Teak Refinishing With 2-Part Polyurethane

The two parts are great, messy, time consuming and expensive. If I'm taking teak down to bare wood, after sanding with 150 I mix an epoxy resin, thinned about 30% so it's nice and watery and will penetrate the wood. The first time I did this the next day I thought I'd made a mess but it sanded out beautifully and sealed the wood. Then I applied another coat thinned about 10 to 15%. When cured I re-sanded and applied a minimum of four coats Tung oil varnish, sanding (220) between coats (slow process) or three or four coats of a two-part LP varnish wet sanding between the final two coats.

I would agree there are some ugly Cetol jobs out there. The original Cetol turned orange or sh** brown. Plain ugly! Don’t sell the newer Cetol products short. 3 coats of the Natural Light and 2 coats of clear gloss fools a lot of people into thinking it is varnish. If you sand between coats of clear (3 coats needed if you sand) it comes out pretty damn nice. It is much easier to apply, is repairable, and lasts a solid 3 seasons before needing another coat of clear here in the northeast.

Well, GBBayfield, you now have a cacophony of responses. Let me add one more. I have used Bristol and it was OK, went on fast, I had no problems with it kicking off early. Only issue was the last coat on a hatch cover was applied late in the day, sunset then dew and white haze was the result. Sand it off and do it over!. My preferred solution nowadays for handrails is two coats of CPES, light sand, tack, 7 - 8 coats of Schooner or Jamestown Gleam. Used this approach on my wooden ketch, 42 feet of maintenance intensive floating furniture.

Varnish

Has anyone used Epifanes?

Bryant said:

Has anyone used Epifanes?

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YES

Over the years I have tried most of what is available. Once I discovered Epifanes, I liked it so much better than any others that I stopped trying other brands. I now keep my boat covered 6 months and have it outside 6 months. I use one or two quarts of Epifanes a year to keep up the varnish. This summer I took the three fwd deck hatches off and did a full scrape to bare wood and 5 coats of Epifanes on them, one coat on about 1/2 of the remaining varnished wood. Next year I will get the other 1/2. If there are any holes, I will fill them first with 3 or more coats, but there are usually several boards on the less exposed teak that will go three or even four years between coats.

Bryant: I am sure that by reading through these responses, you have found as many different answers as TF members. I have used Epifanes and it worked well. I did find it more vicious than Schooner and IMHO it did not flow as well. So I went back to Schooner and Jamestown's Gleam. My advice: Try it if it works for you go for it. None of this is rocket science, try them then stick with what you like

Epifanes is used by Fleming.

Bryant said:

Has anyone used Epifanes?

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Eptphanes is the varnish with t he highest solids content, but it is difficult to apply in windy conditions. Mirror finish is possible in still conditions. Refurbished bulwark caps and rails on my 423 Classic which spends 6 months in Bahamian sun per year....excellent gloss retention, maintenance coat every 2 years keeps it flawless.

Photos here

https://1drv.ms/a/s!AsNFZsAKNwRLnnyA5BRF0mqkAXVh

Toying with the idea of over coating with 2 part next year...... following....

greatguy00 said:

Yes, I have used Cetol on all the teak work... Have you had any water problems?

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No.

greatpapabear said:

And the greying teak matches my hair!

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There you go.

Here is a pretty good site discussing varnish, particularly the phase out of spars in larger cans and totally in CA due to VOCs

Marine Spar Varnish - good and bad news

I have used two part systems on interior teak with great success over the years. I top coat with a few coats of varnish to add additional UV protection. Never tried it on exterior teak.

Bryant said:

Has anyone used Epifanes?

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We tried Epifanes for the first time a couple years ago for the stairs going up to the fly bridge. I like it. I started with bare wood and there was a learning curve on its thickness. The stairs don’t get much wear with usually only bare feet and they are covered by the boat deck so little uv. It does seem to hold up better than any other one part varnishes I’ve used. I’m getting ready for a couple maintenance coats and I’ll continue to use it.

For a one part varnish, epifanes is really top notch. Add penetrol to it to get the proper “flow.”

In the years that have passed since I did varnish for a living, teak has migrated from having an oil applied when needed to being varnished. Wonder why. For a boatbuilder the selection of teak over mahogany was to avoid varnish. Teak decks and swim platforms come to mind as always being oiled. Seems counter intuitive to select a wood that is high in natural oils then treat it with a harsh chemical to remove the oils so you could varnish it.

I did a couple projects with two part poly varnish, and found a very accurate scale to be very helpful for mixing small amount very accurately. You can order scales cheap on Amazon, and they can save you a lot of waste by being able to accurately mix small amounts in the proper ratio. The stuff is expensive, and it sucks if you mix up too much.

I can’t speak to the longevity but I just redid the whole boat in awlwood and it looks amazing. I had it professionally sprayed and it’s like a mirror. That said be careful address any damage or discoloring before starting. Repairs seem easy as long as you do a decent sized area as it sands/buffs out.

I plan to redo the teak decks on my CHB when the weather gets better,,, with GLUVIT and PAINT!