Re finishing swim platform

[lawyerdave71]

I love Watco Teak Oil!!!

And you can get it at Home Depot for a fraction of what marine stores sell it for!

[captainmaniac]

As some have posted, a quart is plenty to do 3-4 coats on the platform. I applied 4 coats to mine. The first two penetrate to varying degrees and 'seal' the wood, the third coat mostly sits on top, and the fourth really finishes things off. After I first refinished mine it was about 3-4 years later before I had to do anything to it, and that was just a good cleaning and light sanding, then 2 more coats on the tops of the planks and trailing edge of the platform. Then I am good for another 3 years or so.

[K4282]

I do not know what happened to my previous post but I do have some experiance in this area with all products and methods listed above because I can be kind of cheap and lazy at times i first would use teak cleaner, brightner and oil, that in my opinion is a waste of time, the sun makes the teak turn gray in a month and youve wasted your efforts, ive tried a couple different oils and always kind of dull/ok outcome and sometimes a oily residue. I tried outdoor varnish from Lowe's, that has a nice shine and will look good most of the season but doesnt last. Ive now been using Sikens Cetol Light and now switched to Natural and have used the gloss, here is my recomendation.
1 sand all old varnish and stain off using 220 as a final sand
2 clean with snappy teak nu to make sure its clean and get out any old residue etc
3 apply 4 coats of cetol, i prefer Natural, this requires 24hrs dry time in between
4 apply one base coat cetol gloss
5 mix interlux polygrip with cetol gloss in a bowl to desired mixture and let stand 15 min, the polymere will expand and become part of the mixture
6 apply the polygrip/cetol clear to wood, if it wasnt your desired grit add more and reapply a coat, if it was too much simply apply a coat of clear as a overcoat to tone it down some, I did not like Cetols directions to sprinkle on, its so fine that even with a small pin hole in a seasoning shaker its easy to apply too much and unevenly, i took picture I can share, this process will give you the bright shine and your desired grit level, maintence coats of clear ever year with a quick 120 or 100 scuff and some more polygrip if you'd like, the more grit you add the harder on sandpaper your maintence coats will be

[K4282]

you may notice my swim platform is white, its a compisite 30in custom made one, however i use my cetol/polygrip formula on my ladder steps and gunwales and simply a 4 coat cetol then 4 coat clear on everything else