Caring For Cracks In Teak Furniture

You’re outside enjoying a bit of peace and quiet, relaxing upon your centrepiece teak garden furniture, when shock horror! You notice a crack in the wood has appeared - fear not!

At Mr Teak we’re experts in all things garden furniture, so before you begin to panic, break out the super glue or solemnly discard your furniture should a crack begin to appear, let us help advise you on what to do.

Are Cracks Something To Worry About?

Generally no, not at all, teak just like any type of wood material begins to naturally weather (turn to a silvery grey colour) when outside, and as some of the wood’s natural oils begin to diminish with the passage of time, small hairline cracks may begin to appear. 

These small cracks that follow the grain of the wood, or ‘checking’ as they are sometimes referred to, naturally smooth themselves out as the furniture ages and don’t require any specific reactive fixing or maintenance.

Proactive Care Is Better Than Reactive Care

The best way to care for teak furniture is to carry out a few simple proactive preventive measures to ensure your furniture stays strong and looks great.

Furniture Coverage

The most effective way of protecting teak furniture that's kept outside all year, is to use a high quality, easy to store and apply, material cover to encapsulate your garden furniture when it’s not in use. This practice will prevent moisture and sudden temperature changes from warping and cracking the surface of your furniture.

Our ‘Weather guard’ covers are made from long lasting PVC backed woven polyester, and  offer a durable barrier of all season protection for your teak furniture and can provide an effective layer of resistance from the harshest of British weather conditions.

Treatment

Another great way of preventing cracking in your garden furniture is to apply a teak specific finishing coat. 

Teak oils and sealants can keep your garden furniture looking new, and structurally sound, but must only be applied once the teak has ‘weathered’ (shifted to a silvery grey hue), as all of our teak has been pre-treated and premature use of oil or sealant may damage the furniture.

Please also note that the application of sealants or oils will invalidate your rights to return your product, please see our terms and conditions.

Large Structural Cracks

If larger cracks do appear in your teak garden furniture, again don't panic, there are still a few things you could try to keep its structural integrity top notch. 

Firstly clean the inside of the crack to remove any dirt and grime build up, then apply some wood filler via a putty knife to fill the damaged area almost to the top, apply some oil based filler putty by hand to evenly smooth over the top of crack before leaving to dry. Finally, if the shade of the putty does not match the hue of the furniture you can add a layer of the correct tone of polyurethane to complete the micro-restoration.

Verdict

With the correct preventive maintenance easily undertaken at the opportune time, preventing any detrimental cracks in your teak garden furniture can be easy. Durable weather guarded covers and teak specific sealants and oils (applied at the correct time-scale) can bolster the strength of the already extremely tough teak.

Why Choose Mr Teak?

Our products are sourced from legal and sustainable projects as we believe the knowledge of giving back to the environment only enhances the experience of relaxing in our premium garden furniture. 

Via our ethos of using the highest quality sustainable wood without having a negative impact on the environment you are helping towards the fight against deforestation, as well as making sure more trees are planted to replace those that were used to make your furniture.

Not only does this reduce your carbon footprint, but also guarantees the longevity of your products due to the quality of the Indonesian legal wood and the high standard of joinery we have upheld for 20 years.