Guide to Teak Care & Maintenance

If you’re lucky enough to have teak decks or woodwork aboard your boat you will understand the satisfaction that can be gained from keeping it looking great. Here’s a few tips on how to keep it looking good, and what to do if it starts to show its age

How to keep teak clean on a day to day basis is always a contentious subject, with varying views and opinions. Our resident teak expert tesll us that the best way is to use simple watre and boat shampoo, and that the key is to scrub across the grain.

“Make sure that you scrub across the grain - scrubbing along the grain will wear the teak prematurely and lead to premature wear”

- Force 4 Trade Secret

How do you want the teak to look?

Teak doesn’t actually need much maintenance - it is reasonably stable in outside conditions and will last for years without any coatings or renovation. It will however age gracefully by turning grey - which some people like and others don’t.

Bringing the golden colour back to teak

If your teak has gone grey over time, it’s worth looking at a more aggressive cleaner/renovator to bring back the golden colour that teak is famous for. We sell a variety of products, normally in the form of a two step process, that will clean teak and bring its original golden brown colour back. You can either do this 1-2 times per year or use a treatment to keep it looking nice - see below

Teak Protection Treatments

If you don’t want your teak to go grey, there are a few options you can look at to prevent this. Teak Oil is a popular option, it repels most water and keeps the teak looking nice. It does normally give a slight shine to the teak, and can darken it by a shade or two, which some like and others don’t. If you want to keep the teak looking as untreated as possible while still providing protection, it’s worth a look at a sealer. Popular examples of this are Semco, Teak Wonder and International Woodskin. They are barely visible once on, and provide a similar level of protection to teak oil but are almost invisible and keep the teak feeling like it is largely untreated. As with all these things, try a small inconspicuous patch before doing the whole deck to check that you like it.