Refinishing Teak Decks

[rourkeh]

I am in the process of refinishing teak decks treated with Cetol.I can't stand the dirty brown look of this sealer and want to remove it and recalk some of the seams, then leave the decks to weather and return to a natural grey color. My question is should I just sand the Cetol out of the top layer of teak. I am somewhat concerned that this sealer has penetrated down into the wood and sanding will not remove it. Does anyone have experience with this issue. Thanks.

[lancelot9898]

I used a heat gun and a scrapper to remove 10 years of cetrol buildup from the caprails of the boat a couple of years ago. I followed up with a sanding with 80 grit sandpaper and then 220 grit and the wood looked like new. Not sure if I would use the heat gun on the seams of the deck though unless you were going to recaulk. My cockpit seats were also treated with cetrol and had caulking and I treated them the same way, but I planned to recaulk them anyway so no big deal about the heat gun. I redid them with semco oil since the cetrol(even without the gloss) left the seats a little too slick. The caprails were redone with cetrol natural which looks much better than the brown stuff or the orange. One thing I did learn which is not clear from reading the instructions on the cetrol is that the gloss applied over the coating results in much better UV protection than just the standard coatings alone. Never did think that would be true, but now I just apply a annual maintenace coating once a year with the gloss.