Refinishing Teak Furniture

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Indoor Teak Furniture

Refinishing teak furniture is a little different than most furniture woods, because of it's abundance of natural oils.

Teak outdoor furniture is generally refinished differently than indoor teak furniture, because teak patio furniture will quite often be left in it's natural state to change to a silvery gray color, where teak dining tables, chairs and occasional indoor furniture usually has a finish of some type on it, which will keep it in it's natural mellow brown color. Indoor teak furniture may be stained to even it's color or to make it match other furniture.

(More below)

Citristrip
Paint Remover Wash

Quikwood
Epoxy Putty Stick

Sculpwood

Repair it
with Mr. Grip
Furniture Repair Kit

Glaze Effects Glazing is the application of color over a pre-sealed or non porous surface. Most often associated with paint, ceramics or marble to add interest to an otherwise un-interesting surface.

Refinishing Teak Furniture

Clean Before Refinishing Teak Furniture

You should clean teak wood furniture well before you refinish it using a good furniture cleaner, such as Prelude furniture cleaner. The cleaner will remove any old wax, polish or (hopefully) silicone from spray polishes.

You need to use care in using products designed specifically for cleaning teak wood. Many of those products contain acid which will destroy the soft wood at the surface. The cleaner above doesn't contain acid.

Cleaning before stripping will help the stripper to get directly to the old finish and make it work more effectively.

Stripping Teak Furniture

Apply stripper liberally. Citristrip makes a stripper that the manufacturer states is safe for indoor use. I always recommend using plenty of ventilation when you're using chemicals of any kind.

Allow the stripper to work for a good length of time. Test periodically to see if the old finish is softened. If the finish hasn't softened, wait some more. The object of the stripper is to make the job easier, so be sure to let the stripper work long enough to dissolve the old finish, then all you have to do is remove the gluck that it creates.

To remove the stripper residue scrape as much as you can with a plastic scraper with rounded corners.

After you've scraped as much as you can, clean the balance with stripper wash, lacquer thinner or denatured alcohol. The stripper wash would be easiest on your health and you should use plenty of ventilation with the lacquer thinner and alcohol. Paint thinner will quite often leave a whitish residue if you use it for cleaning stripping gluck.

You can find more information about stripping furniture and lots of basic refinishing information.

Surface Preparation

Indoor teak furniture can be prepared for the finish by a good rubbing with 0000 steel wool. (Always use copper or brass wool for outdoor furniture) The steel wool will remove little flecks from the pores of the wood and will smooth small irregularities. You should give a final cleaning with a tack cloth. If you have any major boo boo's that are large enough to snag a soft cloth the whole surface should be sanded with 220 grit sandpaper, cleaned with a tack cloth, rubbed with 0000 steel wool and a final cleaning with a tack cloth.

If you sand an area on a flat surface the whole surface will have to be sanded equally or you'll be able to see the sanded area after the final finish is applied.

You should avoid using steel wool when you prepare outdoor teak furniture. Teeny bits of steel wool can break off and stay in the pores of the wood, then rust when they get wet making small marks in the surface.

Finishing Teak Indoor Furniture

There are different ways to finish and protect teak indoor furniture, so we've made it a separate page. Use the finish link to go on with refinishing your indoor teak furniture or if your interested in refinishing teak outdoor furniture go to the next paragraph and it will zoom you to the exciting procedure of refinishing teak outdoor furniture.

Refinishing Teak Outdoor Furniture

Well, maybe it isn't exciting and I don't watch much TV, so I don't know where I picked that up.

Refinishing can be kind of mundane and tedious, but the final result is worth all the effort and looking at the job you've done well really is exciting. On to refinishing outdoor teak furniture.