What do I use on my teak?
 

Sea Cracker has a fair amount of teak. I hate oiling it. I have tried several "coatings", but none seem to last. Aqua Tek, Starbrite Tropical Teak oil sealer. I hate the way the Starbrite sealer starts pealing mid season. Sea Cracker is exposed all year long except the helm is covered. What are ya'll using on your teak?

2 choices:

clean it well and sand it all down - west system epoxy ! mix it with acetone for the first coat,after that coat kicks,scuff it with a scotch brite pad and coat it again,no thinning - keep doing that for 6/7 times,till the teak is completely sealed...

then - prime it with a good 2 part primer,followed by awlgrip !


or


starboard ! use starboard - use the existing pieces as a template...



teak - crime against nature

Air. Teak needs nothing. Let it go gray. It works for me that way. I have never seen a coating stick. (Not talking about oils). But I am a fan of natural gray.

I don't believe west system is UV stabilized?

I've had good luck with Sikkens Cetol. I can at least get 2-3 seasons out of an application.

clean it well and sand it all down - west system epoxy ! mix it with acetone for the first coat,after that coat kicks,scuff it with a scotch brite pad and coat it again,no thinning - keep doing that for 6/7 times,till the teak is completely sealed...

then - prime it with a good 2 part primer,followed by awlgrip


the steps I typed,that's referred to as "whiting out teak" - west system epoxy is used to seal the teak,that epoxy is then primed and painted with awlgrip...


actually,west system produced a product for teak,years ago - it's been discontinued...west system epoxy isn't uv stabilized,it can be varnished,so i'm told - never tried that,nor would I recommend it...


the coating I've described,it's basically a "forever cure" - the teak is sealed in a waterproof epoxy - it lasts...

I used Epifanes gloss wood finish on my teak on a few boats and could easily get three years out of it,when applied in three coats.Check out the pics on their site,their wood finishes are someone of the highest rated in the marine industry.Extremely high quality stuff.

http://www.epifanes.com/page/wood-finish-gloss

Im re-doing all mine and have added more teak and doing it with Honey Teak from Tom at signature. A little pricey but Really impressed with it so far. I was comvinced after using the signature paint and after doing some research and reading reviews from blowboaters. I Really like the fact that you can put it on wet on wet with no sanding in between coats.

I've used Honey Teak which is fairly good but heavily pigmented and darker than I like, plus it doesn't hold up as well as Epifanes Wood Finish Gloss, which was rated most durable by PowerBoat reports and numerous wood working forums. I believe the key to durability is 7+ coats of Epifanes, and then invest in a boat cover! You'll get 5-6+ years out of it that way, even in S. Fla!

I tried all the various oils in the 43 years I've owned my boat, including Deks Olje No. 1 + 2. The problem with them is that the oils oxidize and turn dark in just a couple of months even if covered. The 2-part teak cleaners are very aggressive and really destroy the soft grain of the wood, so once you've sanded it smooth, either leave it natural and scrub it often with a mild detergent or use a good varnish to protect it.

The problem I have with the epoxy + urethane or varnish approach is that, as mentioned above, epoxy has no UV inhibitors in it. It needs something over it to keep it from turning white. Unless you frequently renew the protective varnish, you have no way of knowing when the UV protection is gone, and this is a big problem with the strong UV we have in S. Florida! I've heard stories of the topcoated epoxy looking fine one day and then turning white virtually overnight! And then all you have to do to fix that is strip it all down to bare wood!

My experience is that just plain varnish with a fresh coat or two every few years looks the best and requires the least amount of overall maintenance over the long term. But investing in a good cover will keep the whole boat looking good and save you lot's of work!

Bushwhacker is 100% correct! Traditional varnish is still the way to go, 5-6 coats initially after the teak is cleaned up and it will be beautiful. Cetol and the like are very muddy looking although it does hide a lot of sins:)

Epiphanes is my choice as well. I cleaned, sanded and coated my teak with 8 coats. Looks the same today as it did 2-1/2 yrs ago. I posted some pics of the results in another thread somewhere.