Care, Maintain and Clean Teak Patio Furniture

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If you maintain your Teak furniture and especially clean teak patio furniture periodically it'll last a long time. Teak furniture will quite often come to you in it's natural state, with no finish of any sort. It may have the appearance of oils on the surface. They're natural oils coming from the wood. Teak is quite oily in nature and that's what makes it so durable in all kinds of weather.

Frequently you may hear that you don't need to do anything to teak, that it takes care of itself. It's durable and teak furniture will last a lifetime, but if you pay attention to the care of teak patio furniture it will last your childrens lifetime too.

Without proper care and maintenance teak furniture will weather considerably and need to be cleaned.

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Maintain and Clean Teak

Weathered Silver Gray or Natural Warm Brown

There are two ways that you can have your teak patio furniture.

The choice is entirely your preference. You can leave it in it's natural state and let it weather to a silver gray color or you can oil it and have it stay it's warm brown color. Your teak outdoor furniture will last a lifetime either way, it's just a matter of how you want to look at it.

If you decide to maintain the weathered silver gray color all you need to do is wipe the excess oil that has come from the wood. Wipe it as frequently as there is excess oil being released. The transition from brown to weathered appearance will begin immediatly, although it will take several months for the wood to gain it's full silver gray color.

Washing Your Teak Furniture - Watch The Birdies

During the transition period, and after, you can keep your teak patio furniture looking nice by cleaning it with a mild soap and warm water and rinsing well. It's ok to use a garden hose to rinse your furniture, but you should never use a pressure washer. Outdoor furniture can get dusty very quickly and birds have some very unusual ideas of good furniture decoration. That sort of deposit should be cleaned off as quickly as possible, especially during cherry and berry season. A cherry munching bird can leave a pretty bad stain on your furniture.

Sometimes weathered teak furniture will get so badly stained that it's necessary to clean it back to it's original color and start over. That's just one of the benefits of teak patio furniture, it can get to the point that it looks like it's beyond help and you can bring it back to like new condition.

Teak Cleaner and Brightener

You'll need some elbow grease and some help from some Cleaning Aids that can be used to remove the silver gray weathered look and any other stains, such as recycled cherries. The delicate floor scrubber and copper puffs will help a lot to get back to the original teak color. The copper puffs are good to replace steel wool that you would usually use for such a job. Steel wool can leave bits of steel fibers in the pores, then will rust and leave stains when they get wet, so the copper or brass wool are best. After you clean you can use teak brightener to enhance the appearance of your teak patio furniture.

Tung and Teak Oil for Natural Brown Finish

Application of Teak Oil or Tung Oil will preserve the warm brown teak furniture color, whether your furniture is used in the dining room or anywhere else indoors or if it's used as patio furniture. You should use several applications of either teak oil or tung oil for maximum protection and good appearance. Both oils will soak into the wood, hardening the top surface of the wood and will build a layer on top of the wood which will harden for more protection.

The Tung oil shown comes in two flavors, regular tung oil, which is known as 100% tung oil, is pure and somewhat thick and Chinawood Oil, because it was perfected in China several centuries ago. Chinawood deck oil is thinned with solvents to make it easier to work with.

Most Teak Oil has UV protection, which will reflect the UV rays of the sun and do a good job of preserving your outdoor teak furniture.

You can use other clear finishes too. See our page Finish Teak Furniture for more information about finishing.

Easy Cleaning

Care is very easy, just wipe with a damp cloth and then buff with a soft, dry cloth.

Sometimes your furniture will get just a little dirtier than a damp cloth will clean, then it's time to use a Furniture Cleaner Prelude Furniture Cleaner is good for cleaning all furniture, whether it's your outdoor furniture or delicate antiques. As with all chemicals be sure to test in an inconspicuous spot to be sure the cleaner is compatible with your finish.

Repair Scratches and Mars

Scratches and minor mars are easy to repair. Just apply another coat of teak oil or tung oil. If you can feel an indent when you lightly run a finger nail over a scratch, then you should lightly sand the scratch, then the whole connected surface with 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper, then apply another coat or two of oil.

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