Wooden Garden furniture - needs cleaning

Greenwellies_2

Afternoon!

I have been given some wooden garden furniture. It has been sitting for some time. I have begun to sand it, but it was taking a long time to lift even the very top of the dirt off.

I have now used a scourer and cleaned the top of the table, and it still looks rough.

Is there anything other than sanding I can do?

(I don't want to sand it as I can't afford the sand paper for the sander and a joint problem means I can't manually sand it)

Thanks

Greenwellies

ladygrey_2

could you use a power jet washer?

Busybody

Jeyes fluid

Linda32

A wire brush might take abit of the work for you. I'm sure you can get them from Wilkinsons and are not very much at all.

heatherw_01

Soda Crystals is cheap and might help

mehefin

Domestos ( or a good bleach) with an old paintbrush, leave five mins and wash down with cold water. Wear gloves - and watch the paintbrush gradually disappear as the bleach takes effect!

Greenwellies_2

ladygrey wrote:

could you use a power jet washer?

I considered that but we're under drout restrictions, so thats a no-no

Thanks anyhow

GW

Le_Foot

Help Please,
Do any of you O.S.ers out there have a recipe for an oil treatment for hardwood garden furniture. Proprietry brands are so expensive, but I am afraid of spoiling the wood, or the clothes of people who sit on it, if I experiment without knowing what I'm doing:think:

Seakay

Plain linseed oil will do the trick. Give the furniture a good brush down to remove any algae etc and then apply with a brush or old rag and rub in well with a rag. Leave for an hour or so an then rub over to remove any excess. Possibly leave again before sitting to be on the safe side.
Boiled linseed oil will work in the same way but is a little more expensive - I believe that it is supposed to have easier penetration but I'm not sure.
there is a bit of info here:
http://www.birdbrand.co.uk/acatalog/Wood_Oils.html

MATH

Outdoor hard wood sets need to be fed as they dry out through wind, rain and sun etc. Teak Oil feeds, protects and restores the colour and is ideal for most hard woods. It is OS, available at all DIY stores and isn't pricy. A £5 bottle gave my six seater, large dining set two full treatments.

Lightly rub the wood down with a fine sand paper to remove all the grot and grim and then paint on using a brush. Leave to soak in (I leave a full day) and then rub off any excess with a rag. If you haven't treated the wood in a while there probably will not be much excess to buff off.

Occasionally the wood is so weathered that it need more than a rub down and oil, especially the red toned woods that can go very grey looking or they can go progressively darker if you Teak Oil again and again. To combat both these problems you need to use a deep cleaner between rubbing down and oiling. I use a commercial one (Ronseal) it ain't cheap at £12 a tub BTBH I only use it every 3 years or so and haven't found anything else that does the job as well.

HTH

TillyTrippit

Hi, after years of using Ronseal we were told by a rel that if you high pressure hose your furniture you wll remove the grey and grime etc. Then go for it with the teak oil.
Our set came up like new and I was only unhappy that it had taken him so long to tell me why his furniture still looks beautiful after 15 years and I spent over £30 a year for two treatment packs!!
HTH
Tilly