What is Teak and What is it used for?
Teak is used for making boats, furniture, and other things which require resistance to the elements. Teak is used for outdoor furniture and it’s because of its traits including strength, versatility and multiple uses, it’s more expensive than most other woods.
Teak furniture has become something of a status symbol. Since the best wood furniture made from teak comes from mature trees, it can take around 80 years before a teak tree planted today is harvested for wood. Because of this, and because teak is such an excellent wood material, old teak is often reclaimed.
Once teak makes it to the backyard of your home there are several things that you should know about teak that will help maintain and take care of your furniture so you can enjoy it for decades.
Teak furniture that is left outdoors will naturally begin to slowly change color from the golden honey tone of new wood to a silver gray. This process begins a few weeks after the wood is new. It is caused by the evaporation and oxidization of the natural oil from the wood on the exposed surface.
During this weathering, some uneven coloring and slight cracks in the wood may show up. This is a natural process that should even out over time, and is simply a result of expansion and contraction of the wood due to changes in the weather and environment. This will give your furniture a different texture to the surface making it rough.
This is why it’s so important to service your furniture every year. The expansions of the wood can over time crack the wood. By continuously sealing your teak, you protect your furniture from this process and expand the life of the furniture
IS IT TIME TO REFINISH YOUR OUTDOOR DINING SET?
Has your outdoor teak dining set seen better days? Or maybe you found a great deal on a used set of teak furniture that, unfortunately, has been neglected by the previous owner.
Whatever the case may be, restoring worn-out weathered teak furniture to its former glory is not as difficult as you think. The secret is in the wood. Teak is a naturally dense hardwood that is infused from the inside with protective oil. The graying that naturally occurs when left outside exposed to the weather is simply due to this protective oil evaporating from the outermost surface layer of the wood.
Now you may initially think that you could just replace this oil by applying a few coats of teak oil that you buy in the store. Unfortunately, that stuff isn’t actually oil from the teak tree—it’s usually a compound based on linseed oil. It will make the wood color pop for a short time, but will soon go back to gray at best, and at worst it will encourage the growth of mildew on the surface and develop black spots.
The better option, if you want to see some of the lovely golden colors that is characteristic of new teak wood is to sand down the very outer layer of the furniture to expose the fresh wood inside that still remains saturated with natural protective oil. To keep that color from fading so quickly this time around, a teak protector will do the job much better than so-called “teak oil”.
