Maintenance Of "teak" Interior

[Irie]

All -

Seeking commentary on the best way to maintain an interior of teak "veneer". (apologies if this has been posted before). Most is in good shape, but small moisture drips mark under 1 port, plus minor neglect..... ok, the neglect was me

I'm considering a light sand with 220 and satin varnish;

All feedback/suggestions are appreciated !

Prosit !

[redbopeep]

Lots of really good varnishes out there. You could also go with an oil finish that looks like varnish such as a polymerized tung oil or Le Tonkinois. If the moisture drip marks are blackened you will likely need to bleach the wood before refinishing.

The oil based finishes are easier to maintain than traditional varnish and when used outside don't fare as well, but inside should do just fine.

What kind of finish does it have right now?

Good luck

[Irie]

What kind of finish does it have right now?

That is the question of the day ! Reading your posts makes me think it is some sort of "polymerized" tung oil...... geez, I sound incompetent.

Example: The companionway stairs had a fairly decent "luster" during the honeymoon phase, but has slowly worn away during my frequent trips up/down. Have treated the stairs (and bulkheads) via washing with Murphy's oil soap and various wood "oil" treatmnents, but the light (i.e. - almost white) water streaks return.

Clarification: the companionway steps are just worn, no water issues with them.... In talking with a bud, he thinks it is teak veneer over marine plywood.. make sense ?

Thanks !

[redbopeep]

Originally Posted by Irie

That is the question of the day !

Well...the whitish water streaks can show up in varnish and polyurethane finishes. The oil finish...dunno, suppose so, but much less likely.

Veneer over plywood...is it thick veneer like say 3/8"? Or super thin veneer (1/16" or even less). This makes a difference in how you treat it. There are some lovely teak plywoods out there--they're actually teak plys all the way through. They were more common 30 years ago than now, so it depends on when/where your boat was built if it has that. Much more likely to be a regular marine grade plywood with a teak or mahogany veneer front/back for the bulkheads. For the stairs...much more likely to be at least 3/8" thick. I digress....

We have terribly, terribly (did I mention TERRIBLY!) worn 3/8" teak sole over plywood sole panels. We're not bothering to refinish the panels until sometime next year--so our floor just looks yucky and old--but we've got so much else to do...I digress again...

The link I made to the Le Tonkinois product is a good one for your application. We have made new (solid wood) sapele companionway steps from the charthouse down to the main saloon and they were finished with this product. It is shiny (you can dull it to satin just by buffing with bronze wool or a high grit sand paper) but yet isn't slippery. It looks very good and seems to be wearing well. Our other companionway ladder from the deck down to the charthouse has a traditional varnish on it and IT IS SLICK! so I will be putting Le Tonkinois over it shortly. Besides the place I linked to in the previous post, you can also find it here at this store online too.

I've personally found scrapers (razer sharp ones) to work much better than sanding for varnish removal of any kind. Sanding is the last part done after the scraping does most the work.

If your boat's previous owner used polyurethane, Lord help you in getting the whitish finish off of it. Sometimes folks use various 2 part epoxy finishes that look great for a while and then end up with quite a whitish haze that necessitates removal.

Got some pics of your project? What kind of boat is it? How old?

[Irie]

I'll grab some pix tomorrow as they will help far beyond my ability to describe the issue... The streaks aren't severe or getting worse, but something is amiss.... Thanks again.