Garden Furniture

[David Lang]

Hi All

I have some (ahem) mahogany garden furniture. Given the price I paid for it at B & Q "mahogany coloured hardwood" is probably more accurate.

It's made up of 2" x 1/2" slats with cast iron end frames.

Its gone a kind of dirty grey colour over the last few years and I want to restore it to it's original colour. Tried a belt sander with 80 grit paper, but its very slow and is going to be difficult on a lot of the curved areas. I don't want to dismantle it all (table, 3 x 2 seater benches & 2 x chairs) and I don't have a thicknesser.

Pressure washer works but raises the grain a little.

Are there any chemical treatments or bleaches that would work?

Dave

[Andy Dingley]

Coloured eucalyptus is even more likely. B&Q have a few ranges, but the low-end stuff is barely usable and certainly doesn't like staying outdoors in an English winter.

Patio Deck Cleaner, amazingly enough. It's a mixture of detergents and oxalic bleach (usually). These are mainly intended for timbers that discolour themselves (oak), rather than merely faded finishes.

Sugar soap is pretty good too.

Don't scrub or pressure wash it, you open the surface up and accelerate aging. If you want to holystone it every day, you need to be using real teak or ipe.

[Pete C]

Nowt wrong with that, I'd expect a lot of teak or 'teak' garden furniture will get thrown out after a few years because it can end up really yucky when left outdoors under trees etc.

Deck cleaner containing oxalic as mentioned should restore the colour, once restored a coat of a decent woodstain like should enhance and preserve the colour, Sikkens do a range of them.

cheers, Pete.

[biff]

I doubt whether the 'mahogany' colour can really be restored. Sunlight bleaches the wood to a silver-grey colour eventually and unless you want to stain it artificially your best bet is to regard it as a natural weathering process and enjoy the natural grey. If you really don't like the colour then the best thing to do is sit on the furniture and look at something else.

[Pete C]

You may have a good point in that a lot of 'mahogany' wood esp. stuff like mouldings is coloured by a layer of basecoat, and the wood itself is quite light in colour.

In any case a decent stain will colour it quite nicely, AFAIK Sikkens is designed for application to lighter woods so should work quite well.

If it's a slatted bench it should be pretty easy to remove the slats for cleaning and staining.

cheers, Pete.