Teak sealer

Do not scrub teak. If you do you wash the soft grain from the hard annual growth rings creating wear and grooves and ridges. Wash carefully with a soft brush with split ends like you would wash a car and across the grain not along.
There are may ways of looking after teak, and some vociferous proponents of all methods, I won’t diss them except do not use teak oil it collects the dirt and stain’s clothing.
I use Boracol s coats in spring one in autumn, and only wash lightly about two or three times per year. The teak will go a light silver and the Boracol preserves it.
 
With my present boat I've escaped the teak deck maintenance issue by the simple expedient of not having teak decks. With my previous boat I used Boracol and never scrubbed or brushed.

The only cleaner I used was for the occasional grease stain in the cockpit (dropped bacon or rubbish bag leaking olive oil). For that I used some sort of patent soft soap (the name of which I forget), not scrubbed or brushed in but just applied thickly and left to soak in with some silver foil or clingfilm over it (to prevent drying out) then washed off with clean water.
 
We use Biopin Bootsöl on the teak on our boat to seal it, our neighbour tested out a range of about 10 different teak sealants and this was the one we liked best, it is also the one he is using on his 90+ year old boat called Alice. Yesterday the owner of the boat behind us asked what sealant we used as he loved the finish on our boat and wanted to get some.
biopin Bootolie

Alice:
Alice2.jpg

On Hunter Before
155125120gallery_wm.jpg155125121gallery_wm.jpg

After:
ohykTQy.jpg
 
as per other posters, be careful cleaning teak. It is easy to damage it. The Wessex two pack does work really well but I was surprised how much "wood" comes off the deck. Being of the lazy/yorkshire persausion I find the best results come from a really good clean when you buy the boat, and a really good clean when you put it up for sale. The rest of the time ignore it, just rinse it off with a hose pipe and maybe a bit of a brush for bird poop.

After owning a few boats with teak decks I now appreciate the benefits of gel coated decks and a jet washer.
 
Many thanks so far.
I have been following John mendez video and just using soapy water and the deck is coming on a treat.
Just looking at which sealer to use
 
Alicatt said:
We use Biopin Bootsöl on the teak on our boat to seal it, our neighbour tested out a range of about 10 different teak sealants and this was the one we liked best, it is also the one he is using on his 90+ year old boat called Alice. Yesterday the owner of the boat behind us asked what sealant we used as he loved the finish on our boat and wanted to get some.
biopin Bootolie

Alice:
View attachment 197114

On Hunter Before
View attachment 197116View attachment 197117

After:
View attachment 197115
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Looks good!

1: What was on before?
2: Did you remove the existing completely?
3: Bootsöl remains flexible. Would you use it on a seat?
4: How does it wear?
 
We opted for Flexiteak decks but for rails and cappings real teak plus cockpit table . Clean it each year with washing powder say a scoop full in a large bowl of water with a dash of bottle cleaner and rub down with green washing up scourer -do this on a warm but not super hot sunny day and wash down with tap hose. Wait to dry and apply natural semco -about £43 per quart tin - apply and leave to dry -add second coat and all done . With more time you can do same for decks. You don’t need to use the Wessex every year but after about 4 years you can resort to Wessex which is fine but more pricey and time consuming. You can if wished spray down with your Patio Magic type product (or buy the base product if needed to in PM) to remove any green if you wish .
 
1: Varnish of some sort on the railings and trim, on the deck no idea it was grey when we got the boat
2: Absolutely
3: No idea, we have no seats that require it.
4: We put 2 layers on the handrail and one on the deck, the deck is now starting to show signs of wear. We did it different than the owner of Alice, he puts the Bootsöl on and wipes the excess off which leaves a matt finish, we put one layer on and when almost dry put the second layer on giving a satin finish, once dry it feels hard and does not transfer to hands or clothing.

We ran out of time putting it on before we were leaving on a club outing, we had to go with the weather window at the end of April and that was all we could get on, ideally we would have put 3 layers on both the deck and the rails,

This is one layer on the swim platform
Swimplatform.jpg
 
@Alicatt

Thanks.

I'm currently using Jotun Benar UVR, a multi season one part oil/alkyd product. Tinted to help UV protection.

It doesn't flake due to stayning flexible. It dries nicely but feels a little like never-hardening, and despite recommended for garden furniture, I wouldn't like to sit on it. Interested to evaluate a possible alternative.

I remove the old, dull but mainly intact, and add 3 new coats every 3-4 years.

Benar versions, leftmost being wood-oil :
1754212804153.png
 
Hi,

Why bother with the oil on teak. It is full of natural oil so will never rot. Just a gentle wash with soap shavings 2-3 times every season. Then your teak will last forever. As said do not scrub teak... it is rather soft.
 
This is a very interesting thread. I use Semco Goldtone after first I had to do some fairly significant sanding as there were some noticable ridges in the deck when I bought the boat. Fortunately the teak was pretty thick so it did lend to a fairly aggressive treatment. Semco is pretty good but it's very expensive (around £130 for a US Galon) and the colour particularly on the foredeck does fade fairly quickly.. But I love the look of it so for now (and I have nearly 2 tins left) I'll persevere with it. I guess unfortunately for me, I don't like the natural grey look of aged teak so it'll be a never ending job for me until such time as I replace areas with synthetic (which I would happily do if I'm honest.. bar the cost)..
 

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jon and michie said:
Hi - I am in the process of scrubbing my teak decking as it hasn't been done for some time and finding that the black sealant in between planks gets sticky in warm weather.
Would this sealer be any good to put down after my last scrub?

https://www.gaelforcemarine.co.uk/en/gb/Wessex-Teak-Sealer/m-8033.aspx

Many thanks for any advice
Jon
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It's not uncommon for the caulking on Fairline's of your vintage to become sticky. I found that chemicals (including Wessex and Semco) made it worse. Oddly, our seems to have stabilised since becoming sticky a few years ago.

Nowadays, I clean my old teak with washing powder and a soft Doodlebug pad.
 
I try to use the Wessex two pack infrequently since it is quite aggressive.
But I have used Wessex this year after not using anything more then gentle detergents and vinegar for maybe two years .

Semco I have used in the past . It is good but only lasts a few months.
This year I tried some high quality worktop oil on a test area but the result was disappointing and all it did was attract dirt. (To be fair the product was not sold for exterior use but in wood worktops it is brilliant.) After a few weeks the untreated areas looked better than the oiled area.
So I am going back to no coatings.

For light cleaning of teak generally I use mild diluted detergents - the sort of stuff you would use of car paintwork.
For cleaning stains and greasy marks and slightly more powerful cleaning (but a lot less powerful than Wessex) I have used white vinegar and water successfully. Presently I am trying citric acid crystals dissolved in water on some lightly weathered areas and using a soft brush . So far this seems reasonably gentle and good at removing dirt while brightening the colour of the wood. The white vinegar is the less effective and less aggressive option compared to Citric acid (and no the vinegar doesn't leave the boat smelling of vinegar).

Whatever chemicals are used I rise them off with water afterwards .
 
W
Momac said:
I try to use the Wessex two pack infrequently since it is quite aggressive.
But I have used Wessex this year after not using anything more then gentle detergents and vinegar for maybe two years .

Semco I have used in the past . It is good but only lasts a few months.
This year I tried some high quality worktop oil on a test area but the result was disappointing and all it did was attract dirt. (To be fair the product was not sold for exterior use but in wood worktops it is brilliant.) After a few weeks the untreated areas looked better than the oiled area.
So I am going back to no coatings.

For light cleaning of teak generally I use mild diluted detergents - the sort of stuff you would use of car paintwork.
For cleaning stains and greasy marks and slightly more powerful cleaning (but a lot less powerful than Wessex) I have used white vinegar and water successfully. Presently I am trying citric acid crystals dissolved in water on some lightly weathered areas and using a soft brush . So far this seems reasonably gentle and good at removing dirt while brightening the colour of the wood. The white vinegar is the less effective and less aggressive option compared to Citric acid (and no the vinegar doesn't leave the boat smelling of vinegar).

Whatever chemicals are used I rise them off with water afterwards .
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What dilution do you use for vinegar?
 
petem said:
What dilution do you use for vinegar?
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Nothing too scientific.
Clean with water and maybe detergent first . Then on the still damp teak target areas needing stains removed with vinegar direct from the bottle. and bush with a soft wet brush .
Or any dark stains leave vinegar on to work on removing the stain. Better to apply too little than too much and repeat treatments may well be required.
I am not applying loads of vinegar just small amounts and not trying to deal with large areas at one time .
 
Momac said:
Nothing too scientific.
Clean with water and maybe detergent first . Then on the still damp teak target areas needing stains removed with vinegar direct from the bottle. and bush with a soft wet brush .
Or any dark stains leave vinegar on to work on removing the stain. Better to apply too little than too much and repeat treatments may well be required.
I am not applying loads of vinegar just small amounts and not trying to deal with large areas at one time .
Click to expand...
Thanks.

Your technique sounds very similar to mine, which came from this video...

 
I used antifreeze last year, since the ethylene glycol ought to have antifungal/moss/lichen effects, and I couldn't find anything else for sale to punters in the UK that seemed likely to be effective.

Wont know how its held up until I get back to the boat, but it will have washed off fairly quickly where I didn't have a cover on it
 
Having had teak decks on a previous boat I swore that we would never have teak again. Then we got the Hardy, which all have teak decks, and virtually every horizontal outside surface is teak!

When we bought it the previous owner had used a sealer, Semco I think, and the decks looked almost yellow and were, quite frankly, hideous. Now we simply do a very light fresh or salt water scrub with a fairy soft bristle brush to avoid causing ridging and that is it.The silver look is consistent and we don’t have the inevitable fade during the season that you get when using a sealer. I keep thinking that maybe an annual clean with something like the Wessex stuff might be in order but so far a bit of diluted Patio Magic has done the job as far as getting rid of any green mould is concerned.

Here she is mid-winter - there is a bit of frost on some of the teak but not all

IMG_1540.jpeg
 
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