As I have been keeping my eyes and ears open for scrounge wood, I noticed a neighbor who just moved in threw out two benches that were covered in lichen. I powerwashed gently with my cheap Home Depot electric power washer and look at the difference. Since I was busy with c/s/s 30 cords of wood,. I just washed the two benches and let them "air out" for a few months. Finally got around to sanding them and washing them down with teak cleaner (oxalic acid). That really brightened up the wood and the difference is stunning. Then I applied 3 coats of teak oil (watco from HD) with a foam brush and needless to say this bench will be used for many years to come. The 2nd bench is almost done as well. This one is collapsible - the bench part comes off and the the arms swing in. It also had some major rot in the legs and around the clasps....... I ended up just building up the missing wood with short strand fiberglass bondo and exterior screws. This method has worked really well on garage door jambs as well as my front door jamb that got ruined from the storm door ripping out of the jamb. I didn't really care about looks so much as I wanted the rot to stop and not get any worse. Very happy with the results. How I found them....... Half pressure washed......... All clean........... Second bench that is collapsible..... Broyhill brand.....never heard of them........ Both benches were cleaned with oxalic acid but the right one was sanded......... All that weathered greyness was gone........ Just started sanding the 2nd bench......... The hinges have seen better days...... 3rd coat of teak oil freshly applied to the first bench........ Aw yeah......... Yes sir........ Rotted area where the clasp attaches to..... Dry rotted leg scraped clean....... More rotteness...... Screws for support........ More screws..... And more screws....... First coat of bondo......... After some sanding........ended up doing 3 coats (finer and finer each time.....) Final pic of the first bench.......Still need 2 more coats of teak oil on the 2nd bench..........
Very nice! You can NEVER go wrong with real teak wood. To won't find any new teak wood around, as it cannot be cut any more. You took care of the teak the right way. So glad to hear you did not use lacquer on it. That's not how to treat teak. You've never heard of broyhill? That's good high end stuff. Then add in that is teak? That's priceless now.
Nice job LordOfTheFlies, teak is sweet-I use oxalic acid on my cedar siding, and I used the Watco oil on my cherry bar door frames and wainscoting harvested from my farm-Good stuff
Very nice work. I like the interesting patterns on the backs of the benches. I am so glad you rescued them and restored them.
I've sanded all the teak on a sailboat and epoxied it. I've sanded all the teak on a sailboat and teak oiled it. I've decided I like the grey patina. But, the benches look great cleaned up and looking fresh and taken care of.
Thanks all. I looked it up and Broyhill got sold to Big Lots. Broyhill furniture brand bought by Big Lots Yeah they aren't perfect but man, they are great benches to just chill out for a few minutes, especially after loading up a cord or two of wood into the truck. I wouldn't want to sand an entire boat deck......just doing these two benches was a lot of work and I'm still not done. But yeah, I like to recycle stuff and anytime I find useful stuff I pick it up and dump it into the back of the Tacoma. I think there's a common theme here - people who are into firewood really enjoy recycling things whether it be wood, metal, or other people's junk and repurposing it into useful things. It's awesome.
Hey Ashwatcher, what did you do to the cedar siding after "watching" it with the oxalic acid? Did you leave it "au naturel"? Or....... ? I have a buddy who just bought a ginormous house and the previous owner painted over the cedar siding 3 years ago.....My buddy had some health issues and in those 3 years the paint is just horrible. They also installed a deck whose railings wobble about 3" and you won't find any joist hangers on the support system nor any concrete footings. Needless to say I told my buddy he HAS to tear down the entire deck asap and rebuild it properly or else someone is going to get killed. Here's a few pictures of the house.......
Nice score and restore. Had a wood customer give me dropleaf teak table and six chairs a few years back. In really good condition too. Weathered but very usable. We use some of the chairs on the deck and the table she uses for a garden bench in back. Also have a teak bench on the bedroom deck. Bought it at BJ's maybe 15 years ago. Ill have to get some pics tomorrow.
You would be hard pressed to see an entire boat deck made from teak. It was expensive even 40+ years ago. My swim platform on my ski nautique is all teak, so are a few other things like the throttle knob and the combing boards. That is a top of the line competition ski boat. Even the new nautiques that are over $200k don't have any teak on them. They've got fake teak. The beauty of teak is that it's pretty darn rot resistant.
Very nice job on the restore. There is some teak and mahogany trees being farmed in Costa Rica now. My dad got to work with the real stuff, he was a WWII vet stationed in Burma and India, he rebuilt the floors in the aircraft flying drums and supplies over the Himalayas into China. He said it was so hard, you couldn't drive a nail in it and just about burn a drill bit.
I also brought the clasps back to life by soaking in 5% cleaning vinegar for about a week or so. Wire brush, WD-40, and a wire wheel as well........
Here are some pics of the second bench. Added a coat yesterday. Missed a few spots that I need to hit again but it's raining cats and dogs at the moment. I also needed to dremmel in to the bondo repair to make a notch for the seat pin....and also need to reattach the clasps. The bondo repair is looking better and better with each coat of teak oil. It just sort of blends in nicely with the wood.....although one leg has a bit of a white patch from the pinhole bondo I used....
Finally got around to putting the second bench together. I think this shall work just fine....except I don't know about this teak oil. The first bench has really lightened up a lot and it's already sitting under a canopy of 75ft oaks and a few huge japanese maples....so it's not even in direct sunlight for most of the day. Now the first bench was a bit lighter to begin with but it has gotten noticeably lighter since and I already need to touch it up before the winter comes. Here's the first bench.
Exposure to the elements, not just sunshine, although sunshine can be an accelerator. When I had my sailboat I found a really good (read expensive) spar varnish with a goodly amount of UV inhibitor(s) slowed down the oxidation/greying process quite a bit. Teak cleaner and teak oil was bit more work. The wood bits outside was a yearly maintenance chore to keep it looking like new so I finally embraced the attractive grey patina of teak. edit: varnish tended to flake off in places, even in the Winter under a tarp. Spar urethane (atleast the one I tried) was really shiny and almost slippery when wet and eventually cracked and peeled and ended up looking a bit like the spar varnish at the end of the year. Hard to say which one performed better, I just liked the look of the varnish ( and teak oil) better than the "plasticky" look of the urethane.
