External furniture wood restorer

[petek]

At my golf club we have a dozen bench seats which have been neglected over the last few years. Me and a couple of other volunteer members are taking the opportunity of the lockdown to try to restore them. They range in age from 5 - 15 or so years old, structurally sound, Teak or more probably Iroko, and looking very tatty. Covered in mould/fungus and general dirt. We have started pressure washing them and this has restored some of their original colour but they range from silver/grey all over to a patchwork of original teak colour with some silver/grey. We would like to restore them to their original teak colour with an oiled finish. I've been looking at Cuprinol and Ronseal wood restorer but they're quite expensive at £15 - £20 per litre and I'm not sure how effective they are. Has anybody got experience of using them or any other suggestions?

Cheers Pete

[Lee Nowell]

Yes we used this on an old bench swing. It came up a treat. Seem to remember there are lots of safety warnings on it but I had no issues with it. Wonder if you could establish what the active ingredient is then buy that in bulk?

[Andy Burns]

I used wickes own brand teak oil last year, easy to apply and soak in with a brush, it took three or more coats to restore a nice colour, it has darkened somewhat over winter ... so I'd probably say only give a couple of coats.

[nothanks]

Take care when pressure-washing wood, it's very easy to damage the wood (as I found out some years ago). Far better to clean with a scrubbing brush and soapy water, then apply fungicide and wash off, sand (in the direction of grain) and then oil. The Teak colour will only last if the wood is regularly sanded so it might be better to allow it to change colour naturally and just scrub and re-oil it once or twice per year.

[fred]

A good quality polyurethane finish will withstand lots of abuse. Sand with 80g and 150g.Apply first coat Lightly sand again and the apply another one or two coats.

Dont be fooled by products called teak oil or teak anything. They have absolutely nothing to do with teak and are generally just wiping varnishes.

Personally I would avoid any water based finishes whatever they claim on the tin.IME they lack durability

[nothanks]

I haven't yet found a polyurethane finish that doesn't look a bit plastic'y compared to using an oil such as Osmo, but I agree about not using water-based finishes.

[fred]

Yes I agree but it is a golf club changing room istr.

I agree with you on the OSMO as well. I'm a long time user of some of their finishes.Their UV restricted one is quite good and they are all very easy to apply. I

[tim...]

we thought about that for our garden benches

it was cheaper to buy new ones from Dyas (which we have resolved to look after better)

[Andrew]

Use yacht varnish. It has better UV protection.

[Andrew]

Buy cheap, buy twice. Good quality teak benches aren't cheap, so worth restoring (and looking after, which means covering up in winter).

[Martin Brown]

Oil based that soak in and come with a warning that oily rags may catch fire spontaneously are about the best of the bunch. It is easier to let the wood age to the silver grey than to keep it looking teak colour.

Especially any that are heavily pigment loaded like a pretend varnish. They barely last a single season and then start to flake off in strips.

Our VH has various benches that were done with various systems over the years. One of the better ones (also most expensive) was some Dutch product we got from a Dulux decorator centre - I forget the name of it. It is a basecoat clear technology but both parts soak into the wood. The topcoat is a UV blocker to protect the stain underneath from the elements. It was high VOC so may have been reformulated to be eco and useless by now.

[fred]

I once used Epifanes yacht varnish,

I followed the instructions to the letter (many many coats). Yes it lasted well, with a few touch ups, for a number of years but I couldn't face going though that rigmarole again