Last weekend I started cleaning up the garden. First job was to break out the pressure washer and remove 6 months of bio-film from the patio, shed and fences. Then we unpacked the our large teak table and were dismayed to find that it had not fared well under cover.
The wood was covered with watermarks and had various genera of stuff living on it, including large areas of black mildew. This was not a cheap table, so I started researching about how to go about saving it.
Firstly, I just left it to dry out. After 3 to 4 days of airing I was relieved to see most of the watermarks had vanished. Next I took a small hand sander, found the finest grade sandpaper I could and went over the entire table lightly, taking off just the very top layer of the surface along with most of the crud that was clinging to it.
Next I washed the table down, removing as much of the dust as possible and left it to dry out completely.
Looking around the shelves at my local DIY store, I found this stuff which is apparently highly dangerous to just about everything living, if the dire warnings on the back of the pack are to be heeded. Sounded perfect 🙂
Painting this stuff onto the teak immediately brought back the colour and the grain of the wood and was soaked up like the table was a sponge. I kept repainting until the stuff stayed on the surface rather than being immediately absorbed.
Left overnight, all the excess was drawn into the wood, leaving it feeling slightly waxy and beautifully textured. Picture here.
Perhaps not the most interesting thing I’ve ever written here, but will hopefully be useful information for people with a similar problem.
Good to know what to use on the outside furniture.
It’s always good to keep your wood oiled… 🙂
That looks lovely – I think I need to tend to my BBQ which also has a wooden frame. I tend to leave it outside over the winter so it has warped a little, so I might give it some TLC this year – glad to see yours came up so nicely, I’ll see if I can do the same to mine.