Boaters Tips and Tricks

Treatments for Wood on Deck

Wood on deck is a beautiful thing. But it can also be a royal pain because our deck wood wears quickly from direct sun exposure. The good news is there are four ways to treat deck wood which can make our boat decks stand out. Each offers positives and negatives, so there’s no cookie cutter solution. One thing is pretty much universal, all wood treatments must be applied to raw wood, so if the wood is treated with something already, you’ll want to strip the wood back. That can be done with heat and scraping, or chemicals.

Once the wood is exposed, you may need to bring back the luster and color of the wood, which can be done with sanding or better yet a Teak Cleaner. Teak Cleaners followed by light sanding can make dried old wood look new again.

Now you’re ready to treat it. Teak Oil, Varnish, varnish-like coating, or a Wood Sealer are your choices. Teak oil (the oldest) is easy to apply, ages well, and its only drawback is it isn’t super shiny, and you'll have to apply it fairly often. Varnish is harder to apply, but provides the most beautiful look after. The downside of varnish is that it peels if not reapplied once a year or more. Varnish-coatings like AwlWood last much longer, look amazing like varnish, but will peel eventually. And wood sealers are easy to apply, don’t peel, and need fewer reapplications than Teak Oil. The drawback of sealers are they aren’t shiny.

It’s a rather lengthy subject, and we've only scratched the surface here. At Beacon we’re happy to show you samples and answer any and all of your questions about your deck wood, and at least now you know the very basics.

Another Boating Tips and Tricks brought to you by Beacon Marine in Ventura California.