Teak (sp?) Wood Deck

CSL Enterprises

New Member
Has anyone ever heard of this kind of wood? I probably didn't spell it right, so that goes to show you how much I know about it. This deck is at a pretty prestigious country club in my area, and I have been asked to clean it, and seal it, but I'm not going to do anything to it unless i find out a little bit more about this type of wood, and if anyone has cleaned it before. Any information would be greatly appreciated, I don't want to get in over my head.

Thanks,
Chris

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TCross

New Member
It is pretty rare to come across a teak deck, however it might be Ironwood which is another wood that is imported from South America. Regardless these woods can be cleaned and treated. These woods are very dense and have a very high natural oil content.They offer great natural resistance to the elements without treatment, however they like any other wood have very little protection from the sun. In return they get grey and ugly the same way most decking lumber gets. If no finish has been applied to the deck I would suggest the application of a percarbonate based detergent, then a light pressure wash. If the deck has railings and spindles, my bet is that these are not the same type of wood, but they could be. Once the decking is cleaned it needs to be sprayed with an oxalic acid solution. This will brighten the deck incredibly on these types of wood. Thats the easy part. Because these types of wood have such a high oil content in them naturally and are so dense the penetraion of a good preservative is hard. The use of a film forming pruduct is not recomended because of the high oil content and the fact hat the finish will crack, blister and peel.What we have found that works for us is a penetrating oil base preservative (TWP) I am sure that Ready Seal would work as well, the trick is to thin the oil based preserative down with mineral spirits to help with penetraton. we normaly add 1 gallon of mineral spirits to 4 gallons of product. Now even with all of this these types of wood might require more maintenance. We apply a maintenece coat to all imported/hardwood decks annually to maintain a great appearance. I hope this helps. If you still have more questons, give me a call. 262-251-1737
 

Tunatussle

New Member
Originally posted by TCross:
It is pretty rare to come across a teak deck, however it might be Ironwood which is another wood that is imported from South America. Regardless these woods can be cleaned and treated. These woods are very dense and have a very high natural oil content.They offer great natural resistance to the elements without treatment, however they like any other wood have very little protection from the sun. In return they get grey and ugly the same way most decking lumber gets. If no finish has been applied to the deck I would suggest the application of a percarbonate based detergent, then a light pressure wash. If the deck has railings and spindles, my bet is that these are not the same type of wood, but they could be. Once the decking is cleaned it needs to be sprayed with an oxalic acid solution. This will brighten the deck incredibly on these types of wood. Thats the easy part. Because these types of wood have such a high oil content in them naturally and are so dense the penetraion of a good preservative is hard. The use of a film forming pruduct is not recomended because of the high oil content and the fact hat the finish will crack, blister and peel.What we have found that works for us is a penetrating oil base preservative (TWP) I am sure that Ready Seal would work as well, the trick is to thin the oil based preserative down with mineral spirits to help with penetraton. we normaly add 1 gallon of mineral spirits to 4 gallons of product. Now even with all of this these types of wood might require more maintenance. We apply a maintenece coat to all imported/hardwood decks annually to maintain a great appearance. I hope this helps. If you still have more questons, give me a call. 262-251-1737

Teak is used in the marine industry for a
number of boat parts. Check with a marine
dealer for the proper cleaning chems and
how to oil it. It requires a cleaner
a neutralizer and an oil be applied, one
of the oils is Amazon Teak Oil.
 

Walt Edwards

New Member
I agree with tunatussele. I had teak wood on the rear deck of my ski boat. Used the amazon teak oil and it look great. I just recently used the teak oil, so I'm not sure what kind of UV protection it will provided if any. Hope this helps, Have a great year, Walt
 

TCross

New Member
When I first got into the wood restoration field my company name was Teak Works. I cleaned, sanded and maintained teak on yachts, boats, etc. Well that quickly led to decks, fences, cedar roofs and log homes. With offices in two states and the experience of restoring and treating over 3000 wood decks in the last 10 years I can honestly say that the application of an teak oil is not the best choice for this deck. While teak oil will protect the wood it will not give it the U.V. protection it needs. Thes oils are fine on swim platforms of boats, but that is as far as I would go with it. In My original post I mentioned that that I doubt the deck is actually teak, but another wood from South America that is vey similar. If your client wants to maintain the natural beauty of the teak or other exotic wood I again would suggest a penetrating oil based preservaive that is thinned and has a pigment to give it the U.V. protection it needs. Some varnish like marine finishes might work well on the deck, but, will make maintenance impossible. I am just trying to steer you in the right direction from my experience. Again if you have any questions, please give me a call.262-251-1737. Tim Cross
 

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