Swim platform/ teak questions...
 

I recently decided to re-finish my swim platform. I bought the West Marine Teak kit which included the cleaner & brightener, and the teak oil. I followed the instructions and used some other info I found on here and another site. I applied the first coat, let it soak for 24 hrs then reapplied a second coat. My main concern is now that it has been about two weeks and seems "dry" it looks to have a white "film" on it (see pics, first one is right after the oil was applied, the second two are now). I believe this is the excess oil that dried? I can kind of scrape it off with my finger nail but wondering id this is normal, if there is something else I need to treat it with or do to take that off, or after the water and traffic hit it this summer it will be normal again? Thanks in advance...

Personally, I would have sanded it really really good before I applied any oil, especially if its been thirsty for quite a while. Ive refinished my teak swim deck twice and I've never had it turn out like that. Mayb it wasnt clean enough? Most people think power washing it gets it clean enough to oil too. Ive never done it so I cant comment. And maybe cleanliness of the wood isnt the problem, just throwing out ideas....

How much did you sand it before you put on the oil?

I used to have that same platform and what I learned to do each year was to use a copper brush (I used the ones that are made to clean grills) or copper whoole pad to scuff the plateform real good. Every year I sanded it real good it would be to slick and people would always fall. But once I started using the brush it would look as good as sanding but not be as slick. So you could re-scuff it and just up more oil on it if you wanted.

I learned this way from an old ski pro on Planet Nautique.

When I did mine, I sanded it down 150 grit, top and bottom then applied my oil. I have never seen that white film before. Was the teak oil a new bottle or one thats been sitting around? I bought a new bottle, because my old one looked a bit milky.

If you didn't sand it, you'll need to. When I did mine, I sanded the balls off of it and the clean shine lasted about a month or so. Looked great. I didn't get any white residue like that, but it started to dry up fairly quick and I had to re-clean and oil it again. Every year its the same process. Sand, clean and oil it one good time at the beginning of the year, then after that just clean and re-oil.

All of the above comments are correct. You have to sand the crap out of it to get proper penetration out of any type of oil. The white residue is left over solids that did not penetrate. I would probably wipe down thoroughly with mineral spirits, let set for a few days and use Blair's copper brush suggestion to open up the pores of the wood. I'd probably wait until the boats been in the water several times before re-applying any oil. You need that second coat to "wear". GOOD LUCK!

Sand the crap out if it. Then go back to West Marine and get some Sikkens and a can of silica grip.

Do it once for the year and you won't have to touch it til next season and it will look like it just rolled of the showroom floor all year.

Here are the pics of mine

http://www.mastercraft.com/teamtalk/...=14640&page=11

When we had a teak platform. The person who owned it before us used the more expensive ,suppose to be better teak oil from Starbrite. It had varnish or something in it. Did not like the look at all. We stripped,washed sanded, sanded some more. Then use the plain starbrite (cheaper) bottle of teak oil. Would put a coat on every 2-4 weeks stayed nice forever. Never sanded again.

For me personally I would not go above 80 grit on sanding. I used a 60 with an orbital as it made the job quicker and thought that i would move up to something finer, but I liked the texture especially after it was oiled of 60. Maybe to a hand it doesn't feel amazing, but i stand on my deck and don't pet it too often... Once its oiled back up you lose some texture and cant see any grit marks anyway. Oiled wood and water is slick as snot, if you've ever fallen back there or seen someone fall you'll think twice about having perfectly smooth swim deck.

My buddy fell on mine and was pissed off at me for half the day, I did feel bad, but I love my teak swimstep