How to clean teak

Real teak decks look lovely as well as being hardwearing, grippy and gentle underfoot, but they need care. Jon Mendez guides you through the best techniques to keep them clean

- Jon Mendez

The one downside to real teak is keeping it clean. To maintain that just-fitted look takes a lot of work, ideally with a weekly hose-down or a bucket of sea water and a gentle wash and squeegee off. However, for most of us that frequency just isn't possible so a deep clean at the beginning and end of each season becomes even more important.

There are two golden rules when it comes to cleaning teak: first, never use a pressure washer as the power will strip out any softer wood; second, never scrub along the direction of the grain or you'll wear away the surface and leave the black caulking strips proud of the worn wood.

Traditionally, thick teak decks were cleaned with a flat stone and a bucket of sea water by scrubbing up and down. Nowadays teak tends to be a lot thinner and there are easier methods that rely on eco-friendly soap solutions or chemicals to loosen the dirt and restore colour.

The latter usually involves a two-step process with an acid solution to loosen the dirt and bleach the wood, followed by an alkaline one to stop the reaction and restore the colour.