teak decks

[chuckg5]

Hello, everyone
wishing all of us luck, looks like hanna gonna strake the whole east coast. put out more mooring lines or dock lines- never have to many.
My question on maintenance is - my teak decks are 29 years old and showing a lot of screw heads, they're not meat hooks yet but i do not want to use the acids to clean an lose more teak. what is best solution to clean the black mold,ect without sacrifing teak? bleach sounds like it would soften the wood- any great west marine solution or home made? thanks!
chuck

[Quickstep192]

I have used Meguiar's non skid cleaner and a Black and Decker "ScrubBrusher" on teak with great success. The ScrubBrusher has been superceded by the "Power Scrubber" which is bacically a rotary scrubber for pots and pans. I discovered that repeated scrubbing using a regular brush and scrubbing with the grain makes ridges in the teak. The rotary scrubber doesn't. Also, mine has a soft brush which works well with the Meguiar's non-skid cleaner and really gets it foaming and foams away the crud.

PS; I've also used StarBrite non-skid cleaner. I find the Meguiars works better. It seems really expensive by comparison, but it takes far less of the Meguiar's to get the job done. Less scrubbing too.

[sander06]

I personally would take the opportunity to pull the teak decks up and have a major bon fire. That's assuming that it's going to be a major hassle to repair the damn things!

And, yes, I don't like teak decks having already messed with them for years myself.

[chuckg5]

quickstep
thanks for the helpful product info. i've been down to the boat , the last few days. ended up in the Dollar Store and bought big can of Comet and some mildew killer, each for a buck. got a 10 dollar hard brush and handle at Home Depot and went to work. its seems the active ingredient is mostly bleach but when i went to work on the deck i worried I would soften the teak an scrub it away. that didn't happen. the black mold did come off and after much rinsing and a day of drying it at least looks like wood deck. Not like the varnished rails an trim, mind you , but it looks a lot better then the old black an grey neglected deck. i can do this every few months an maybe keep the deck a few more years.

[ljmalloy]

Not sure if you want to bring the decks back to "new tan" or just silver with out the black. I have always used salt water (I learned it in the Navy) While it doesn't clean to new condition - it does get elimnate black streaks and keeps the teak in a light silver color - it also keeps the wood in sound condition for years. Stay away from bristle brushes - they just take away the soft wood and shorten the life of the decking

[Rockter]

Jet washer, with the jet pattern set to "fan". It works well. Do not get too close though.