Teak Deck Treatment

[Anwen]

Please can I have your thoughts on treatments for teck decks?

I have seen a number of posts on the forum suggesting that applying teak oil is a really bad move, so was wondering whether there were some other options which would prevent the teak from weathering to grey.

Some may ask why - the answer is that I don't like grey wood!

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[[2574]]

Semco is the business. We've used it for three seasons and it simply produces fab results.

Have a look here:

http://www.onwardtrading.com/teak-care1.htm

Rob

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[Anwen]

Thanks very much for that, I'll look up the Onward Trading stand at the SBS next week (going on Monday).

Cheers, Jon

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[Piers]

The best treatment is to do do nothing except keep it clean. Use the white non-scratch Scotchpad from 3M, with the grain. Gets the dirt out (lots of it), and keeps it in good condition. OK, the wood becomes a brown-silver with time, but that's what teak naturally does.....

<hr width=100% size=1>Piers du Pré
http://www.dupre.co.uk

 

[ianwright]

Not, please not, with the grain. Across the grain ploughs out less wood.

IanW

<hr width=100% size=1>Vertue 203, Patience

 

[tcm]

Agreed: new decks as follows (long)

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 crap 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.


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[mirabriani]

Re: Agreed: new decks as follows (long)

Blimey! thats a post and a half
Detailed and chatty
You should be a journalist
Well worth printing and filing
Briani

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[robind]

Re: Agreed: new decks as follows (long)

Ring Mike at Wessex chemicals for the best teak cleaner so far (much better than semco) and cheaper 07973629367
Rob

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[Anwen]

Re: Agreed: new decks as follows (long)

Wow! Thanks for this post TCM. So really, the secret to keeping the wood looking like new is to regularly clean it with the appropriate cleaners, keeping mechanical abrasion to a minimum, rather than using protective finishes to seal the grain etc.

I actually haven't got teak decks on my boat (Sun Odyssey 32), just the cockpit sole and seats, but I find the boat looks a lot smarter with golden coloured wood compared with weathered grey. I have also varnished the grabrails on the coach roof...

Jon

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[adl]

Re: Agreed: new decks as follows (long)

Just spent all of yesterday using the Wessex Chemical to clean the deck, very impressive.

It took about 6 hours to do a Westerly Oceanranger 38'

 

[Chris_Robb]

If you don't want to have to replace the teaks decks - be very careful about cleaning.

I have never done anything to my decks other than spary down with an algae remover - stuff called MMC, which is available in many garden centres. I then only put buckets of seawater over the decks during the season.

The decks are spotless. Absolutely NO scrubbing at all.

 

[ccscott49]

I use the TCM method, but with my own mix of chemicals, exactly the same, but I mix it myself. Very cheap.
My decks now need sanding and re-caulking/replugging in parts, but as they are original and 43 years old, I guess they have done well. Probably about 1/8" of teak worn away, they are 1" thick teak on 3/4" ply though, so no worries.
Sign of misuse and scrubbing by previous owners, they havent been scrubbed for 13 years.

 

[Chris_Robb]

Hi Colin

When the teak is only 6mm thick, you tread very carefully!