Teak Garden Furniture Guide

A lot of the garden furniture we enjoy in the UK comes to us from the Far East. Recently it has been easy to find very cheap teak garden furniture. Unfortunately, there have been several complaints about this furniture. We have heard that some of the furniture from other suppliers is not as durable as it should be. It is becoming quickly cracked or warped. In some instances there has been glue failure or patchy colouring. In other cases the wood has actually rotted. This is a situation that no one should have to go through. By reading this guide and making informed decisions your new teak furniture will remain beautiful and last for many years.

This guide is meant to give the customers unbiased information in order to help them make more informed buying choices. There are certain factors to look for when purchasing teak furniture. If you follow this guide, you should not be stuck with unsuitable furniture that deteriorates quickly.

What to consider when buying teak furniture?

1. Machined vs Hand Made

You may enjoy the idea of charming hand-made furniture, but the truth is, fully machine made furniture is generally the best furniture. Machinery and machine training can be quite expensive making fully machine made teak garden furniture a more expensive. It is about fifty percent more expensive to produce fully machine made furniture as compared to handmade or semi-machine made furniture. The benefit of machine made furniture however far outweighs the expense. When a piece of furniture is made by machine you can be sure that every part will fit together perfectly minimizing the need to rely on glue to hold the pieces together. Machine made furniture adheres to a very strict process and each piece will be structurally identical. There is a rigorous quality control program that is adhered to, which includes assembling, testing and disassembling each piece of furniture before shipping to customers.

If furniture is made using a semi-machine method the experience, knowledge and skill of the workers determine the quality of the product. All of the components are made using hand powered tools. There is a fairly high turnover rate of factory workers making it nearly impossible to predict the quality of the furniture.

Labour costs can be extremely low in some countries, making handmade production by far the cheapest route to go. Unfortunately, there are no quality control standards for this type of furniture, so it is a risky way to purchase your furniture. The carpenters often work out of their houses, and then sell their furniture to warehouses. The warehouses then attempt to make the product more sellable by covering up the imperfections using wood filler.  The quality of furniture produced is inconsistent. Furthermore, the teak that is used in this type of ‘cottage industry’ is very often not from a responsibly managed, sustainable plantation. It is often this type of furniture that people end up complaining about when it quickly breaks down.

2. Teak Grading

Grade A Teak: You can tell a piece of furniture is made from grade A teak by noticing  the even, glossy tones and warm honey colour. When a carpenter uses grade A teak they are taking the wood from the mature heart of the log. Grade A teak only makes up 20-25% of the log so if a piece of furniture is made with grade A teak it will undoubtedly be more expensive. This type of wood is actually twelve times more expensive than grade C teak, but the benefits may outweigh the cost. This will be a superior wood because it will not break down in bad weather and it will outlast all of the other grades of teak.

Grade B Teak: Grade B teak still utilizes the heartwood but unlike grade A teak it is not the very centre mature heartwood, instead it is the wood taken from the semi-mature outer part of the heartwood. It will be a slightly lighter and duller colour than the grade A teak. The grain will be a little bit less even, and there may be some small imperfections such as knots. The wood is less oily than grade A. This grade typically makes up 25% – 35% of a log, and will be slightly less expensive than grade A teak wood.

Grade C Teak: This type of wood is taken from the outer sections of the tree, it is the part of the living tree that is used to transport minerals and water to the crown of the tree. The wood is much softer than Grade A and B teak. This type of wood is easily recognizable from the patchiness in colours, as well as the high number of knots. Some of the knots will be removed and filled with wood filler. Because there is very little protective oil content in this wood it will be very easily damaged by the elements, and it is not even recommended for use inside because of its propensity to split and warp. Grade C teak is much cheaper than the other types of teak. This grade of teakwood will make up 40%-50% of a mature log (or 100% of a young log). Because this grade of teak is of such a low quality, if you are looking for wood furniture you may be further ahead to purchase cheap pine furniture. It may actually last even longer than this grade of wood.

3. Say No To Chemicals

Sometimes teak will be treated with a chemical to even out the light and dark patchiness of lower grade teak, thus deceiving the customer into believing they are getting a higher quality product.

Teak can be made to look uniform, and higher grade by applying H2SO4 or sulphuric acid to the furniture. It is important to realize that this chemical can actually be harmful to people causing respiratory issues during sanding or even during normal wear and tear of the product. This product is especially dangerous for pregnant women so be very wary when purchasing your furniture. A second treatment for low grade teak is hydrogen peroxide. While this is a less dangerous treatment it will further weaken the low grade timber and dry it out, making it more fragile. In the end, any chemical treatment may make your furniture look better but it will lessen the oil content and cause your teak to deteriorate more quickly.

How to Spot? If your teak furniture is extra dark or if both sides of a piece of furniture appear to be the same colour it is very likely that your teak has been chemically treated. Unfortunately, chemically treating wood to trick customers into believing they are getting a higher grade wood is a very common practice in the UK.

4. Moisture

Buying the highest grade teak will not necessarily guarantee great quality. Teak must be properly dried to a maximum level of 12% in order to ensure your furniture will be durable enough to last a lifetime. The moisture content of teak is a very strong indicator as to whether or not your wood will warp, crack or split. If the teak has not been properly dried, and the moisture content is high, the likelihood of negative behaviour increases. Unfortunately, kiln dryers are very expensive to run, maintain and purchase so quite often this step is avoided altogether as a cost saving strategy. If suppliers skip the step of kiln drying their teak they will benefit by saving themselves huge amounts of money. Of course, the quality of their product will be much lower. Take Indonesia for example, the vast majority of factories in Indonesia do not even have kiln dryers. If you are working with a good quality, reputable retailer you can ask them whether or not the product has been kiln dried and they will know. If they don’t know, you can probably assume the moisture content is too high.

Air drying freshly made furniture is a very common practice in Java, Indonesia. You can see outdoor areas filled with furniture. They are attempting to dry furniture in a place with an average humidity of about 70%. Clearly, this is an impossible task. This is the very same furniture that will end up on websites and auction sites across the UK, and possibly on your patio if you are not careful!

Kiln drying teak properly, involves using the correct temperatures and timing. It is pointless to try to dry the wood very quickly, as this will result in warping of the teak. Because the kilns are expensive and time consuming many manufacturers do not use kiln drying at all, and those that do often attempt to speed up the process by drying the wood to a higher than ideal moisture content. For example, a manufacturer might decide to dry their wood to 22% instead of the more ideal 12% just to stay competitive but in the process they are decreasing the quality of their product. Furniture that is kiln dried to the incorrect moisture content, or air-dried will always be heavier because the water content of the furniture is greater. It is important to know that you are probably better off purchasing regular hardwood furniture rather than teak unless you purchase properly kiln-dried teak furniture.

5. Build Quality

Glue:
Another way manufacturers of teak furniture may keep their costs down is to use a lower quality glue. Of course, the lower quality glues will not hold as well, and the furniture may not last very long. Furniture glue should be strong, European polyurethane or PVA and resin glue.

Hardware:
It is important to pay attention to the type of fittings that have been used in the construction of your furniture. Marine grade, high quality brass or stainless steel should always be used in the construction of your teak outdoor furniture otherwise the fixtures will quickly rust, and the durability and aesthetic appeal of your furniture will be negatively affected.

Quality Control:
As you can imagine, strict quality controls must be adhered to if the customer expects to enjoy high quality furniture. Often retailers or importers will rely on the manufacturer to uphold quality standards. The manufacturer may have their own cost saving agendas, so these quality controls will not be as strict as the customer would like.

Shaped Timber:
If you are looking for furniture that is more inexpensive don’t consider cutting costs based on the quality of wood or whether or not your furniture is kiln dried. Instead, look for furniture made with straight pieces. Curved pieces of wood may be more comfortable but they require the use of large chunks of wood so they always cost more in production.

Design:
Take time to test the furniture before purchasing. It should look aesthetically pleasing, but it should also be very comfortable.

It is necessary to be cautious if the ad or website you are looking at does not include close-up photographs of the furniture. Be very wary of teak garden furniture websites that do not show close up photos of its garden furniture. If the company you are purchasing from is proud of the quality, workmanship and construction of their product, you can bet they will include close-up photos. They will want to show it off!

6. Wood Source

One critical component you may not think of is where your teak is coming from. Ensure that your teak is sourced from legal and reputable, government controlled plantations.

7. Too Cheap

Beware of extremely cheap pricing or furniture that comes without a guarantee. You want to buy quality, so you’re not having to replace it regularly and generating lots of waste.

8. What guarantee does the retailer offer?

Finally, it is critical to read the fine print on furniture guarantees. You will often see flashy ads stating that the furniture will last a lifetime but when you carefully read the terms and conditions you find that it is only guaranteed for one year or in some cases, only one month. In other instances, there are companies that offer ten year guarantees but when one looks closely they will see that there are some strange terms included in the small print. In one case, the first two years covered both parts and labour but the next eight years, only parts are covered. If you have ever had to have anything repaired you will know that the labour is the most expensive part of getting something fixed. In fact, it will likely be pricier to pay for the labour than to simply replace the furniture. This begs the question, if these retailers are so proud of their furniture why do they have such extremely restrictive guarantees? Our advice is to always read over the terms and conditions of a guarantee very closely and if it doesn’t make sense ask questions.

Conclusion

This guide was written to provide knowledge and guidance in choosing your new furniture. We feel it is important that our customers understand that there is false information on the internet. We hope that you can shop for your new furniture with confidence and start to recognize and question some of the miss-information that is on many teak furniture websites. Having knowledge will ensure that you don’t end up spending too much money on furniture that does not last.

As an alternative to teak, you can consider aluminium rattan furniture sets here.