Caring for your teak garden furniture

Oils & Treatments – A Choice not a Necessity

Our garden furniture products are crafted from sustainably grown Teak wood.  Teak is very dense, hard wood and contains natural oils which give the furniture its proven ability for durability and longevity, facing all weather conditions, without treatment.

Your teak garden furniture can happily be left outside all year round and requires very little in the way of care or maintenance. This is one of the great things about using teak to make outdoor furniture.

It is important to understand however, that teak garden furniture will, over a period of time, gradually loose its initial ‘golden brown’ colour weathering to a silvery, ash grey patina. (Many people tell us they actually prefer this to the original colour of the wood as it blends into their garden more.) This weathering process will happen within the first year, if the furniture is left outside and un-covered. Leaving the furniture to weather naturally will not damage it at all.

Based on our extensive experience with teak furniture, if you are happy letting the natural weathering process take place, then all you need to do is just gently wash the furniture down a couple of times a year with a mild soap and warm water combination, just to clean off any tree and bird deposits.  Applying an actual treatment to your furniture is a choice and certainly not a necessity.

Applying a Treatment to your Teak Garden Furniture

Teak treatments and oils are designed to maintain the original golden-brown appearance of your teak furniture. These treatments do not nourish or help strengthen the furniture in any way as they do not get absorbed into the wood. Instead, they sit on the surface, and they too will begin to fade over time. Therefore, the process of applying an oil or treatment will need to be reapplied according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Some key things to be aware of if you choose to apply a treatment to your furniture.

Always do a patch test first to make sure you are happy with the result, as any treatment applied can affect the colour of the furniture

Make sure the furniture is 100% dry and free from any surface debris before applying any treatment. Even if the furniture looks dry, it may actually still be a little be damp so ensure there have been at least two or three fully dry (and ideally sunny) days, before using any treatments. If you do apply oils or other treatments when the wood is damp this will lock in moisture and cause what is known as ‘black spotting’.

Please note that the application of sealants or oils will invalidate your rights to return, please refer to our terms and conditions specifically point 7.3.

Oils vs Sealants

Oils: Teak oils are typically applied as a colourant, and they will fade over the season. Don’t be tempted to layer on the oil, nice smooth strokes evenly spread will give a better finish as more does not mean better in this case. Oils are best applied with a cloth or sponge as this limits the amount of product going on to the furniture and gives a more even finish.

You can restore the golden-brown colour to weathered teak furniture with the right oil treatments. We would recommend this product; Teak Garden Furniture Restoration Kit

Sealants: Teak sealants are designed to seal the wood, they generally do not have a colourant in them. Sealants usually dry within 24hrs and should not affect the colour or finish of the furniture. A sealant can assist the woods own natural oils to repel water and can give some added protection against UV rays. In this way, sealants can slow down but not fully stop, the process of weathering and fading.

Please be aware; applying any treatments or oils within the first year does void your warranty.

We do occasionally get asked why this would be so. The answer is that there are lots of different types of treatments on the market, all containing different ingredients and different strengths. Some of these will not be appropriate for use on teak garden furniture. In addition, even when using an appropriate product it may not be applied correctly – excessive layering on of sealants and oils is a fairly common issue. We therefore cannot be responsible for either the treatment chosen or the way that it was applied and so, this is why we have to have a line in our Ts & Cs that effectively says; ‘any treatment applied voids the warranty.’

Cleaning Teak Garden Furniture

There really is no secret to cleaning your outdoor furniture except that it requires some elbow grease (nobody has figured out how to package that yet).

There are basically two reasons to clean your teak products;

  1. you want to remove any tree or bird deposits and possibly any surface mould or mildew, from the wood and get it back more towards its original colour.
  2. you need to kill all the mould and mildew spores present so they will not continue to eat the natural teak oil and discolour the wood.

Warm water with some washing up liquid is the best way to clean the furniture using a nylon scouring pad or a stiff scrubbing brush. Please do not use a wire brush!

For stubborn stains, use a mild solution of bicarbonate of soda and lemon juice and apply to the stained area, gently rubbing in the direction of the grain. Please ensure the solution has been fully washed off after applying.

It is recommended that you patch test your cleaning solution, on a small and less conspicuous area first.

Pressure Washing Teak Garden Furniture

We do get asked about whether or not pressure washers can be used to clean teak outdoor furniture. In our view they can BUT with three crucial provisos;

  1. Use the pressure washer on its least powerful setting
  2. Hold the nozzle at least half a meter / 2 feet away from the surface of the furniture
  3. Spray in the direction of grain. Do not spray against the grain.

If you don’t follow these guides, then the pressure of the water could lift the grain and cause grooves in the surface of the wood. This would not be a reversible condition. If you do use your pressure washer correctly the results can be quite outstanding as the images below, show.

Disclaimer; Pressure washing your furniture will invalidate your warranty. Because of the risks involved in mis-using a pressure washer on your furniture, we cannot be held responsible if you decide to wash your teak garden furniture in this way.

Using Teak Cleaner Products

Alternatively, you could use a “teak cleaner” product. These products are formulated to kill the mould and mildew and to restore the natural wood colour. There are generally two types of teak cleaners, one-part and two-part cleaners.

One-part cleaners come in a single bottle and use a mild chemical to clean the wood. If you are deciding whing method to use, we prefer one-part cleaners because they are much gentler on the furniture and the environment.

Because one-part cleaners are relatively mild, you will need to work the cleaner into the wood with a bristle brush and let it sit for 5-15 minutes before rinsing it off. While rinsing the wood, use bronze wool to rub the surface, go in the direction of the wood grain. This opens the ‘pores’ of the wood to ensure that the wood is as clean as possible.

Two-part cleaners come in two bottles and typically consist of a harsh acid and a neutralizer. The first part (the acid) chemically cleans the wood, killing the mould and mildew spores and removing the black and grey colour. This step works faster and requires less work than for one-part cleaners, but the harsh acid also raises the wood grain (effectively making your wood rougher). The second part is a neutralizer which counteracts the acid, allowing you to rinse off the teak safely.
We generally discourage the use of two-part cleaners because of the damage they can do to your teak and the environment.

Teak “checking” (micro-splitting)

Once your new furniture is placed outside it will go through a settling process. The wood will expand and contract as it adapts to the outside environment. During this settling process which typically occurs in the first 2-3 months, micro-cracks may appear at the end of the grain, perhaps on the arm of a chair or bench for example, but these should not be a cause for concern.  This phenomenon is known as ‘checking’ and it is something we would expect.

After 3 months your furniture should have adapted to its new environment and stabilised. If checking did occur you can now, if you wish, address this by using a small amount of weather resistant PVA glue and a fine sandpaper. Simply rub a few drops of the PVA glue into the affected area wait about 30 seconds and as the glue starts to set rub it down smooth with your sandpaper, making sure to go with the grain, not against it.  

If you are doing this to a piece of furniture that has already weathered to a silvery-grey patina, you may see the original colour of the wood coming back through. Don’t be concerned as this will fade back to match the rest of your furniture in a few weeks.

Storing and Covering Teak Garden Furniture

As we have already said teak is a strong, durable wood and can happily be left outside with little or no treatment. Structurally, it will remain sound but it will change colour as it weathers. Using a weather cover (as long as it’s the correct type of cover) will slow down the weathering process and will also keep your furniture free of tree and bird deposits so that it’s always ready to use without any need to clean these off it.

If your garden furniture did not come with a weather cover included then you can purchase a breathable weather cover from us (view them here). It is important that the cover is breathable and not PVC, or a tarpaulin type cover, otherwise the wood will sweat and that will cause surface mold and mildew to develop.

Please be aware; applying any treatments or oils within the first year does void your warranty.

We do get asked why this is the case. The answer is that there are lots of different types of treatments on the market, all containing different ingredients and different strengths and some of these will not be appropriate for use on teak garden furniture. In addition, the treatment may not be applied correctly – excessive layering on of the product is a common issue.  Kingsley Smythe cannot be responsible for the treatment chosen or the way that it was applied, and so this is why we have to have a line in our Ts and Cs that effectively says; ‘any treatment applied voids the warranty.’

It may seem there is a lot of information around when it comes to the effective aftercare of teak garden furniture but really, in our opinion, just a simple mild soap and warm water wash down after the winter is the best aftercare and let the wood age naturally. It really will look after itself.

As always, the Kingsley Team are totally willing to answer any questions you may have on this, just contact us.  (Please be aware that between March and August we are typically super-busy and it may be a while before we can respond.)

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