As a prelude to varnishing Eolian's caprail, I always remove the teak tread plates that I made so many years ago. And this time I looked at them, really looked at them, for perhaps the first time in years. The bacteria, algae, and worse, lichen had made themselves a very good home in and on the teak.
Now normally I would have just gotten out the sandpaper, but then it dawned on me to try benzalconium chloride. I've extolled the virtues of this stuff before, and continue to be impressed with it. So I sprayed some on the right hand tread in the picture above and let it dry in the sun for a day. Then I gave it a very light (emphasize light) sanding with 220 to remove the corpses. What a difference! And because the BAC is now soaked into the wood, I expect it to fend off colonization attempts in the future. This has now become an annual task.
Next: I'm going to spray our unfinished teak rub rail with BAC. It is equally groady looking.
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3 comments:
I found the same thing, which is also true with borax and percarbonate (Oxiclean). The initial spray/cleaning kills the buggers, and then UV finishes the job, now that the bonds are weakened. I've learned that with many cleaning products, the key is to be patient and let the sun finish the job. Obviously, this doesn't work as well on metal/rust stains, but even then, after treating with acid, exposure to weather often removes some more.
Drew, you'll be happy to know that I am using Gold Shield for this. I think I misinterpreted its advantages WRT water - It doesn't convey waterproofness, but it IS waterproof - that is, it resists being washed/rinsed out. I've now done our rub strake too.
That really looks good! And easy. We are letting our teak 'age gracefully', but we do like for it to be clean.
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