Advice needed: Teak Garden Furniture.

I'm thinking about buying some benches for the garden but, being new to this, (me and my partner having just moved in), I was looking for some advice.

Also, my friend uses Twitter when he came across this company @rootandstone, (again, all this is new to me). Passing the site onto me,

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I had a look around and the prices seemed reasonable, (I think?).

I'm still unsure as how best to proceed though as I'm not fully versed on what the upkeep of this sort of thing is especially in regards to weather and such. So if anybody out there can offer any form of advice in regards to this I'd be most grateful.

Reply to
Benji
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You really should be asking the furniture manufacturer for maintenence advice for their product... how do you expect anyone here to know with what that furniture is treated if anything. Why don't you check their web site for care information.

Reply to
Brooklyn1

Thanks for the reply. I was planning on getting in touch with the manufacturers but I was just looking for some impartial advice first. I thought maybe someone on here might have brought something similar before, (with it being garden based), and therefore able to offer me some first-hand tips.

As I stated before I'm still fairly new to this so I apologise if I came to the wrong area for help.

Reply to
Benji

Teak wood can stay out year round, but any wood exposed to the weather year round will become rough. You may find yourself sanding it every year, at least the parts that you touch. If you use the furniture a

*lot*, use will keep it smooth.

Teak is not the only wood that can stand up to staying out. Cedar and redwood hold up too, and cedar costs less.

Garden furniture made of durable wood like teak and cedar does not need to be protected with paint or urethane deck stains. Once a protectant is used, though, it generally needs to be touched up every year because it flakes and that looks and feels really bad and can make quite a mess.

Garden furniture that has to stay out all year needs stainless steel or brass fasteners, preferably nut and bolt fasteners not wood screws.

I have some plastic garden chairs that I found at a charity shop years ago, bought as a temporary measure while I looked out for "good" garden furniture. I still have the plastic chairs, and like them. I like to move them around, something that can be a big hassle with heavy wooden furniture.

Do you need all-weather garden furniture? Are you going to be out in the garden in winter? Or is it that you have nowhere to store the furniture over winter? Do you even need garden furniture? Wait and see...

Una

Reply to
Una

Hi Benji, Yes, i agree with Brooklyn, seek the manufacturers advice concerning the care of their product but I'd like to add a few things that may be of help !! If these are indeed teak benches (I couldnt access the website you posted ??) the very nature of such timber means that with very little maintenance these benches will last years as being hardwood it will rot but will take many years to do so. In fact alot of people prefer the weathered, more rustic look of untreated hardwood, it goes a lovely silver colour!! The main reason for treating teak is that it does dry out and may split as it does so. the teak oil 'feeds' the timber and of course in doing so keeps the wet out !! Personally I occasionally wire brush my benches (to remove any algae) and then sand them down (to remove any rough edges) and treat them liberally with linseed oil, this I do in the autumn ( to protect from prolonged winter wet) and mine are fine ( ive had them for about 20 yrs !! The worst thing is to make sure that they are not sat in water in winter, or sat in full sun (totally untreated ) in summer. Obviously if you can store them inside in winter thats the best senario, somewhere dry, cool and 'airy' Hope this helps, best wishes Lannerman.

Reply to
lannerman

I'm not sure what it's done with that link but at least it seems to be working now.

Reply to
Benji

Teak is a favored wood for decks and trim on yachts. Untreated, it will weather and become gray and unsmooth. Treated it will retain its color and smoothness. I don't know your climate, but in mine I have to treat it twice yearly to keep it looking new, so it is not maintenance free. Any chandlery will have the supplies needed to maintain it, including a cleaning liquid, a conditioning liquid, and the teak oil for the final coats. I have a couple of areas on my boat where the shape of the teak makes it hard to treat, so I have just left them untreated. They are grey and unsmooth, but still structurally sound, and the boat is 40 years old.

The teak forests have nearly been destroyed, so if I were buying teak today, I would make certain it is plantation grown.

Reply to
Notat Home

"Benji" wrote

No problem Benji.

Teak does well for exterior furniture. Like all wood furniture, you'll need to provide a little treatment to keep it in good shape over the years but it really isnt much or hard to do. It will weather naturally with little trouble.

Oh, if you 'lost the link' it's because youa re accessing the news group 'rec.gardens' via the gardenbanter website. It will feel to you like you are talking to people on the gardenbanter website but actually it's a usenet newsgroup carried by all sorts of providers. Gardenbanter imports it and provides the interface that I presume you prefer to read from. Harmless but if you lose it again, search for rec.gardens.

Reply to
cshenk

Benches-direct.co.uk is a good website for garden benches. That's the website that I got my garden benches from and they have kept well over the years. You can shop by brand and they are also from trusted brands so I hope that helps. My benches from the site are made by the brands Alexander Rose and Bridgman. I hope that was helpful. :) Good luck with your garden benches, I hope you don't just choose one because it's cheap though. On the website I gave you they are reasonably priced and good quality too, which is most important. :)

Reply to
hollierose

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