Why Teak is More Sustainable Than You Think

Teak is popular for a reason. Not only is it beautiful, durable, and low maintenance, but teak can be completely legal and environmentally friendly to install. Although plenty of naysayers claim teak is environmentally unfriendly, that isn’t necessarily the case. 

Rumors and misconceptions abound about teak, particularly when it comes to the legality of Myanmar-Burmese teak, the use of acid-based washes, and proper deck maintenance. Fortunately, you don’t have to sacrifice beauty or sustainability when it comes to this much-coveted material. 

Make Sure Your Teak is Legal

When responsibly harvested and managed, teak can be quite eco-friendly. Teakdecking Systems, which has been in business for 41 years, has been scrutinized by investigative journalists and the industry for years. They’ve stayed in business thanks to their integrity — they have never circumvented the law to source teak for decks. Unfortunately, plenty of others still buy Myanmar-Burmese teak, despite the February 2021 military coup in Myanmar that made it illegal to trade teak under the U.S. Lacey Act. (Even prior to this in 2013, it became illegal to sell illegally harvested timber.) 

There are plenty of other options to this outlawed teak, such as plantation and certified green teak. By working with plantation teak companies, you’ll be guaranteed that the forest is managed sustainably, with practices like replanting trees, protecting biodiversity, and minimizing environmental impact. Plantation and green teak is also resistant to insects and rot, and both can last 15 to 20 years when properly maintained.

 

Do Your Due Diligence

Teakdecking Systems receives a chain of custody paperwork that traces the teak back to the stump, revealing what forest, area, and country the teak comes from. They then take boards from each load they receive, send them off, and have them DNA- or isotope-tested. 

“The naysayers who say there’s no legal teak out there or good teak, that can be clearly debunked. You just have to make sure that you’re aligned with someone that’s doing the right due diligence,” said Richard Strauss, CEO of Teakdecking Systems.

The Truth About Using Acid Wash

“Acids are just horrible,” Strauss said, and he urges crew not to use acid on their decks in any circumstance. While using acid to clean decks is appealing since it brightens up the teak, it also means a shorter life for the deck. Proper maintenance extends the deck’s life significantly, which includes using mild cleaners and sanding out the decks correctly.

“Using acid is an easy way to get your teak decks to look beautiful fast, but the acid attacks the soft wood,” Strauss warned, explaining that it leaves the hardwoods looking rougher faster, which makes the crew want to sand it more often. 

Worst of all, if you use any acid-based washes, you’ll eventually have to dispose of it overboard, which is as environmentally unsafe as you can get.

“Maintaining teak decks is not easy. It’s labor intensive — and human nature likes to go with what’s easy,” Strauss said.

Maintenance Tips

Like all woods, teak can decay. Teak is expensive, so you need to protect this asset. Due to the misinformation out there, educating yourself is a big part of that process.

Scrub across the grain, not with the grain. After cleaning your deck, rinse it with salt water and let it be. Once the deck dries, make sure to address any lingering wet spots. This could indicate that there’s a little separation between the caulking and the teak, which should be repaired immediately. 

Sanding teak decks so they’re smooth keeps them looking fresh. Sanding allows the moisture and contaminants to run off the decks instead of becoming trapped on the deck surface. Get someone who really knows what they’re doing when sanding out the decks, Strauss said. Otherwise, the teak can develop grooves and pits, which hold dirt and other undesirables, leading to deck degradation.

 

Always Get a Survey

Sometimes, a captain may request to replace all their teak decks, which might not always be the right move. During a survey, companies should look for wet spots, cracks, water intrusion under the deck, and measure the depth of the caulk seam. By the end of the survey, captains might discover they don’t need to replace as much decking as they originally thought. The surveyors will inform you how much teak you have remaining and how much longer that caulk seam is expected to last.

“We’ll go to a deck that’s not used a lot, or doesn’t have a lot of sun exposure, and we’re finding it has eight millimeters of caulk seam left. That deck does not need to be replaced,” Strauss said. He describes surveying as “vitally important” because it reveals if any or all decks need to be replaced. That could be the difference of thousands of dollars, not to mention time spent on unnecessary replacement costs. 

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