Refinishing & Rebuilding Teak Outdoor Furniture

[Sparktrician]

[member=44099]Cheese[/member], that little table really looks spectacular after the work you did on it.  [smile]

 

[Cheese]

[member=44099]Cheese[/member], that little table really looks spectacular after the work you did on it.  [smile]

Thanks Sparky....I really like the 3 coats of Surfix on the top, I'm going to do that on the large dining table for its refurb. The finish seems deeper and harder than usual and the hand (if that's applicable for wood) is unbelievable. The only thing I did differently other than an additional application of Surfix, was that I "buffed" in the Surfix using the ETS EC 125 in the RO mode rather than using the Rotex in the rotary mode. I think that left more Surfix on the surface and allowed for additional finish build. The look is also more luxurious...photos can't accurately reveal the depth/look.

 

[FestitaMakool]

Following this thread, I’m impressed by your commitment by doing this “light” restoration.
Having persuaded teak on boats, and later outdoor furniture I haven’t touched my deck chair (which is the last of the furniture I have in teak) for maybe 10 years, apart from pressure washing it in the spring. I still have deck details on one of my smaller boats - that’s the only one I’ll persue this year. And Ill use an oil that you can apply wet on wet until you end up with a highly flexible top coat which resembles flat clear lacquer, but it won’t flake.
I’ve given up on the saturated but still exposed wood fibre surface.

A very nice job Cheese  [smile]

 

[Cheese]

Thanks Festita...this thread is really all about those that say Teak...Ipe...Cedar...Redwood...just name your poison, does not need to be taken care of and it will just silver and take care of itself. These are all low maintenance woods but certainly not NO maintenance woods. That fact became quite evident when I disassembled the sliding shelves in the chaise and found rotted teak inside the runners.

So the bottom line is, appreciate and enjoy your wood of choice but realize that it still needs some semblance of maintenance for a reasonable life expectancy.

I fully expect as time goes by, that the surface treatments I've employed will change as the chemistries continue to improve. It's just part of the game.

 

[bruegf]

I've got several hundred board feet of burmese teak shorts that I'd be willing to sell for far less than the current market price if anyone is interested.  It's been sitting in my basement for a couple decades now and I'd rather have the room than the wood.

Fred

 

[Cheese]

Following this thread, I’m impressed by your commitment by doing this “light” restoration.
Having persuaded teak on boats, and later outdoor furniture I haven’t touched my deck chair (which is the last of the furniture I have in teak) for maybe 10 years, apart from pressure washing it in the spring. I still have deck details on one of my smaller boats - that’s the only one I’ll persue this year. And I’ll use an oil that you can apply wet on wet until you end up with a highly flexible top coat which resembles flat clear lacquer, but it won’t flake.
I’ve given up on the saturated but still exposed wood fibre surface.

A very nice job Cheese  [smile]

That's interesting [member=71478]FestitaMakool[/member] ...because my very FIRST major refinishing project was helping a friend of mine refinish the complete exterior of a 24' wooden Norwegian sailboat about 40 years ago. Everything on the boat was either painted wood or oiled wood except for the mast which had spar varnish applied. An interesting and very pretty little boat, the perfect size for a 1-3 man crew. It was supposed to be quite rare as there were only a dozen or so imported into the US.

I first got involved because the boat had a 2 cylinder diesel engine and the owner was having issues with electricity and wiring. So...I showed up for the mechanical issues but stayed around for the wood finishing issues. [big grin]

 

[FestitaMakool]

Following this thread, I’m impressed by your commitment by doing this “light” restoration.
Having persuaded teak on boats, and later outdoor furniture I haven’t touched my deck chair (which is the last of the furniture I have in teak) for maybe 10 years, apart from pressure washing it in the spring. I still have deck details on one of my smaller boats - that’s the only one I’ll persue this year. And I’ll use an oil that you can apply wet on wet until you end up with a highly flexible top coat which resembles flat clear lacquer, but it won’t flake.
I’ve given up on the saturated but still exposed wood fibre surface.

A very nice job Cheese  [smile]

That's interesting [member=71478]FestitaMakool[/member] ...because my very FIRST major refinishing project was helping a friend of mine refinish the complete exterior of a 24' wooden Norwegian sailboat about 40 years ago. Everything on the boat was either painted wood or oiled wood except for the mast which had spar varnish applied. An interesting and very pretty little boat, the perfect size for a 1-3 man crew. It was supposed to be quite rare as there were only a dozen or so imported into the US.

I first got involved because the boat had a 2 cylinder diesel engine and the owner was having issues with electricity and wiring. So...I showed up for the mechanical issues but stayed around for the wood finishing issues. [big grin]

Cool.. I think I know which boat that is, picturing it.. It had a small cabin and oval windows?

My first and only wooden boat was also a classic sailboat. That was about 34 years ago, me and my late best friend had some of our best memories in this boat.
It was a BB11 - Norwegian designed and built in mahogany. There was quite a few exported to US as well.

Here’s a photo of a few:
[attachimg=1]

 

[Cheese]

Hey Festita, it had a full cabin that slept 2, that meant the 3rd crew member was always odd man out...that was usually me.  [smile]

And now that you mention it, teak was only on the deck surfaces, it was truly a boat constructed of mahogany. For a small sailboat it had a lot of draft and that's the reason we kept catching it on wing dams. But in rough weather the extra draft stabilized the craft and you never felt like you were going to turtle it, even with a lot of sail out.

 

[Cheese]

There was some earlier discussion about how well the Smith's CPES actually penetrates wood. The second series of photos will answer that question.

The first photos are the before & after of the damaged chair back. Originally, this piece of the chair was close to separating completely and falling off. The chair was tilted backwards so that the crack was vertical. Everything was masked and tape was also placed over the back of the chair crack to contain the CPES. After many, many applications of CPES the epoxy wicked down the crack and eventually completely filled the void, this thing is now solid and just needs to be sealed.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=3]

[attachimg=4]

When I started working on the club chairs I noticed a lot of leg damage on both chairs that's not evident unless the chair is turned upside down.  [crying]

[attachimg=5]

Sanded...

[attachimg=6]

After 6 coats of CPES applied with a foam brush dabbed on, not brushed.

[attachimg=7]

This stuff just keeps soaking in, this is 11 coats later.

[attachimg=8]

15 coats later and it's still wicking in.

[attachimg=9]

Finally after 20+ coats the crack is filled.

[attachimg=10]

I need to do a little more work on filling the top surface of the leg, then some sanding and a coat of sealer.  [big grin]

[attachimg=11]

 

[Cheese]

So, I mentioned earlier how rough the club chairs were after years of neglect. It's like not waxing a car, sooner or later time will catch up with you.

Raw...

[attachimg=1]

Sanded & epoxied filled...

[attachimg=2]

Sealed...

[attachimg=3]

The view from 5 feet away...

[attachimg=4]

 

[Cheese]

And the lounge chair grouping is finally finished. It took a while but I think long-term, it will be well worth the effort.

6:00

[attachimg=1]

8:00...the lighting just kicked on.

[attachimg=2]

11:00

[attachimg=3]

 

[Vondawg]

GREAT job Cheese…it’s nice how the epoxy blends in with the teak, repaired finished outcome even looks like a vain of dark grain

 

[rvieceli]

Looking good [member=44099]Cheese[/member]

Although for all your Herculean effort, I think you could have just welded up some new frames out of stainless and been done  [big grin]

Ron

 

[mwolczko]

Nicely done, and thanks for all the photos and tips.

 

[Cheese]

So one of the things I didn't previously mention is that when it was time to refinish the club chairs, they seemed to be less stable than the other furniture. Probably just me being an old guy with diminishing cognitive skills...until of coarse it wasn't.  [smile]

So after moving these things around for several days into various positions to apply the penetrating epoxy, I realized that there was a lot of movement between the structural members of the chairs...more than what I'd consider normal. My only solution was to drill out the teak plugs and try to figure out where the problems were.

I drilled out the first teak dowel using a Forstner bit and within a 1/2" I came to a grinding halt. The teak dowel was covering up a metal fastener.

[attachimg=1]

So, going back to the first item that was rebuilt, when I drilled out the teak dowels on the chaise lounge they were dowels used as structural members to connect the various parts of the lounge, they were not used as plugs to hide metal fasteners.

However, on the club chairs the dowels were used as plugs to hide the hidden metal fasteners. The good news was that when the metal fasteners were exposed, some needed to be tightened by almost a full turn, which really pulled all of the elements back together and firmed everything up. The bad news was that if I just plugged up the holes with dowels, I'd be in the same situation next spring when the chairs became loose again after seasonal expansion & contraction.

[attachimg=2]

So, I decided to fabricate some teak dowels that were a little bit longer than normal so I could easily remove them from the chair and tighten the hidden metal fasteners if needed. I also pressed into the end a double layer of magnets so they would not easily fall out when these chairs were being moved about. 

[attachimg=3]

When I turned down the teak dowel stock to fit the fastener holes, I sized it so it was a nice sliding fit so that the plugs could be removed easily. Thus, rather than sealing the plugs like I've been doing with the furniture which would build a finish, I used Surfix Outdoor Oil to retain the sliding fit. I purchased the teak dowel stock from these folks...2-day service.  [smile]
https://shop.midwestdowel.com/shop/dowels-15/teak-28/

[attachimg=4]

Everything came out fine and I actually like the looks of the protruding plugs better than when they were flush. It has more of a finished look to it.

[attachimg=5]

 

[Dr. P. Venkman]

Love the dowel solution!

The whole project is looking terrific.  You mentioned 180/220 grit - did you go to 220 on all of the furniture?

I have a single teak bench I want to refinish, and I'm definitely stealing some ideas from your project.

 

[Cheese]

Love the dowel solution!

The whole project is looking terrific.  You mentioned 180/220 grit - did you go to 220 on all of the furniture?

I have a single teak bench I want to refinish, and I'm definitely stealing some ideas from your project.

Thanks...not really knowing what I was going to need sandpaper wise and having never used this 3M Cubitron before, I ordered a bunch of 120/150/180/220 & 240 grit paper. This Cubitron is a great long lasting paper and for refinishing you could go either 180 or 220. After experimenting a bit, I settled on 180 grit.

 

[Michael Kellough]

Agree with Venkman, amazed at the amount of improvement you’ve produced. Almost looks like new furniture.

About the Cubitron, do you feel the abrasive ratings are comparable to other abrasives? Seems to me the Cubitron is cutting coarser than the rating, compared to other brands/compositions.

 

[rvieceli]

About the Cubitron, do you feel the abrasive ratings are comparable to other abrasives? Seems to me the Cubitron is cutting coarser than the rating, compared to other brands/compositions.

That may mostly be due to the fact that 3M stuff is using the ANSI system for labeling the sandpaper and Festool and other brands you may be familiar with are using the FEPA system for labeling. Lower grits are closer to each other but as you progress up in grits the differences are greater.

Here's a chart with way too much info but it outlines the differences:
https://www.fine-tools.com/G10019.html

Ron

 

[Cheese]

Agree with Venkman, amazed at the amount of improvement you’ve produced. Almost looks like new furniture.

About the Cubitron, do you feel the abrasive ratings are comparable to other abrasives? Seems to me the Cubitron is cutting coarser than the rating, compared to other brands/composition

Thanks Michael... [big grin] ...the results so far have been well worth the effort.

And on another note, the new exterior storm door arrived ahead of schedule so this teak project will be once again put on hold while I prep the opening for a new storm door which in the real world is more important than patio furniture.

Just to vent for a few minutes, I've mounted Pella storm doors on 2 of the 3 door openings. Years & years have gone by and the Pella storm doors are still the best items available. On the 3rd opening, which faces directly west, I decided to mount an Andersen storm door because it was the only thermopane (2 glass panes with a gas fill between them) door available at the time. In the winter the cats & the dogs all love to sit in front of the storm door and watch the wildlife go by. So a thermopane door was a bonus round both for the animals and for the heating bills.

However, the bottom line is, the Pella doors use bronze/oilite bushings to support the weight of the door while the Andersen door with double the glass weight uses PLASTIC bushings to support the weight of the door. So after 2 years of use the Andersen door was sagging on its hinges and refused to close & lock. I'll now be installing a Pella thermopane storm door with louvers between the glass panels to reduce solar gain, I have high hopes.  [big grin]

Now on to the sandpaper, I feel the 3M Cubitron punches above its weight class, meaning it's just more aggressive and it maintains that aggressiveness for a longer time. Is it sharper? Is it harder? Does it have a better binder? I don't know but it really seems to be a lot more aggressive.

Here's a 3M Lab Tech Data Sheet from a number of years ago. You'll notice that USA/ANSI 180, which is how 3M rates their products is the equivalent of P180.

View attachment 1