Finish For Teak Decks

[cburger]

Would coating my vessels teak decks with a product like Deks Olje offer any benefit outside of just making the wood look nice?

[Tillsbury]

The job of a good oil (or indeed any finish), is to protect the wood from the two enemies: sun damage and drying out (cracking). Paint is excellent at both of these jobs. Oil is pretty rubbish at the first but very good at the second.

Having said that, the reason Teak is used on boats is because it has so much oil within it, it has very little tendency to dry out quickly enough to crack. More oil is always going to help it though, and will help with waterproofing too. Waterproofing is handy because it helps to prevent dirt building up in the outer fibres of the wood and thus means you don't have to clean it as often. Cleaning (especially vigorously) takes away the sun-damaged fibres on the outside of the wood, revealing new wood underneath, which looks good but slowly removes the wood every time you do it.

So yes, any quality oil will help protect wood from cracking and lengthen its service life, even up to and beyond the point where it looks like junk again. The oil is still doing its job. More oil added on will help.

Varnish and polyurethane are finishes that sit on top of the wood, forming a (hopefully) impenetrable barrier between the wood and the water. They are more or less successful in protecting from UV, but usually less. They don't move with the wood and so when the wood gets damp/dry and hot/cold they tend to release their grip. And then the water gets in, as it always will. You will need to physically remove that protective surface, then reapply.

[cburger]

Thank you

[jibstay]

I have teak panels in my cockpit and on my swim step. I’ve tried lots of different things to keep them looking good. For the last 2 years, I’ve been using Semco Honeytone. I cleaned them thoroughly first, then bleached with oxalic acid. Now, I just wipe on a couple of coats of Semco every 3 or 4 months. (Florida sun)

[scarlet]

following

[Yellow bird]

Sea water is the best product "on the market", if you care about its health and its life and not its aesthetics.
Fresh water is like poison for teak deck.

Teak deck it's like a green lawn, you have to wash him early in the morning or in the evening, or in a cloudy day, not in the sunshine anyway.

[ohthetrees]

I’ve read many times that oil collects dirt. What has been your experience,Tillsbury? Jibstay, does that Semco stuff collect dirt, or is the texture of the wood “dry“? We just had new teak decks put on our boat, not even back in the water yet, and I would love to keep the new look, but not if the product gathers dirt and darkens over time. In that case I’ll just let it go gray.

[jibstay]

Originally Posted by ohthetrees

I’ve read many times that oil collects dirt. What has been your experience,Tillsbury? Jibstay, does that Semco stuff collect dirt, or is the texture of the wood “dry“? We just had new teak decks put on our boat, not even back in the water yet, and I would love to keep the new look, but not if the product gathers dirt and darkens over time. In that case I’ll just let it go gray.

The oils I tried did collect dirt.
The Semco does not.

[Tillsbury]

"Wet" oil (oil that never dries out hard) will collect dirt as it remains sticky. Avoid it at all costs. The Semco dries hard.

[dougweibel]

We have used Deks Olje as both the one part (oil only) and two part system, with the one part on our cockpit sole and rails, and two part on our toe rail, etc.

Prior to our purchase of the boat whatever was on the teak had long since faded away and the teak was very dry. The boat was on the Chesapeake, so not good seawater.

The one part (D1) is very easy to apply and the wood seems to love it. It lasts 4-6 months, but we do notice that after a few applications the wood saturates faster than it used to. The only pain with it is that you have to be careful not to sit or lean on it for a few days or it may stain your clothes.

The two part (D1 + D2) is a bit more work, especially if you want to get on 6 coats or so. We wimped out at 4 coats and started to see some wear after a year. The great thing about Deks Olje is that reapplication of D2 does not require a lot of prep. Depending on the amount of wear you can either just clean the wood well with a linseed oil based soap, or if there is a bit more wear then clean the wood and lightly wet sand it using D1 as a lubricant. We haven't used many products in the past so don't have a lot of experience to compare with but the Deks Olje looks much better and is easier to maintain than Cetol in our opinion.

All this "we" is because my wife is a saint and does most of the finishing work