Teak sealant

[cliveharlow]

Does anyone know a good sealant product that will prevent the exposed teak bits of my boat from going grey-green? Every time I scrape it back to a nice wood colour I'm aware that it's getting thinner, so I'd like to slow the process. I'd like to find a teak sealant that's resistant to UV and british weather, but retains the appearance and non-slip properties of the wood.

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[tillergirl]

I think you're looking for the holy grail. If you find it you'll live in luxury for the rest of your life. There are three choices; leave it bare. It will go grey/silver and some people think that's very nice. Going green and or getting dirty is the drawback to this. My 1970's survey contains the nice line "the deck needs to be cleaned with oxalic acid and the vessel taken to sea where sea water will keep her clean"!
He didn't say anything about coming back! But he has a point that regular use at sea with salt water on the deck will ensure that the green stays away and also gets rid of the much of the harbour dirt. You can always tell SWMBO that the reason the lee rail is under is that the teak needs to be sluiced!

The second choice is to oil the teak. I'm personally never done this but it will give some protection to UV attack. You can oil quite easily, so you are more likely to do this than to touch up varnish so this is probably the best UV protection. I think that teak oil does provide UV protection. If I'm wrong. I'm sure someone else will post a correction. Some poeple think that the drawback of oil eventally gets the wood dirty.

The third chice is a coating such as varnish. Here you have a great choice of laboursome systems. These range from the Scandinavian oils to hard 2 pot polyvarnishs. I have no experience of the oils and have tried a variety of different varnish finishes/combinations. The only certainty about them is that more coats the better; always attend to cracks in the surface as soon as possible.

The thing you must stop is scraping the teak. There is no need to scrape to get the colour back. Oxalic Acid (this is the basic ingredient in Teak Cleaners) purchased from the chemist and mixed 25grams to half a litre of water will restore the cleanliness of the teak without scraping. This is not without some abrasion of the wood but nothing like the destructiveness of scraping. It will get rid of the green as well although repeated applications may be required.

To maintain non-slip properties - stick to bare teak, clean it with oxalic acid and take the vessel to sea (sorry couldn't resist it)

Good luck



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[billmacfarlane]

Apaert form the 3 methods that tillergirl mentions, there is a fourth method worth looking into. It's to use a silicon based teak sealer. Have a look at the following link for details on the one I've tried this year though it's too early to say yet how effective it'll be.
http://www.onwardtrading.com/teak-care1.htm

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[jimg]

I have used Starbrite Teak Sealer for the last year on brand new teak. It stays the nice teal colour and only needs washing whenever you wash the boat. I have put another coat on this year and it looks as good as new!

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