Garden Furniture
 

Hi All

I have some (ahem) mahogany garden furniture. Given the price I paid for it
at B & Q "mahogany coloured hardwood" is probably more accurate.

It's made up of 2" x 1/2" slats with cast iron end frames.

Its gone a kind of dirty grey colour over the last few years and I want to
restore it to it's original colour. Tried a belt sander with 80 grit paper,
but its very slow and is going to be difficult on a lot of the curved areas.
I don't want to dismantle it all (table, 3 x 2 seater benches & 2 x chairs)
and I don't have a thicknesser.

Pressure washer works but raises the grain a little.

Are there any chemical treatments or bleaches that would work?

Dave

On Fri, 10 Jun 2005 07:56:22 GMT, "David Lang"
wrote:

I have some (ahem) mahogany garden furniture. Given the price I paid for it
at B & Q "mahogany coloured hardwood" is probably more accurate.

Coloured eucalyptus is even more likely. B&Q have a few ranges, but the
low-end stuff is barely usable and certainly doesn't like staying
outdoors in an English winter.

Are there any chemical treatments or bleaches that would work?

Patio Deck Cleaner, amazingly enough. It's a mixture of detergents and
oxalic bleach (usually). These are mainly intended for timbers that
discolour themselves (oak), rather than merely faded finishes.

Sugar soap is pretty good too.

Don't scrub or pressure wash it, you open the surface up and accelerate
aging. If you want to holystone it every day, you need to be using real
teak or ipe.

On Fri, 10 Jun 2005 07:56:22 GMT, "David Lang"
wrote:

Hi All

I have some (ahem) mahogany garden furniture. Given the price I paid for it
at B & Q "mahogany coloured hardwood" is probably more accurate.

Nowt wrong with that, I'd expect a lot of teak or 'teak' garden
furniture will get thrown out after a few years because it can end up
really yucky when left outdoors under trees etc.

It's made up of 2" x 1/2" slats with cast iron end frames.

Its gone a kind of dirty grey colour over the last few years and I want to
restore it to it's original colour. Tried a belt sander with 80 grit paper,
but its very slow and is going to be difficult on a lot of the curved areas.
I don't want to dismantle it all (table, 3 x 2 seater benches & 2 x chairs)
and I don't have a thicknesser.

Pressure washer works but raises the grain a little.

Are there any chemical treatments or bleaches that would work?

Deck cleaner containing oxalic as mentioned should restore the colour,
once restored a coat of a decent woodstain like should enhance and
preserve the colour, Sikkens do a range of them.

cheers,
Pete.

I doubt whether the 'mahogany' colour can really be restored. Sunlight
bleaches the wood to a silver-grey colour eventually and unless you
want to stain it artificially your best bet is to regard it as a
natural weathering process and enjoy the natural grey. If you really
don't like the colour then the best thing to do is sit on the furniture
and look at something else.

On 10 Jun 2005 14:12:08 -0700, wrote:

I doubt whether the 'mahogany' colour can really be restored. Sunlight
bleaches the wood to a silver-grey colour eventually and unless you
want to stain it artificially your best bet is to regard it as a
natural weathering process and enjoy the natural grey. If you really
don't like the colour then the best thing to do is sit on the furniture
and look at something else.

You may have a good point in that a lot of 'mahogany' wood esp. stuff
like mouldings is coloured by a layer of basecoat, and the wood itself
is quite light in colour.

In any case a decent stain will colour it quite nicely, AFAIK Sikkens
is designed for application to lighter woods so should work quite
well.

If it's a slatted bench it should be pretty easy to remove the slats
for cleaning and staining.

cheers,
Pete.