Teak Decking

[sealine]

Hi all
I have just upgraded my boat sealine S28 which has teak decking, How or what is the best way to protect it? having seen lots of items advertised, i'm hoping this panel can give me some advice on the best method of looking after it.

 

[BrendanS]

Don't pressure wash it, don't scrub it with a hard brush. Something like a sponge better. This is because it's actually quite a soft wood, and easily damaged

 

[pvb]

Totally agree with Brendan - treat your teak very carefully. The main problem with teak decks is that they can harbour algae and mildew, leading to green staining and black specks. There’s a way of helping to keep this stuff at bay, and it involves almost no work. Hallberg-Rassy recommend a product called Boracol, which is generally sold as a timber preservative. It’s highly effective in killing green algae, mould spores and termites. Unfortunately, in the UK I believe it’s only licensed for professional use. However, the two active ingredients - disodium octaborate (a fungicide) and benzalkonium chloride (an algaecide) - are available in various amateur products. Easiest to find and use is Polycell 3-in-1 Mould Killer (about £5 a litre from bigger B&Q stores). It’s a colourless liquid. I’ve used it for several years now, and I’m very pleased with the results. In comparison with neighbouring boats, my deck looks pristine.

To apply it, first clean the deck thoroughly and allow at least 24 hours to dry. Choose a day when rain isn’t expected for 24 hours and apply the liquid liberally with a soft paintbrush. I use about 2 litres on my 35-foot sailboat. You should wear protective gloves and safety glasses. Wash splashes off skin immediately. Reapply every 4-5 months. It works!

 

[sealine]

Thanks Brendon
what about teak oils, or treatments. Hear so much said about the pro's and con's, my main worry is it looking patchy if not used correctly.

 

[SailorSam]

I have an S 28 and was thinking of doing the same. Can you tell me who you used and an idea of price

 

[Magnum]

I wouldn't ever oil teak. If you do you'll have to keep doing it on a regular basis. Just wash it and to bring it back to new use a 2-part cleaner. Sorry, don't know what it's called but all the UK builders use it.

 

[jimg]

And it "eats" your teak! They are OK to bring your teak back, but then use a fungicide or better still just wash them down.

 

[rich]

Hermees was built in 1963, she still has the original teak deck, I have been using Teakwonder for the last 5 years,the deck allways looks great.

PS, I saw 2 boats today with what looked like Tec deck /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif yuk!

 

[Steve Clayton]

Get yourself some dishwasher powder and mix it into some warm water so that you have a slippery consistency. Drip some of this mixture onto a small area of teak and leave for a few minutes. Then with a gentle scourer and using plenty of the mixture lightly clean the area and then wash off. Do this at the beginning of the season and then again at the end. Brilliant results.

 

[SteveE]

I used Teakwonder on my boat this year and the results where excellent, I would thoroughly recomend it..

 

[Piers]

The best cleaning system is to use something like the white non-scratch (and non-abrasive) scotchbrite pad from 3M and plenty of water. No soaps, no chemicals, and certainly no oils, treatments or anything else. Quite unnecessary.

 

[tcm]

agree with most others. The ultimate cleaner is two-part teak cleaner from Wessex chemicals but it can be harsh - don´t overuse. But my experiments show that it dosn´t "eat teak". It needs careful application with soft sponge and dilution about 5-1 for filthy deck or 10-1 for midseason sloosh.

The main teak-eater that makes it goes ridgy is using any form of brush. But even worse on a long term basis is rainfall landing on it month in month out when not on the boat. Cos our teak indoors is fine, but much ridgier outside. To avoid this wear, get a deck cover held down with poppers at edges made to protect the teak when you aren´t on board.

You can use teak sealer, but that looks less good than natural teak. Much more efficient to put up a sign saying say "hey everyone look - i can´t be bothered or just don´t know how to clean the boat properly and so i have decided to keep the teak covered in gloop so the next owner can enjoy the nice teak deck!"

 

[Vara]

As TCM is obviously paying by the minute for his internet connection I will take the liberty of posting his magnus opus regarding teak.

Quote;

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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