Teak treatment

[mlthomas]

I’ve looked through some of the earlier posts on teak oil and agree that this is a personal thing whether to treat or leave to the elements. We would like to treat ours and like the golden rich colour that you get having oiled it.
We were in Bangor last year and the boat behind us (Elan 434) had wonderful treated teak however I have lost the name of the product they used.
Thought I would ask the forum for their recommendations on what they have used if you keep your teak treated?
thanks
Mark

 

[pcatterall]

Is this decks or just bits of trim and perhaps the odd hatch cover.
Lots of debate on rubbing strakes for eg. varnish gets worn and looks unsightly some advocate just rubbing over with a wood stain product,( Ronseal?) others leave alone.
I am just considering what to do with the bits on my old 'new to me' Neptunian. There are some hatch covers and hand rails, no large areas and no real slip hazard. I think It's worth the time and effort to prepare and varnish these.
I did investigate a product for my last boats teak decks ( never again!) Its more of a coating than varnish and is also quite slippy, hopefully some kind person ( without senior moments) will supply the name.
I think a lot of my teak has been heavilly scrubed making high ridges where the softer wood has been worn away.

 

[Playtime]

.
We were in Bangor last year and the boat behind us (Elan 434) had wonderful treated teak however I have lost the name of the product they used.

thanks
Mark

Was it Semco?

It is available in the UK from Onward Trading and also an agent whose address I can supply if interested.

The trick is to carefully clean and 'brighten' the teak before applying Semco. Thereafter a coat every few months (very easy to apply) keeps up the appearance.

 

[mlthomas]

Is this decks or just bits of trim and perhaps the odd hatch cover.

Looking for the cockpit, table, toe rail and great hand hold rails on the coach roof. We would hope it would all look the same. The cockpit table has been covered over winter and when I took the cover off on Friday it was as good as when it was covered in November, but the rest as faded completely

 

[mlthomas]

Was it Semco?

It is available in the UK from Onward Trading and also an agent whose address I can supply if interested.

The trick is to carefully clean and 'brighten' the teak before applying Semco. Thereafter a coat every few months (very easy to apply) keeps up the appearance.

Could well have been, there were quite a few of the boats in the marina that were clearly using the same product including a T50 and Squadron, looked good what ever it was.

 

[mlthomas]

Was it Semco?

It is available in the UK from Onward Trading and also an agent whose address I can supply if interested.

The trick is to carefully clean and 'brighten' the teak before applying Semco. Thereafter a coat every few months (very easy to apply) keeps up the appearance.

This looks like the product we are looking for - many thanks

mark

 

[mlthomas]

Was it Semco?

It is available in the UK from Onward Trading and also an agent whose address I can supply if interested.

The trick is to carefully clean and 'brighten' the teak before applying Semco. Thereafter a coat every few months (very easy to apply) keeps up the appearance.

Hi Playtime (all)
Contacted Onward Trading and ordered up a kit (cleaner, neutraliser, semco) which came next working day and have had three hard days following the instructions and wow, what a result.
I would have posted the picks but I left the camera lead on the boat. I'll get round to posting it on the website too.
It is definitely the look we wanted.
Thanks

 

[mlthomas]

Finally remembered the camera lead. Here is the result of using Semco.
Here is the teak before starting

And another one

And this is the result afterwards

All finished

 

[KellysEye]

Most (possibly all) teak oil sold in chandlers has linseed oil in it. After a few years the linseed oil turns the teak black. The manufacturers should be sued for mislabelling it. Use only pure teak oil which is relatively expensive but worth the money.

 

[BrianH]

Most (possibly all) teak oil sold in chandlers has linseed oil in it. After a few years the linseed oil turns the teak black. The manufacturers should be sued for mislabelling it. Use only pure teak oil which is relatively expensive but worth the money.

The better quality oil for teak is tung oil, which does not darken so much and is more expensive than linseed oil - whatever is used is rarely specified on the contents list.

Teak oil labelling is a minefield of obfuscation, with manufacturers thinking they have to have a unique selling point in a highly competitive market but not willing to reveal what they make their propriety product of. Consequently one can buy, as I have done, a "pure teak oil" that contained a hardening varnish, which is exactly what I didn't want.

I'm now going to try Semco, which has been lauded in various threads on ybw forums.

 

[angelsson]

I’ve looked through some of the earlier posts on teak oil and agree that this is a personal thing whether to treat or leave to the elements. We would like to treat ours and like the golden rich colour that you get having oiled it.
We were in Bangor last year and the boat behind us (Elan 434) had wonderful treated teak however I have lost the name of the product they used.
Thought I would ask the forum for their recommendations on what they have used if you keep your teak treated?
thanks
Mark

I have found this an excellent product, use nothing harsher than a sponge.

 

[mlthomas]

I have found this an excellent product, use nothing harsher than a sponge.

And the sponge keeps the deep rich golden colour, fab, its better than the one we use - what is it?

 

[youen]

semco

Do you think Semco is better than the others (Starbright teak cleaner,oxalic acid...)to get rid off black stains that I think are due to teak oil applied before.

 

[Playtime]

Do you think Semco is better than the others (Starbright teak cleaner,oxalic acid...)to get rid off black stains that I think are due to teak oil applied before.

The best (and probably cheapest) teak cleaners I have come across are marketed by Wessex Chemicals. The cleaner (Part 1) is sodium hydroxide and the renovator is hydrochloric acid.

Part 1 is particularly harsh so not to be used too often. The amount of gunge it removes is quite amazing.

Once the teak is clean, then apply the Semco. Natural is the most popular colour, although even that has a slight orange/yellow tinge (but much better than 'grey' IMHO).

 

[LeonF]

In the past I occasionally used a weak solution of oxalic acid which brought up the decks a treat, and International Teak brightener, found in a remnants bin, also with oxalic acid which did the same, but it never lasted, and the green bits still reappeared. On a pontoon over the winter, I went down to find half of the deck a lovely golden brown. The boat next to me had jet washed the barnacles off his dinghy, smothered my boat in the gunge, and feeling guilty jet washed it. Now I know the accepted practice is never ever jet wash teak, but as far as I know in it's 15 year life it has never been jetwashed, so I did the other half with amazing results. I then gave it two coats of Polycell 3 in One Mould cleaner, and all the nooks and crannies I couldn't get to cleaned up overnight. It still looks great, a warm honey colour. I bought the Polycell via Amazon, cheap if you order several bottles and pay a single postage charge, though it actually works out at a similar price to Boracol.

 

[bluedragon]

I've been quite impressed with Starbright Teak Cleaner as means of cleaning / brightening the decks, better than an oxalic acid mix I made-up. Some light scrubbing is needed in any case. There are some areas though that have stubborn black/dark-grey spots, which might be the remains of a previous oiling or sealing. Need to work further on this before its Boracol treatment to keep it looking good. I also have wondered whether a controlled low pressure jet clean once in a wile might actually do less damage than chemical cleaning / brushing?

 

[mlthomas]

Do you think Semco is better than the others (Starbright teak cleaner,oxalic acid...)to get rid off black stains that I think are due to teak oil applied before.

We tried the A glaze last year before applying the teak oil, it seemed to work OK but this time we got everything in one go and yes it worked well. we were very pleased with the teak oil when we put it on but not when it went black!
The cleaning agent and neutraliser were OnWard trading products, no doubt basically the same as the A glaze (two part system). There has been a couple of posts about using oxalic acid to do the stripping of the oxidisation (and potentially cleaning) however there doesn't seem to be ea second part on neutralising the now acidic surface before applying the oil, I;m not a chemist and its a long time since I did anything with a ph value - perhaps a knowledgeable chemist could add whether this is a step that would add value or not?
I'll pop a post up after the summer to let everyone know how it has faired up over the year. One week on and it still looks good (if you like your teak this colour) - and there is no science to that

 

[FWB]

I use Brintons Patio Magic, available from most garden centres, or Deck and Fence Magic avail online. Acres of teak on my boat.
Just mix it 1:4 with water, apply with a watering can or spray and leave it. You will see the result after a few days and it will keep teak clean for over a year. 2 years on patios !

 

[Andrew_Fanner]

I'm a fan of the Teak Wonder set of three products sold by Compass. It deals with residual bird poo stains and comes up a lovely golden brown. I do leave the brightener on overnight if I can. I have two rubbing strake "wings" and the one I did not do last weekend is now very obviously in need of attention.

 

[bluedragon]

I use Brintons Patio Magic, available from most garden centres, or Deck and Fence Magic avail online. Acres of teak on my boat.
Just mix it 1:4 with water, apply with a watering can or spray and leave it. You will see the result after a few days and it will keep teak clean for over a year. 2 years on patios !

I use this at home on decking. It's not a brightener as such, but it deals well with black mould and algae. I've got some on the boat as part of the "teak" package to be used as an early stage in the post-winter clean. Not sure how it would work as a final treatment vs. Boracol, but I might well give it a go here as well.