Interior Teak .. Renewed!

A few months ago (I'm a bit behind on the blog with our projects), I finally tackled the job of cleaning & sanding Nirvana's interior teak.  The teak was in bad shape .. dirty, dull and water-stained.  This would be okay for weekend sailing, but with plans to live on Nirvana ... the teak needed some TLC!

The first thing I did was clean the teak with a mixture of salt & vinegar, then I wiped it down with a damp cloth.  I hoped this "trick" that I found on the internet didn't turn into a joke.  As I cleaned the teak, I could see some of the water stains lightening up!

After cleaning, I then went back (not all done in the same day .. I wish!) and sanded the teak by hand.  Can you see the difference?! I was getting excited to see my hard work was paying off.

Here's a few more pics of before & after throughout the boat ...

We had a shelf that was heavily varnished & water-stained, so after Ken stripped the varnish I convinced him to try another internet "trick" to remove the water stains ... "Bar Keepers Friend"!  Since I'd gotten Ken involved in this, I hoped this was also a legit trick.  As the cleaner sat a few minutes, we could see the stain lightening .. it worked!  Who would've thought that this metal cleaner would work on teak?!

After cleaning & sanding .. a huge difference!

 

Since the "Barkeepers" worked so well, I figured I'd try it on the salon bulkhead to remove the water stains from an earlier leak before we bought the boat.  This was one of the few areas that I hadn't yet tackled with vinegar & salt.  I wiped on the cleaner, let it sit a few minutes, then removed with a damp sponge.  It worked, but I couldn't capture the tons of tiny water stains on my crappy phone camera.  It worked good enough to hit a few spots that needed a little extra help after the salt & vinegar cleaning & sanding.  So rewarding, and what a relief to have the teak clean, sanded & ready for sealing!  The pic below is after cleaning & sanding the bulkhead ...

Ken removed the drawers & cabinet doors and sealed them and all the interior teak with two coats of Minwax "Helmsman Spar Urethane" in Clear Satin. We considered teak oil, but we want low maintenance on Nirvana so we decided against it. Also, we know that many folks put MANY coats of varnish on their teak .. we have way too many projects to spend that much time on this!  We've heard good things about the product we used, so we'll see.  It was very easy to apply and we're really happy with the results!

What do you think?

I found the perfect decal to dress up the plain white center on our head's cabinet door ...

I can't tell ya how much better it feels to walk into Nirvana with her teak restored and the rotten wood replaced! The boat not only looks like new, but it smells better too. I can really see ourselves making this our home. I can't wait to get the plumbing finished so I can get our cushions from my Dad's place in Mississippi, clean & recover them, and bring them back on board. We'll also be able to put the cabinet doors & drawers back inside when the plumbing hoses are replaced .. yeah!

We recently removed all of the old & moldy plumbing hoses, faucets & sinks throughout the boat and cleaned the two plastic water tanks. While the plumbing was out we also cleaned, primed & painted all of the storage areas that were filthy & grimy. They look so much better, and they now have a nice finish for wiping down. Stay tuned for a post soon about this, as well as another about our new plumbing. We're almost finished running the new hoses & installing our new fixtures .. woo hoo!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!