Garden Bliss (Sikkens Cetol Marine Teak Varnish)

Member Name: suehome

Product:	Sikkens Cetol Marine Teak Varnish
Date:	10/06/09 (155 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Durable and attractive finish

Disadvantages: May need to reapply every 7 or so years

It's the English summertime again. Whimsical notions of al-fresco eating and luscious strawberries, bathed in gentle sunshine makes outdoor furniture an essential must have for many households. Any trips to the local nursery or DIY chain will have displayed settings of golden coloured durable wooden furniture as the perfect solution enticingly placed since well before the Easter holidays. Many hardwoods are used for such purpose today, lots from sustainable sources but teak is always the crème de la crème in any such display. The fact that it is a hardwood (so not pine or other coniferous wood), with a high natural concentration of oils and resins means that it is not prone to rot, shrink or distort, withstanding the elements au-naturel..........or so they claim.

*** The Reality ***

When first purchased the teak feels smooth to the touch, not oily but with an unmistakable rich musky smell. The golden colour is streaked with interesting grain and the whole ensemble feels warm and inviting. The literature would have you believe that you need do nothing to this magic material it will naturally weather to a silver grey patina, and in some respects this is absolutely true.
Without care or attention, your teak will lose its rich colour and turn grey, go dirty and then shabby looking. Eventually turning green and covered in mildew. The image of forlorn park benches in winter immediately springs to mind for me. This is certainly not the prospect portrayed in the shops, nor does it mention that the weathered surface soaks up water, taking ages to dry and so leaving you sitting on a soggy seat! Whoever thought of making untreated teak cockpit seats for small boats in our English climate clearly did not intend to sit about on them, or had secret shares in the sales of waterproofed backed cushions. Cleaning teak items the wrong way will also do a great deal of harm. Excessive scrubbing and the use of power washers will soon remove teak's natural oils and rip out timber fibres turning the surface into a 'peaks and troughs' ribbed finish. You can even raise splinters if you become too aggressive, certainly not an acceptable hazard for a lazy balmy afternoon.

There are several potential solutions to this problem. The first is obviously do nothing and gracefully accept the weathering of the material: this requires the least effort! Otherwise plenty of oils, sealers or varnishes are available but which to choose??

Before any of these treatments can be applied the wood must be clean and dry. Proprietary teak cleaning compounds are available containing oxalic acid, or phosphoric acid which will brighten up the teak if gentle rubbing with 80 grit sandpaper fails to bring up the surface. Again aggressive use of such cleaners will strip out the softer materials within the woods structure leaving it ribbed and grainy so are probably best avoided unless the object looks really rough and distressed. Warm soapy water or a bicarbonate of soda paste can also clean off much of the surface grime.

Paint is probably the best preservative, but why have lovely teak wood only to mask and disguise it with paint. For me the solution has to allow the rich natural beauty of the wood to be displayed in a practical durable low maintenance coating. Varnish looks wonderful , but is a dreadful work up, requiring many coats with sanding in between, and unfortunately due to the oils naturally present in teak not that good at sticking on in the first place. Also ruled out is teak oil, since whatever you do it gradually turns black, is often sticky to the touch and requires frequent reapplication, and eventually thanks to a recommendation from some Dutch sailing friends I found Sikkens Marine Cetol. In harsher weather conditions than ours they had used this product and it had proved remarkably resilient, so some 8 years ago I invested in my first tin, which was less than eight pounds in those days.


*** The Product Itself ***


Sold in an unremarkable 750 ml grey/blue tin, today this is a product from the Azkzo-Nobel group of Companies, typically distributed here in the UK by International Paints Ltd. It costs about £13.50 a tin these days and is sold in all our local chandlers, or online. This might sound expensive but high quality teak oil is often over £10 a go these days, and this can deteriorate whilst in the bottle. Sealers don't feed the wood like teak oil but, as the name suggests, they seal out moisture and dirt, and seal in natural oils and resins. There is to be fair no evidence that I have found that suggests that teak needs oiling to preserve it longer, it's really the aesthetic appeal of cared for furniture versus shabby driftwood.




The light brown coloured coating contains synthetic transparent iron oxide pigments, which shield the wood against sunlight. This effectively protects the wood's lignin, a key component in its strength, which is degraded by exposure to UV, and is also the component which is so easily scrubbed out with excessive use of cleaning agents or power washers. Gentle rubbing with 120 grit sandpaper prior to application is all that is required for the first coat. Simply wipe the excess dust away and paint on the thin coating inline with the grain of the wood. It soaks quickly in leaving a golden coloured translucent coating. This film coating is micro-porous allowing the wood to breathe and protecting the surface from scuffs and abrasion. Up to 3 coats are recommended but I have only ever bothered with two, sanding only gently with 400 grit sandpaper between coats just to provide enough surface key. This coating makes the wood highly weatherproof and waterproof. Best of all any damage is easily repaired by just rubbing back the affected area and touching in the newly bared wood. There is no need to strip all the coating off and start again!! When that unexpected shower strikes its easy to wipe off any surface droplets from the surface to continue sitting in comfort.


I always buy the natural coloured product rather than the teak coloured variant as this provides a lighter more natural looking finish in my opinion. Like all good things however this is not perfect, and approximately every 7 years or so it is necessary to strip off all the coating back to bare wood, then reapply or the finish starts to look tired and paint like. Brushes can be washed in universal brush cleaner available from all the DIY stores and the tin resealed with its lid until the next outing.

To my mind this is a far superior coating for any outdoor furniture or marine woods than all the competition at the present time.

Thanks for reading

Posted on Dooyoo and Ciao under the same author

Summary: Effective teak or other outdoor hardwood sealer