Teak in interior design

[Brewgyver]

Originally Posted by SnakeEyes

There is nothing wrong with veneer but as stated here there is a difference in where you use it. Some places on the boat do get much more wear and tear.

The vast majority of ALL wood flooring and paneling is a laminated wood product. Not just on boats, but in all modern construction. "Solid core" doors are built with solid wood at the hinge and jamb, top and bottom edges, with veneer faces, and the "solid core" is particle board. In a typical home, about the only items actually built with solid wood are the kitchen cabinet doors and drawer fronts, and those only on higher end cabinetry. Everything else is either particle boar, strand board or plywood construction.

Some older boats did use a lot more solid wood, but it you look around the 'leaky teaky' types from the 70's and 80's, you'll find that the bulkheads, cabinet bodies, settees, etc., were veneer plywood then, as well.

[TomNH]

My boat is a 1989 Swan and its interior cabinetry is lovely, but thick (3mm ish) veneer with solid, or laminated teak for trim. Bluntly if Nautor weren’t doing solid teak (and I’ve not seen one that did) then I doubt any european production builder was, even back then. Plywood is just so much more dimensionally stable that it is a better premium product!

[dfelsent]

My boat was built by Franz Maas in 1972. Cabin sole is teak and holly hand inlaid but is about 3mm of that, over ply.
Bulkheads and much cabinetry is mahogany ply, some bits are solid mahogany. Some bits are iroko. When she was built, she was a no expense spared yacht.
Ply has stability and strength in multiple directions. It is a composite material and is not always the cheapest and is sometimes the best ‘all wood’ material from an engineering and boat building perspective.

[a64pilot]

Fine, expensive furniture is veneered, it may even be veneer over solid if its antique furniture, but you can’t get the look with solid that you can with veneer.
Good high quality plywood is much stronger and dimensionally stable and doesn’t spilt like solid wood does.
Having said that, the old growth teak is gone, the farmed stuff is fast growth with a lot of “sap” wood and growth rings that are far apart which doesn’t look as good nor is it as strong.

For this reason I’d be surprised if newer high quality boats have much teak in them, I’m sure they have gone to other exotic woods that are available.
I wouldn’t think the high quality new boats have gone the IKEA route myself, but as I’ve never been shopping for new high quality boats as they are out of my price range and I’m happy with what I have, It’s just a guess.

If you want new or newer, I’d suspicion you would be better off if you took teak off of the list.

[Tillsbury]

Yes, it’s not a budget issue. Big chunks of solid wood are simply not a good idea if you want something dimensionally stable particularly in a wet environment. You could, if you had to, join planks of teak (carefully selected for resistance to cupping), and end up with a big piece of solid wood. But it would be far inferior to a large piece of something more stable, such as marine ply, with a veneer. Even Chippendale used veneers when he could because he could afford to go to the expense (at the time) of doing it.

Edges, trim, and (as mentioned above) certain designs of cupboard door can be in solid wood. The quoted reference mentions “louvred doors”, and of course these lend themselves to being made from small thin pieces of timber and thus can be done with solid wood and not suffer from warping. If the interior design called for larger doors with larger panels, they would be ply.

Premium boat builders will (and always have) use solid wood wherever it’s appropriate in the build (and sometimes a bit more than strictly necessary). As you go down the budget you’ll get less and less of this, more flat panels with tiny trims or even veneered edges, then down to plastic finished edges, then to entirely fake timber (melamine or foil) covering the entire surface. Exactly the same sequence that follows budget when you’re buying a kitchen. And the same uncertainty about the core material unless you’re careful to find out.

Of course there are always exceptions. Ultra-premium finishes could be lightweight foam or balsa core with veneer all the way around for light weight — this could easily cost way more than the average Swan cupboard door.

[CarinaPDX]

I was lucky enough to buy my teak before 1980, and it has been very stable. Later I had teak dorades made, and the thick top panels cracked and opened up - clearly not well seasoned.

The Royal Navy established teak plantations in Trinidad just in case they couldn't get teak from the Far East. Teak was considered a war material as it was used for decks on warships, including the flight decks on early flattops. Teak from these plantations is available in Trinidad, but caveat emptor: most of it is not adequately seasoned. I knew one boat that had a beautiful teak table made there, which warped badly soon after they left. Teak needs a long time for seasoning, which is a cost that is often avoided...

Greg

[chris in SG]

My old Cheoy Lee, from 1965, had cabin sole boards that were solid teak planks, something like 10" wide and 3/4" deep. They were remarkably stable for my first 5 years of ownership (mid 1990's) but then I had an incident with a stern gland and the cabin sole was temporarily floating. Subsequently the boards became unstable and warped significantly enough to be annoying to walk on. No amount of rinsing and drying seemed to solve the problem. You would think that the natural oil in the teak would have prevented saltwater from soaking into the teak itself.


The doors and cabinets were obviously solid teak framed, but the body of the door/locker was teak veneer which I subsequently painted white when the veneer glue started to fail (after 40 years!). Personally I find wood veneer to be pointless because it is essentially 'fake'. It is pretending to be solid wood. When used on a bulkhead or door, the grain of the veneer (resulting from circular shaving from a log) gives a totally 'fake' impression of natural teak, or any wood veneer. I know that cabinet makers have been using veneer inlay for expensive shore-side furniture for centuries, but that is decorative, whereas veneer in boat interiors is used somewhat like wallpaper..

[jkindredpdx]

My 1974 HR35 interior has much solid Mahogany and Ply with Mahogany Veneer for panels with solid Mahogany frames. All ply panels are dressed with solid trim. Sole boards are 1"X12" solid Mahogany. Exterior cockpit and toerail was solid teak. I recently had to replace the original cockpit locker lids/seats and used marine plywood.

[GordMay]

CF member LakeSuperior has a magnificent 37' solid TEAK Yawl.