Teak restoration with Teak Guard

[slvrlng]

After only a year of using regular old teak oil and having to replenish the exposed wood every 3 months I finally listened to Capt Bob and ordered some Teak Guard from All Guard Products out of Hamilton Ohio. I received it last Thursday and started work on Friday.

They have very specific instructions on preparation and application that you must follow or the material will fail. They promise 1 year of no chip, peel, or fade and having to reapply only when needed. It is a water based product so I think this is the main reason for having to follow their directions implicitly!

I ordered the small kit off their website which consists of the Teak Guard, a small bottle of the cleaner, a couple of brushes, 3 pads of bronze wool, and some foam brushes.

This is what the rodholders looked like after just two months of rain and sun. (Still working on the barn so I can get it under cover and out of the elements)





The bottle of cleaner



The first step is to wetsand the weathered finish, yes, wetsand! You can dry sand it if it is really gone to make it a little faster, but you will still need to wetsand it afterwards. This is part of using a water based product. When you drysand teak it has a "resin" in the wood that is a type of wax. As you drysand the surface you grind this wax up out of the grain and then smash it back down into the grain in the form of a paste of resin and powdered wood. The only way to get this out is wetsanding.

After wetsanding while the wood is still damp





Once you get done wetsanding spray the wood with the cleaner and brush the surface with the brushes supplied in the kit. This stuff loosens the resin and wax you have exposed by sanding and allows it to be brushed off the surface and out of the grain. Then you rinse with water. Allow to dry.



Then I poured some of the coating in a plastic dish and using the foam brushes started painting the teak. In the instructions they say to use light coats and they really mean it! If you put too much on it will bead up on the surface. I did this a few times and found that I had entirely too much in the brush. I fixed this by squeezing the brush out and using the dried out brush to remove the excess. First coat let dry 30 minutes then apply second coat and let dry 24 hours.

After 24 hours scuff the surface with the bronze wool and put a 3rd coat, let this dry for 30 minutes then apply a 4th coat.

This is the end result. If it still looks like this in a year I am a happy camper! I just wish I would have used this stuff from the beginning.
I do love the look of teak, I just hate taking care of it!

 

[RickK]

[pete]

nice job sir!

[wingtime]

Wow!  I love the look of teak!

[seabob4]

That's beautiful, Lewis!  Like Bruce, I love the look of teak as well, but what a PITA to take care of...

A little note for those that have teak and may not know this.  When sanding teak, especially if fairly large material removal is going to happen, teak dust can be very irritating to some people.  Skin irritation especially.  So if you notice redness of the skin around where your clothing meets your arms or neck, you may want to consider a tyvek suit and a dust mask...

[Mcdiver]

I did mine last year, turned out great and still looks great!  I need to clean and recoat this year for color.  Good stuff.

[gran398]

Pretty job Lew

[aquaaggie]

A little note for those that have teak and may not know this.  When sanding teak, especially if fairly large material removal is going to happen, teak dust can be very irritating to some people.  Skin irritation especially.  So if you notice redness of the skin around where your clothing meets your arms or neck, you may want to consider a tyvek suit and a dust mask...

This explains a lot from the past few weeks for me...haven't been severly irritated, but I've definitely noticed that I've got some red rash-like areas on the inside bend of my arms, right where the short sleeves of my shirt would fall.

[Hawg Hunter]

THATS PURRRRDY !