All this Wood! How do you maintain interior wood?

[JerseyJoe]

I upgraded to a predominantly wood interior from prior more plastic liner style boats with a little wood trim in interior.

Now I would like to maintain the charming wood interior with the best in value re: ease of elbow grease to longevity of maintenance regiment.

How do you maintain your interior teak?

[model 10]

I gave up. There are a couple of areas that look nice, the rest is really old wood with varnish on it.

[Ocean Girl]

Murphys oil soap for cleaning. Be careful if you use a dehumidifier. Keep above 50% or it will dry the wood out. Tung oil can spruce things up, but it doesn't look like it needs it.
That is one beautiful boat!!!

[UNCIVILIZED]

Ocean Girl's got it right, about keeping it clean. Just that makes a BIG difference. Otherwise, I imagine that you'll notice areas where the finish starts to wear first & fastest. Which would be the sections which receive the most TLC, & fresh coats of varnish/finish the most often. Like say hand/grab rails, high use fiddles & posts. And the ladder, plus the flooring around it's base. Or the predominant area where wet foulies & donned & doffed.

If there are areas which receive a LOT of wear, & you want to keep them as pretty as everything else. You might try taking them down to bare wood. Applying several coats of epoxy, followed by several of varnish overtop of it.

There's plenty of info out there on wood care, you'll figure it out.

PS: Yeah, it is pretty. For certain.

[Freedom45]

Pledge revitalizing oil....

[oldragbaggers]

I personally have always liked a varnished interior. It's a lot of work to do it the first time but once it's done maintenance is a simple wipe down. It also protects the wood from water marks if you happen to get a drip from time to time.

This is our old Cape Dory 28. I am now looking at doing the same to a Cape Dory 33 which has a LOT more wood (much like yours) and I'll admit it's a bit overwhelming but I still think in the long run will be worth it.

Your boat really is lovely. I can just picture it with all that wood gleaming bright.

[jkleins]

I have the same type of interior and I just give it a good rub down in Liquid Gold twice a year. Doesn't seem to need much else.

Jim

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by jkleins

I have the same type of interior and I just give it a good rub down in Liquid Gold twice a year. Doesn't seem to need much else.

Jim

That after the oil soap cleaning, I did a panel in liquid gold, wife is afraid of it as our broker cautioned against oiling the wood due to mildew concerns.
I did a panel to let it sit for months to show the wife that mildew isn't a concern with the liquid gold.
Now I go out of my way to keep air circulating inside the boat and dehumidified as I think of mold like corrosion, a whole lot easier to prevent than to cure.

[Liunatic]

I am interested in this thread because my winter project is interior woodwork. Most of our interior is in great condition considering it is 30 years old. Murphy's Oil was aboard when we bought her in the spring, so I used it and am happy with it. A lot of websurfing seems to also come up with Murphy's as an answer.

My problem is going to be, as Uncivilized pointed out, high-use areas. I have no idea what the original varnish/poly is. I have some trim boards I have taken down. My plan is to sand them and do some experimental patches to see what looks like it coordinates. Any thoughts on that?

[JerseyJoe]

I am a big fan of Murphy's oil soap, so that is already in use. It's just that I have enough Cetol work on deck with annual maintenance coat, without also sanding and refinishing interior wood areas. Hoping to maintain good areas and revive the few high wear spots without making obvious patches not blended into surrounding areas not in need.

Thanks all for lovely comments on boat, but PO deserves the credit, not me. My hope is just to be able to maintain what he kept intact.

[Mutt]

I like the look of oiled teak. Once per year clean with Murphy's and then wipe with lemon oil. Lemon oil prevents drying out during winter storage and it smells good.

Mutt

[19 and counting]

We too are full of interior teak, onboard was Endust which is pretty good and smells nice. I like Murphy's for the floor and areas that are handled alot, grab rails, etc. to cut the dirt buildup. Old English makes an oil with a tint in it for bleached out areas in the wood. Will probably do Pledge as I like it at home too. I would rather maintain an oiled surface than a badly varnished interior. The PO on our boat decided to varnish out the areas around the ceiling hatches and we have big drips to sand down from that. I don't mind the wear on the stairs, etc. as it has a certain "patina" this boat has been sailed!

[ironhorserider2]

Endorse Liquid Gold twice a year. Available anywhere...takes minutes....looks great.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[Group9]

Originally Posted by Ocean Girl

Murphys oil soap for cleaning. Be careful if you use a dehumidifier. Keep above 50% or it will dry the wood out. Tung oil can spruce things up, but it doesn't look like it needs it.
That is one beautiful boat!!!

Especially, the Murphy's oil soap wipes. Very hand for spot cleaning!

[wolfesmy]

If it's not varnished. DON'T VARNISH INTERIOR TEAK. I've seen too many beautiful interiors ruined with varnish. I've even seen, if you can believe it, an entire interior done in repeat coats of Cetol. What a mess. Cetol is for exterior teak.

Use a good furniture polish with Tung and Teak Oil. There's a product called Liquid Gold that does an awesome job cleaning and rejuvenating dry teak. My wife used an entire bottle on a neglected C&C 34 and the teak looks awesome. This teak was thirsty. It takes a wipe on and hand buff annually but stays beautiful and natural.
This year couldn't find Liquid Gold so we tried Pledge Orange oil. Wow! even better than LG. creates a nice hard shine just by wiping on and lightly hand rubbing, cleans as it goes and the boat smells awesome like Oranges while you work.

Keep the teak unvarnished and replenish its natural finish.

BTW What a beautiful interior!!