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If you’re thinking
about painting an old teak outdoor table,
it must be pretty far gone in terms of appearance.
Teak wood furniture is long lasting and of beautiful
grain and coloring, and to want to cover it up is a sign that the
table’s seen
better days. While
teak furniture can be
painted, there are several steps to the process to make sure that it
comes out
as nice as you’d like, and you should examine the amount of
work involved
before committing to the project.
Note
that, because its oils make it naturally weather
resistant, most teak is in the form of unfinished wood furniture. That means that there is
no oil or varnish
treatment to temper the natural elements of the wood.
Prior to putting a coat of paint on most wood
furniture, you would have finished and primed it.
In the case of teak, you still have to prime
it with a substance that will make sure to neutralize the affects of
the oils
on the paint you intend to use. The
best
source of primer for such a purpose is Kilz.
However,
before even that can be applied, there is the
process of sanding to consider, especially on an old worn table like
the teak
outdoor furniture you are planning to work with.
There can be all manner of imperfections
after years of neglect that can make painting it straight out a
fruitless task
that ends in chipped and peeling paint, such as splinters, warping,
bubbles,
and even dirt and dust that have ingrained themselves into the surface. You need coarse sandpaper
and several hours
to make sure that you remove every last old visible particle to reveal
the new,
untouched, undamaged wood beneath.
Now
you have a piece of teak patio furniture that can be primed and painted.
However,
now that you’ve revealed the beauty of what was
beneath years of grime and rough treatment, you may want to reconsider
painting
the table and match it up with other teak wood patio furniture you can
purchase. You can
already see that the
table lasted longer than other types of wood patio tables, so you know
the
material is worth consideration.
If you do decide to paint the table after all, be sure to
buy enough paint for at least two layers, if not three.
Even with a coat of Kilz, the wood can absorb
a lot of paint, and that means you’ll go through several
coats before you see
the finished result as you would like it, without splotches or
transparent
spots. When you are
done, your teak
table will most likely be unrecognizable in terms of material and only
noticeable in shape. When
you’ve
finished, you should seal the paint well, since weathering can cause it
to come
off easily and unevenly.
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