Lazy Man's Teak Treatment

[defever]

has anyone ever heard of "painting" teak w/ slow-cure epoxy? if so, how many coats? will it stand up to tropical sun? help!!

[David M]

Clear?...not very long. With pigment, a lot longer. Water is eventually going to get under the coating regardless. I painted my teak with EasyPoxy. Its nice not to have to varnish any longer and who cares what the neighbors think of my sacrilegious act.

[Not Sure]

Lazy man's teak treatment = 1 part tung oil + 1 part boiled linseed oil. Coat until the wood has a permanent 'wet' look. Repeat when needed. Epoxy traps moisture underneath the coating and in the wood, which promotes rot. Oil finishes waterproof the wood fibers while allowing moisture to exit the wood pores.

[Bloodhound]

My experience with Linseed oil is that it tends to encourage mold. Have stopped using it. I have heard that Bristol finish is pretty good but haven't used it personally (yet). I would not recomment Teak Guard -- it leaves the teak mottled and ugly after a rain but returns to okay when it dries out. The manufacturer did not respond to emails concerning remedies. I'm in the process of removing it and will be trying Bristol finish. The teak deck will get a regular cleaning with Tilex and a very soft brush - otherwise au naturel.

[Ocean Girl]

There is no such thing as a lazy mans teak treatment. Have you tried silvering it out? as in - no treatment at all? Clean the teak, sand it smooth, then let it silver. You clean the teak whenever you clean the fiberglass (be sure to use scotchbrite pads NOT bristle brushes which will dig out the soft grain). I like Murphy's oil soap because it works well on wood, fiberglass, lexan etc. . If you have access to salt water, salt the teak down once in a while. Easy and no messy treatments.

Erika

PS there is silver and then there is grey. If the teak is dingy grey then it is time to give it a good scrub down with "Tide with bleach" and a scotchbrite pad.

[Wotname]

I'm with OG here in regard to the no treatment - let it silver. I have found the absolute best way to keep teak clean is salt water washing over it occasionally while under way. Not too much wave action over it as that means the weather is a little rough but just the occasional wave and when it dries and when the sun is at the right angles to reflect off the salt crystals and the ocean is a deep deep blue, the effect is nourishment for the soul.

[svHyLyte]

See Bristol Finish Marine Exterior

[Not Sure]

Originally Posted by Ocean Girl

There is no such thing as a lazy mans teak treatment. Have you tried silvering it out? as in - no treatment at all? Clean the teak, sand it smooth, then let it silver. You clean the teak whenever you clean the fiberglass (be sure to use scotchbrite pads NOT bristle brushes which will dig out the soft grain). I like Murphy's oil soap because it works well on wood, fiberglass, lexan etc. . If you have access to salt water, salt the teak down once in a while. Easy and no messy treatments.

Erika

PS there is silver and then there is grey. If the teak is dingy grey then it is time to give it a good scrub down with "Tide with bleach" and a scotchbrite pad.

Teak is such a beautiful wood, doing nothing to it should be a crime. Besides, the natural oils leach out of teak if it is not periodically recoated with oil of some type, which is why you see unfinished teak with huge fissures in it.

If one is 'doing nothing' to their wood then they shouldn't be using real wood at all, they should switch to something like Trex decking, i.e. artificial wood. 'Bristol Finish' is simply a polyurethane, or plastic coating. Same problem as varnish and epoxy...once the protective outer coating is compromised -- and it will be compromised -- the moisture gets trapped under the coating and promotes rot.

Not linseed oil by itself....(although that is fine for certain applications) ....but teak seems to like the tung oil/linseed oil mix. It makes a really nice wet look on teak, and turns teak a beautiful brown color. Try it....just slap on multiple coats, no need to be neat, and wipe off the drips. It ain't a church.

[defever]

doing nothing ( or silvering) my teak is not an option---seen it before on a trawler and it looks awful. i used bristol 2 yrs ago and had a terrible experience---took 2 mos. of work (my boat has ALOT of brightwork), 6 days/wk. ...scraped the old stuff off, sanded w/ 120 then 220 grit, put on 6-7 coats of bristol and it looked beautiful 2 mos later, however, it started to come off. put on 3 more coats and 2 mos later same thing. now it looks terrible and the next time i'll keep the rails/doors/eyebrows and a few more pieces treated w/ cetol natural teak (had great luck w/ cetol for 10 yrs) and awlgrip the rest. DON'T START you purists---you don't have 1/2 the brightwork i do...

[Bloodhound]

There may be a little confusion here. I interpretted the recomendation to allow teak to silver as applying to a teak deck, not brightwork. I couldn't agree more with Defever--silvered brightwork looks like crap, but a silvered deck looks quite nice. Any idea what caused the Bristol Finish to come off (I assume you mean chip and peel)? Everyone seems to have a bad experience with one or another finish while others rave about how wonderful it is. Is the lesson not to try several finishes on various parts of the boat, find out what works in your environment and on your boat, then go back and redo the trial pieces and finish all the brightwork with the most successful product? Sounds like a lot of work, but not nearly as much work as continually removing not-so-old-but-crappy finishes from all the brightwork for each iteration.

[avazquez]

I like Semco Cleartone on the decks, Cetol for exterior trims, and Epifanes Brushed Efect Varnish over epoxy for interior wood including soles.

[defever]

bloodhound...our decks are silver (after a nice salt water scrubbing especially). when i had a tech guy from bristol on board, he mentioned "gravity"????? short of catching a ride on the space shuttle, i guess we're all doomed with bristol. he seemed to imply that the product flowed down to the bottom edges of the rails, etc. because of gravity and was therefor thinner at the top. THAT'S when i knew i'd been had. the stuff doesn't chip off as much as get little yellowish spots all over that look awful. i'm going back to ceol natural teak! it's easier to apply and lasts a heckuva lot longer.

[stevensc]

I was planning on redoing my teak in epiphanes varnish till I read the fine print:
1 coat thinned 50%,
another coat thinned 25%,
another coat thinned 10-15%.
then 6 coats uncut,
recommend 6 more coats for tropical caonditions
All of the above @24hrs between coats
Do not apply in direct sunlight
do not aplly when hot
do not apply in high humidity.
I am sure this does a beautiful job, but with the weather we get around here (south Louisiana) it would probably take me 6 months to get all those coats done.
I'm stripping the varnish with a heat gun scaping and sanding then applying Cetol Natural, 3 coats, maybe not as shiny but I'll be able to spend more time out on the water.
Steve

[Bloodhound]

I use teak oil for pretty much all the inside brightwork but have never considered it for outside use. If tung/linseed works, would teak's own natural oil (teak oil) not work as well? I'm trying to avoid having to manually strip off old finish every 6 to 12 months before applying new finish to keep everything looking good. And I don't want to build up layer after layer after layer which eventually will all have to come off. There's a lot of teak on a Westsail and I'd rather not spend huge amounts of time refinishing. The PO painted a lot of the brightwork over a coat of varnish, thinking the finish would last longer and need less attention, but that's just not the case. Paint is chipping and it's time for it all to come off. Besides, why hide all that wood under paint when the paint doesn't stand up either. Oiled finishes always look good, but will the oil not oxidize and allow the teak to silver again?

[Pblais]

There is teak and there is real teak. Real teak only comes from Asia and is not commercially grown. You know it's Asian Teak because light sand paper turns the wood bright red. Then there is modern teak often called Honey Teak and is commercially grown. It's a cousin to real teak. It only has 1/3 the natural teak oil of Asian Teak. Asian teak weathers silver and remains quite stable for many years. A daily salt water wash down with a soft brush is all it actually requires. leaving Honey teak exposed and untreated it does not last as long. Some type of treatment is a good idea.

For a lazy man solution I use Teaqua. It's a water based application and it dries very quickly and is good to go in 24 hours. You just tape up the work, use a good brush to reduce dripping and apply it. For a good job it helps to get the wood clean first. I can do two coats by starting at one end and going along twice. Once taped up I can do the whole exterior with two coats in two hours. I need about 3 coats per year.

It's easy to clean up with soap and water. Spills quickly tended to can be wiped clean with a wet cloth. It's a matte finish that repels water. It's not a high glossy high maintenance finish. My taft rail is two levels with 18 spindles. Striping the old Cetol was a 40 hour ordeal for just the rails and spindles. Anything you put on will eventually need to come off. As with all things applied with a brush preparation and weather are everything. The harder the finish the harder it is to come off.

The best gloss finish I've ever seen is from Alwbrite (the Awlgrip folks). It's a three part system and if maintained looks very very nice and is very durable for folks that actually use the boat a lot and what the high gloss look. An absolute nightmare to totally remove and a bit expensive. The directions can appear complex but it can be maintained a very very long time if diligent.