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my teak has been repaired and cleaned. what is the down side to leaving it natural(not putting tip top on it). will have a tendency to crack and split or get dirty more quickly? thanks for the come backs ...Russ

Kinda of your likes or dislikes in the appearance ,if u want the boat to look professionally maintained,u need to keep the teak as close to a recently sanded piece of teak, your in a salt water environment so u may not get as much mold /mildew as would happen away from from the salt effect, left untouched it will turn grey ,maybe get some blackening from mildew /mold setting in, a weekly scrubbing with sudsy ammonia with a soft brush against the grain will kill the crud and keep the teak in a pinkish color,this what the professional captains do in the southeast. We keep our covering boards clean with this method, if u start to put sealers on these areas, it becomes a required maintaince thing, the sealer will wear way in the traffic areas and require chemical intervention. We also sand our covering board annually,pop out any rod holders, etc ,hit with 100 first then 150 to smooth out the roughness, the soft pulp will disappear with this weekly cleaning process, teak is beautiful if kept up, grey teak ,in my opinion, is an indication that it's really not worth the effort to keep it up,your image looks like u have new teak,your call

Marlin, thanks for the come back.as with all of your post a lot of good information. the teak is ,as far as I know is 42 yrs old . I had just finished cleaning it. after I read your post I reapplied tip top teak oil to it . it takes appx 4 hrs to get it to this point. thanks again...Russ

Tip top is as good as it gets, they were out of business for a while as the owner had passed away, again ,not knowing your environmental issues, it may last 1month or 4' , keep the mold/mildew off with sudsy ammonia on a routine basis, not aggressive

Thanks Marlin, I will try the sudsy ammonia. You can still get tip top from Hamilton marine, in gallon jugs. Russ

If you want another option to the sudsy ammonia and you don't have mold or mildew to kill, I've had good luck with Cascade dishwasher detergent and a very light scrubbing with a white 3M pad (across the grain when possible). The white pads seem to get broken in quickly and the Cascade is easy to store and easy to mix - just enough to wet out the wood. This won't get to the bright toast sort of color but will leave clean wood without much abrasion.
Best thing by far is clean bare feet attached to smiling faces.....
S

Russ,

You can order Tip Top straight from Tip Top. They are great.

Dug