# stain or oil for teak outdoor furniture



## debbiew (Nov 8, 2011)

Help....I have teak outdoor furniture....live in Hawaii where it rains a lot half the year. I was told to stain/seal and used Penofin. It has molded twice and I have had to clean it and re-stain. Half of it is now in my house and I am still working on cleaning the rest. The Penofin is lifting off. Now, I wonder if I should try this again and put extra mildewcide in the stain and get covers for the furniture, or just oil it on a regular basis and put mildewcide in the teak oil. My main question is....what products do you advise using? I would appreciate any help as I think I am more a teak slave with the staining than I would be to just oil it. Any suggestions?:


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

I don't care for oil finishes especially on outdoor furniture. If it were mine I would use a spar varnish and be done with it for years. Of course any chemical coating will eventually fail but I think the periodic refinish is a lot better than having it always looking like it needs a finish.


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## teaktalk13 (Nov 24, 2012)

*Treating Teak*

The stains or oils you use on teak depends upon numerous factors (location, environment, visual preference, willingness to maintain, and so forth). 

You can use finishes on teak whether you are using the furniture indoors or outdoors. One thing to keep in mind is that if you are using the furniture outdoors, you should not use an oil based finish for the furniture. Oil based finishes tend to trap moisture which promotes mildew growth (which is likely while you are experiencing the problems that you are). You should look into a water based product such as the one on the link I posted below if you are using your furniture outdoors. If the product is being used indoors an oil based finish will be fine. 

http://www.westminsterteak.com/PID30101/Golden-Teak-Furniture-Care-Products

The location and environmental factors involved with your teak will determine how often you need to maintain the furniture. If the furniture is located outdoors and exposed directly to sun then you will need to reapply the finish more often, if the furniture is outdoors but under a covered porch the applications will be less often, and the applications will be minimal when the furniture is indoors. Using covers over the furniture will also help with this process. If the furniture is exposed to constant rain (like yours), snow, or other more extreme conditions, the applications will also be more common.

I hope this helps. Please feel free to ask if you have any further questions!


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## Rick Mosher (Feb 26, 2009)

Any finish will require yearly maintenance in an exterior environment. If you don't like doing the yearly maintenance just sand all the finish off and leave the teak raw. It will turn a lovely grey color and stand up to the weather just fine. If you don't like grey then you can use teak oil every year or follow the instructions on the Epifanes web site for finishing teak for yachts.


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

debbiew said:


> Help....I have teak outdoor furniture....live in Hawaii where it rains a lot half the year. I was told to stain/seal and used Penofin. It has molded twice and I have had to clean it and re-stain. Half of it is now in my house and I am still working on cleaning the rest. The Penofin is lifting off. Now, I wonder if I should try this again and put extra mildewcide in the stain and get covers for the furniture, or just oil it on a regular basis and put mildewcide in the teak oil. My main question is....what products do you advise using? I would appreciate any help as I think I am more a teak slave with the staining than I would be to just oil it. Any suggestions?:


Teak really doesn't need a finish. It sounds like you might have used other products in addition to Penofin. That would be the only product to use, if a product is used, no separate stain or oils.








 







.


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## Midlandbob (Sep 5, 2011)

Ditto. Teak is best to let surface oxidation create a gray silvery colour. This is also true with split rail cedar fences and shingles. Like in Cape Cod shingle houses.

Using outdoor "stains" and finishes is problematic. No finish has yet been developed that can withstand sun UV. The forest service did research on all the finishes several years ago. Only adding opaque solids to an oil finish could come close to standing up. White paint was originally lead oxide powder in linseed oil. Most outside deck stains have ground up earth pigments.
The additional problem of micro cracks that let moisture get under and lift most finishes with flaking and bubbles.
Fancy boats and canoes use spare varnish but really need to be kept as dry as possible and have annual maintenance with a fresh coat. They are more flexible to avoid the micro cracks and have some UV protection.
Teak and cedar look good silver.


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