Teak cleanup

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chc

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After two years of letting our Californian's caprail stay natural grey, the admiral has decided that it is time to spiff it up & adopt the varnished look. I'm thinking Cetol light with gloss overcoat. My question regards the prep. Sand it all down; powerwash it; or use a cleaner/brightner; and if so, what seems to be the best one to use. Rail is currently a light weathered gray, not all that grubby.
thanks for the input.
 
I haven't used Cetol, but a lot of people on here swear by it. My comment is definitely DO NOT pressure wash your teak. When that's done it washes out a lot of what I call pulp. for lack of a better term. It takes out a lot of the wood fiber. Then it takes a lot of time for the teak to swell back to replace it if that's what it does, and requires a lot of sanding. Use a good name brand teak cleaner and brightener with a brush and elbow grease. Someone on here probably knows a better and cheaper generic teak cleaner and I'm watching to learn their secret too.
 
That is what I thought as well; the idea came from a professional yard worker. My experience has been that does remove a good bit of the soft grain, unless you go very lightly with minimum pressure. I threw the thought out here to get some of the expertise that is usually available. thanks for commenting
 
Try cleaning it with the 2 part teak cleaner, its a messy job but the teak will clean up the best and you can go from there.
 
A note about power washing wood:

Head out to your favorite "big box lumber etc" store. Look at the "textured plywood". One of those textures is produced by pressure washing the wood. The high pressure water removes the softwood, leaving only the darker, harder areas ( rings ). Unless you are looking for texture, do not pressure wash, as stated above by dancerscap.
 
Thanks all; Used 60 grit, 80 grit, 120 grit combined with lots of hot elbow grease; first coat came out well. Looks like a different boat.
 
When I did have teak on board; I used 50/50 ammonia & water to clean with fairly stiff brush. Did as good a job as pricier commercial products in my opinion. Cheap enuff trial.
 
The 2 part cleaners are simply Oxalic acid (part 1) and then vinegar (part 2) or variations on these.

You can get oxalic acid directly from some drug stores, mix the powder with hot water and then scrub it into the wood. It will darken considerably. Wash off the powder, then rinse with vinegar (which neutralizes the oxalic acid). It will look like new!

PS. Some painted surfaces are very susceptible to staining from oxalic acid / teak cleaners so be careful.
 
Oxalic acid is also called wood bleach so it shouldn't darken the wood but as the nick name implies, lighten it. Just be sure to use it with hot water. You could try cleaning with that first. Or a bleach and water mix.

If you need to use a two part cleaner here is my home made teak cleaner recipe:

Part 1 or A

To a 3-5 gallon bucket of water add 1 cup TSP powder and 1 cup ammonia, mix well.

Use as you would the commercial part 1 or A.
Keep wet and do not rinse off after scrubbing.

Part 2 or B

To a 3-5 gallon bucket of water add 2-3 cups muratic acid. Apply as you would the commercial part 2 or B.

As you gently scrub the part 2 around be sure you get it into all the areas covered with the part 1 so it can react with the part 1 and cause the teak to go blond. Keep all surfaces wet while doing this. Try to keep it off of anodized aluminum and painted surfaces that are not painted with a 2 part ploy paint just as you should with the commercial 2 part products. And rinse everything very well after all the teak goes blond.

Eye, hand and feet protection should be worn just as with the commercial products.

You can make the 2 parts as strong as you like. And the cost is 10% or less than the cost of the commercial products.

Just keep in mind that scrubbing with a two part teak cleaner and a stiff brush is almost as or as aggressive as using a power washer. Try using med. coarse scuffy pads to clean with. They tend not to dig out the soft pith in the grain of the wood. No matter what you'll have to sand it all down after cleaning.

The key to a good teak refinishing job is to clean and sand the teak properly. There are no short cuts with prep.
 
Using the ammonia & water combo never required me to sand teak for the 6 years I owned boat. Usually neglect and harsh cleaners caused the grain to rise requiring sanding to smooth surface.
 
If you say so.

But water alone does cause wood grain to swell. And if you use a stiff brush, you are assuredly digging out pith. There is no way around it.

One of the cardinal sins of teak deck maintenance is using a stuff brush to scrub with.
 
If you uses a brush, always use it against the grain.

I use a very soft brush with sudsy ammonia and it cleans and brightens it up nicely.

No need for 2 part this year so far......
 
for rails, if you need to remove the old finish start sanding with 120 or 80 if the stuff is still reallly thick and solid. then back down to 120 then 220 to finish.

I used Cetol Light with gloss in the past on my hand rails, it was ok but still had an orangy tint. there is a new Cetol natural which i havent' tried since last month i removed the cetol and went with Bristol. I really like the stuff! no sanding between coats (except before the final one), nice gloss... and you can recoat in as little as an hour or two so you can build you coats quickly, in one day if you time it right.

I did all my hand rails, aft deck door, ladder to FB as well as large teak table and 4 teak recliners. looks really good.

after sanding and before coating i treated the handrails with Snappy New teak cleaner, not sure it made a difference.

afaik, pressure washing is not a good idea on teak...

for teak deck i use Snappy New every 6 to 9 months, works well but you REALLY need to wear gloves and shoes, that stuff is nasty!
 
quote:
Originally posted by Robyns Nest

If you uses a brush, always use it against the grain.

I use a very soft brush with sudsy ammonia and it cleans and brightens it up nicely.

No need for 2 part this year so far......

Click to expand...


If you keep it clean and clean it on a regular basis you should not need to use a two part cleaner very often, if at all.
 
I forgot to mention, a very good cleaning product to use on a regular basis is powdered Tide with bleach in it. Cleans and brightens the wood very well and doesn't seem to be overly harsh on it. Like any detergent it will strip wax though. So watch where you put it.
 
We have teak decks on our Hatteras, which is the only one I have seen so-equipped. We had the decks cleaned in January 2008 for, between us and the PO, the first time in many years, with Snappy teak. Since then we just wash them down with clean salt water every so often, and even less frequently, use a very soft brush. Diluted sudsy ammonia for the occasional fuel stain or whatever. If we spend an hour a month on them, that'd be high. heavy washing, as Bill 1 notes, just serves to wear them down.

For exterior and aft deck brightwork, and interior stairs, we have been extremely pleased with Epiphanes products and would never contemplate any thing else.

George
Hatteras 56MY
Boston Whaler 130 Sport
 
Clean salt water, there's an old school trick. Works great. Gives the teak that nice silver gray finish. Cool to walk on and easy to keep clean.
 
quote:
Originally posted by praetorian

The 2 part cleaners are simply Oxalic acid (part 1) and then vinegar (part 2) or variations on these.

You can get oxalic acid directly from some drug stores, mix the powder with hot water and then scrub it into the wood. It will darken considerably. Wash off the powder, then rinse with vinegar (which neutralizes the oxalic acid). It will look like new!

PS. Some painted surfaces are very susceptible to staining from oxalic acid / teak cleaners so be careful.

Click to expand...


You can get oxalic acid at a home center as "wood bleach" or "deck cleaner". Dekswood is one brand.

I can't speak to it's use on teak on a boat, but it's great for removing the waterline scum we often get. And of course, cleaning decks on houses.
 
quote:
Originally posted by dancerscap

.......DO NOT pressure wash your teak. When that's done it washes out a lot of what I call pulp. for lack of a better term. It takes out a lot of the wood fiber. ........
Click to expand...


Agreed. A pressure washer in the wrong hands can cut concrete.

Marine stores have several different teak care systems. I have never used them but other folks here have. Take their advice. The last thing you want to do is damage the wood.
 
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