Teak Preparation - or how to turn grey to gold

[vhoisington]

OK - without the discussion on grey vs finished teak (I go with admiral's preference), I have some questions for the group.
My PO decided he was not a fan of keeping teak finished so he PAID to have someone strip the teak bare and let it go grey. Now the boat is a 40 year old Islander Freeport with a teak cap rail around the gunnel and a few teak trim grab rails, not a lot but enough that I've been wondering the best way to PREP the wood before we go back to a stained finished look on the teak (Admirals choice!!).
This past weekend, I picked up a little Ryobi power washer at HD, only 1600 lbs pressure but did a nice job on the deck. As I was cleaning the deck I accidentally hit some of the cap rail with the high pressure stream and noticed that the grey was cleaned off and the natural wood was showing through. Once dried, it looked as if all I needed to do was hit it with a little 220 grit sandpaper and it would be ready for stain and varnish.
I've read all of the descriptions of how to clean teak, lots of 2 part cleaners, acid washes, etc., all which require a lot of scrubbing and hand work. In the past I've sanded teak to get rid of the grey as well, and its also a lot of work. Tell me I've made a major mistake by thinking a power washer with a moderate stream (not a pencil stream - don't want to damage the wood) will do the work of the acid washer and then allow me to go straight to a light sanding and final finish?
Can life be that simple??

 

[Ted]

You can bring back the natural color of your teak but there's a very real chance that you will damage the teak with a power washer. The wood does not have a uniform consistancy like man made synthetic products. The pressure washer will blow away the softer areas making the surface grain very pronounced. If you sand it to make it smooth again, you will be removing a good amount of wood. I would recommend that you use a chemical cleaner and then a brightener with a soft brush. Stiff brushes will have the same damaging effects as a power washer.

 

[jon hansen]

never ever ever ever use a power washer on boat teak, never ever. never ever ever ever scrub boat teak with the grain. mild soap, gentle scrub across grain only. got it. now you know!


if you walk on it leave it natural if you dont walk on it varnish it.

so easy to understand

 

[jon hansen]

fun fact: beer does not stain teak

 

[Gunni]

I love these scenarios, "honey I would like the teak to look like furniture, please". "Sure babe, I will spend the next 40 days, and 40 nights making it so!"

Suggestion: Give her the job. If she sticks with it to completion fly her to Cabo and treat her like the warrior princess she is. If she quits on the project she will know you are the wise Paterfamilia of her dreams. There is no downside.

One more: There are no short cuts to glossy golden teak, it is hard freaking work with lots of sand paper. Keep the pressure washer back at the barn.

 

[Stu Jackson]

teak cleaner
teak brightener

That's why they make this stuff.

Read a catalog, like WM or Defender.

Then give her the work, the guys are right.

 

[Dalliance]

As the others said, no, no, no to power washing teak. It will erode the soft part of the grain in a flash. Start with a two part cleaner and brightener. It will get rid of the gray and minimize sanding, so you keep more of your teak. Be patient and let the chemicals do the work. It's really a minimal amount of gentle agitation with a soft paint brush (not a scrub brush) and a lot of rinsing. Then a minimal amount of sanding to flatten any raised grain, and you are ready to apply your finish.

Which finish product to use is a whole other discussion.

 

[jon hansen]

i would never ever use the two part acid stuff on my teak. way to invasive for me. bad for the environment to boot. there are alot of cheap, fast products out here, dont get duped into short cuts that in the long run are harmful to the wood. teak is expensive. be gentle with it. it will last a life time

 

[Chris Patterson]

50% ammonia, 50% water.

 

[Ron20324]

A dishwasher gel was suggested to me as the first cleaner. Works great. Then the brightener.

 

[DougM]

Salt water and brush across the grain, rinse, repeat, and forget the varnish unless you keep the boat indoors, climate controlled, out of the elements until you have about 8 coats on the wood. Then don't use the boat for fear that you might mar the finish.
(yeah, I woke up,grumpy this morning...)

 

[jon hansen]

eight coats are not nearly enough doug

 

[pateco]

eight coats are not nearly enough doug

Teak bench seats and console on my first Boston Whaler took 14 coats, and she was then kept indoors when not being used. Boy did they look good though. Smooth as Glass.

Teak on my current boat is raw and gray. The admiral keeps bugging me, but I keep avoiding this work.

 

[Gene Neill]

I love these scenarios, "honey I would like the teak to look like furniture, please". "Sure babe, I will spend the next 40 days, and 40 nights making it so!"

Suggestion: Give her the job. If she sticks with it to completion fly her to Cabo and treat her like the warrior princess she is. If she quits on the project she will know you are the wise Paterfamilia of her dreams. There is no downside.

One more: There are no short cuts to glossy golden teak, it is hard freaking work with lots of sand paper. Keep the pressure washer back at the barn.

OR ... just slop some Cetol Natural on it, and get the best of both worlds.

Escape from slavery, despoil the booty. It's a classic win-win.

 

[jssailem]

but I keep avoiding this work.

Work Avoidance.. Good plan for a skipper..

 

[pateco]

Work Avoidance.. Good plan for a skipper..

I would rather sail than refinish on deck teak bits. You have to have priorities. LOL

 

[NotCook]

and it would be ready for stain and varnish.

V, no "stain" is needed on teak. It you want to see what it will look like when varnished, just liberally moisten a cloth with mineral spirits and wipe it on your newly cleaned and sanded teak. You'll need to do this anyway to remove the dust prior to varnishing. While it is still wet with the mineral spirits it will show the color that the varnish will bring out. Below is a photo of our in-process teak. To the right you see the old finish, before cleaning and sanding (grey), then a strip of sanded but not yet varnished teak, then most of the picture is of the newly varnished teak, with just the first two coats on it. There will probably be 5-6 more coats before we are finished, but the varnishing is the easy part. Getting it to the point it can be varnished is the time consuming part, but it is the critical part!

 

[MattObjects]

Our boat has loads of teak. My wife also wanted to get it all polished up while I had other repair priorities. I suggested she take on that job and, after some initial hesitation, she went to it with a passion. In fact, she got so into the flow of hand-sanding and refinishing the teak that when she was done, she got to work scraping the bottom. That was just the beginning. It turned out she really wanted to help with boat repairs but was afraid she'd mess something up. Getting the teak refinished gave her a tremendous confidence boost. She now does just as much work on the boat as I do and has other sailors in the yard asking her for advice on their projects. My point is, empowering your wife to help with the work may be as beneficial to her as it is to you.

As for how it should be done, skip the pressure washer. Unless your teak is in really gnarly shape, you shouldn't need chemicals either- just a light hand sanding. Then your finish of choice. I highly recommend Cetol Light, which blocks UV rays from damaging the wood but is mostly translucent, adding just a faint amber hue to your teak. Don't overcoat- 2-3 coats are plenty. Then when it starts to wear through and you can see bare wood, lightly sand and apply a new coat. It results in a satin rather than gloss finish but who needs more glare on a sailboat anyway? If you really need your teak to be blindingly shiny, Cetol makes a high gloss top coat you can use.

 

[Gunni]

I also use Cetol light and it is certainly the easiest way to a durable teak finish. One maintenance coat every year. A few years ago, after another coating failure (peeling) on my teak toerail I took it down and refinished with no gloss topcoat. It still has a wet satin gloss. I find that to be a much more durable and easy to care for finish for wet locations. Sikkens says that Cetol is breathable, my guess is that the gloss top coat is not breathable, which causes the finish to lift off of my oft wet toe rail, mostly during winter storage. Anyone else see this effect?

 

[MattObjects]

Sikkens says that Cetol is breathable, my guess is that the gloss top coat is not breathable, which causes the finish to lift off of my oft wet toe rail, mostly during winter storage. Anyone else see this effect?

We have seen this, though not on our boat. Part of the reason we don't use the gloss top coat. We have also seen Cetol fail to cure on surfaces that are non-porous, such as seams between pieces of teak that were filled with thickened epoxy or when applied over existing varnish.