally like clean teak and have used semco extensively, lot of work but worth it I think.
The cleaner if used intelligently does not damage or remove teak as many would have you believe…

 

[RunAgroundHard]

I bought a big tub of oxalic crystals and dissolved them in water until the crystals no longer dissolved. I then used on my teak with little effect, disappointed. Since then I have used the Starbright products Teak Cleaner and Teak Brightner, followed by their Teak Oil. When the Teak Oil ran out, I used other teak oil, not Starbright. The Starbright treatment worked very well and took very old, grey teak and returned to a nice teak colour. It did take a lot of teak oil to get the wood refreshed. The oil has dried to a good finish. The teak that faces south has aged fast, the stuff that faces north has survived well for two years, now needing refreshed.

That's my experience.

 

[Snowgoose-1]

I use spray mould remover on gray teak. Aftera hew minutes scrub with softish brush then rinse. Comes up wonderfully. Probably the bleach in it.

 

[stranded]

Happy with Eco 100 - does a good job and don’t need to worry about the environmental effects of run off.

 

[ashtead]

There are a variety of 2 bottle products (as per comments above for starbrite) but being just the cockpit it should last a while.I would try Wessex . Once you have done it now and it’s all dried out apply the seemco. In subsequent year you might get away with using bio washing powder,mixed with water and a Milton type bottle cleaner just to scrub off old seemco with green pan cleaner pad before re coating -I guess it depends on how much wear you have in cockpit but that’s how we treat our teak rails .