|
How should your teak furniture look?
If you want the teak to patinate to a silver grey colour you need not do anything. Sun and rain will gradually give your teak furniture the desired silver grey surface all by itself. Teak can easily stand to remain untreated for many years. The natural oil of the wood sees to it that it will not be broken down. Due to pollution from the air we advise you to clean the wood with teak cleaner. Use an ordinary brush or pot scourer – do not use a steel brush as the steel brush will leave steel remnants in the wood which will then rust.
If you want to keep or recreate the golden, warm glow, you need to treat the wood with teak oil.
Remember a thorough cleaning before oiling
The thorough cleaning with teak wood cleaner before oiling is important. If the wood rises a little bit after cleaning, you can easily polish it lightly with fine sandpaper.
The easiest way to do the cleaning is by washing the wood longitudinally with a scrubbing brush, fibre sponge or the like depending on the state of the wood. It is important that you clean the wood thoroughly. Moisten the wood well in advance as the surface is softer and thus easier to clean when the wood has been moist for some time.
In very bad cases it may be necessary to polish with sandpaper when the furniture is dry. When the furniture has been cleaned, you rinse it with fresh water. When the wood again is entirely dry, you can after-treat it with teak oil.
Remember to retighten
For all wood furniture it applies that it has to be retightened regularly. Please be aware of the fact that the guarantee does not cover lack of maintenance and after-treatment.
|
|
Winter storage
Never store your wood garden furniture in a dry and warm place. On the contrary, the perfect storage place is a garage or carport where the furniture can be left drily and still get some ventilation.
If you want to cover your teak furniture, please be sure that your teak furniture is quite dry before you cover it as otherwise it will rot and get dry rot.
Wind scratching and obliquity
Wood is a natural product that never ceases working. Also after preparation. This means that the furniture reacts to changing weather conditions whereby cracks – also called wind scratchings - may arise as well as obliquities as there is always stress in natural materials such as wood.
Mould and dry rot
Even if you treat your teak furniture with oil regularly, mould and dry rot may arise. This usually shows in the way that certain parts of the furniture get dark and in some cases almost black. Good advice against mould and dry rot is:
-
Wash the furniture thoroughly with wood cleaner, follow the instructions on the packing. If it does not help the first time, repeat the procedure.
-
If the furniture is still dark after you have tried the above procedure, try with strong liquid chlorine solution. Wash the attacked places with the chlorine solution and rinse carefully with water. Remember to use gloves!
-
If the chlorine treatment does not work according to purpose, the only thing left to do is sandpaper and manual labour. The attacked places are polished until you reach fresh wood.
After treatment against mould and dry rot it is always a good idea to treat the furniture with oil again.
Mildew
Is a harmless kind of fungus appearing in form of dry, white dust on certain parts of the furniture. Most often on the thickest parts. You can easily wipe off the mildew with a cloth or a brush. After-treatment is normally not necessary but some oil will do no harm.
|
