Refinishing Teak Wood?

[JakeyBaby]

I am getting reading to AGAIN refinish my swim deck. I can never seem to get it to come out the way I want! It is obviousley pretty weathered being in and out of the water all the time and baking in the sun. The last time I did it, I sanded my b@%%s off, got it to where i thought looked half way decent. Then applied a ton of coats of teak oil to it. It just seemed like no matter what I did it just kept eating the oil up and looked like crap. My question is has anyone had better results refinishing there teak wood that was weathered? If so what did you do to prep it and what did you use for a finish? I have heard a bunch of things you can use, even as crazy as transmision fluid. But i want to use what will look good and last the longest!!

Thanks Matt

-Jakey Baby-

[seasquirrel]

I have an older Searay Amberjack and it has teak swim deck inserts, gunnels, and cabin teak. I love the look of teak, but I cant think of a more frustrating wood to have exposed to the elements the way our botas are. It looks horrible if left unkept and absolutely beautiful sanded and finished properly.

I sanded all mine down and used Sikkens Cetol finish on mine. 3 coats and scuff sanded in between coats. Cant tell you how many cold ones this process took. I get one season out of it looking good. It starts to flake after two seasons and now I need to do it again. I am considering replacing it with starboard next time around. I get my Sikkens from Jamestown Distributors. Power washing teak really brings the color back to prior to finishing and sanding. Be very careful because you can blow out the wood grain and make it very rough.

[Knotlost]

Everyone has a different opinion as to what is "nice".

This is one way that works well..

With that said I have found that one good coat, of an oil finnish ( like teak finish , but better is just a tong oil ) let dry really good, then give it coats of gloss spar urethane.

I noticed that they now have other sheens of it (semi gloss, satin) but I'm not convinced they will work right, as for years and years only gloss worked good ,so I'm not willing to be a ginny pig. Give it coats of the spar urethane until the grain is all covered and sealed sanding with 320 between coats.

Here is the nice part..

This will with time flake or chip with normal wear,when it dose weather. to repair it you can sand lightly the spots with 320 w/d and just touch it up with the spar and it will blend and come back extremely well.. You can go about 6 to 12 years with this method before you need to even it back out with a resanding.

[Gezijamez]

I had a 26' sea-ray I always power washed the teak and put several coats of 50% boiled linseed oil and 50% denatured alcohol, did a nice job,and lasted the season. Hard to really sand teak because of the wax, good soap in the power wash will usally bring it back..something like deck wash, I have seen them use a mix with bleach in it, not really good to use and kind of clear finish because of the wax. teak requires lot of maintinance no ez way out..just my 2 cents..TY Jim

[jimski2]

No varnish stuff, just oil and clean it regularly. Pealed varnishes are ugly.

[Legacy]

Ironically i have the same issue... I powerwash mine clean, let it dry, and then treat it with teak oil. It will never look as good as the day i do it and by then end of the season it looks terrible again. Unlike the rest of the teak in the boat, the swim platform fights the constant battle of water exposure and too much sun. A war in which wood will never win.

[nautime]

I redid the exterior teak (swim platform, gunnels, pulpit) on my AJ at the start of last season with Sikkens Cetol as well. This is the first time using this product and I am very happy with it so far. I followed the instructions and cleaned the teak with a two part teak cleaner. This gets out all the dirt and bleaches the wood nicely. Light sanding to smooth out the teak and apply 3 coats of Cetol with light sanding between coats to knock down raised fibres/grain.

Once it starts to wear, all it needs is a light sanding/scuff and apply more Cetol. You don't have to sand or strip all the old stuff off. At least that is what the label says. Time will tell.

All I know is that it is ten times better than what I used to do with teak oil. All oil does is attract dirt and turn it black.

This pic is from end of season last year.

Cheers...Jake

[JR]

I redid the exterior teak (swim platform, gunnels, pulpit) on my AJ at the start of last season with Sikkens Cetol as well. This is the first time using this product and I am very happy with it so far. I followed the instructions and cleaned the teak with a two part teak cleaner. This gets out all the dirt and bleaches the wood nicely. Light sanding to smooth out the teak and apply 3 coats of Cetol with light sanding between coats to knock down raised fibres/grain.

Once it starts to wear, all it needs is a light sanding/scuff and apply more Cetol. You don't have to sand or strip all the old stuff off. At least that is what the label says. Time will tell.

All I know is that it is ten times better than what I used to do with teak oil. All oil does is attract dirt and turn it black.

This pic is from end of season last year.

Cheers...Jake

That is what i used on my old boat and loved the stuff

[GAMBLER]

I did the same as Nautime and it looks good.

[JakeyBaby]

Can you get this in differnt shades of color? If so thats what i will try doing so it will match the rest of the wood on my boat.

[nautime]

Sikkens Cetol for marine applications comes in different types or shades. I used the natural teak last season as I wanted it to look like teak. I have heard that the regular marine finish comes out reddish in color. It can be purchased at most any place that sells marine products. West marine carries the entire line I think. I bought mine at a local hardware store that sells marine products. Easy stuff to work with.

http://www.yachtpaint.com/literaturecen ... -guide.pdf

HTH's....

Cheers..Jake

[Sk8man]

I think if it were me I'd be replacing the stuff on the platform with STARBOARD and use the present teak pieces as a template. The starboard is pretty easy to cut to shape and there is virtually no maintenance to it. Why screw around with the teak when you know the platform will be subjected to constant water and drying? I had all teak seats etc on my old Whaler and ended up using marine grade urethane on them and it held up for about 15 years or more before it started to flake. The newer stuff has UV protection stuff added to it so it may hold up even better.

[Xxx]

Nautime, that looks awsome, I have the same grid work in my swim platform and mine never looked that good, I clean it every year and it never looks that good I'm going to give your methood a shot. I have a SeaRay so there is teak wood all over and it's alot of work. Thanks for the pics. & the heads up on your methood of cleaning teak wood. PAP. From PA.