In an earlier post we discussed the pros of the Yellow Balau exotic hardwood. However, If you have not yet read the article please see here: http://greysoflondon.co.uk/yellow-balau-exotic-hard-wood/
How do we maintain it’s brilliance? How do we ensure longevity, beauty, and an overall permanent structure?
The key is in the installation of the wood. After fully installing the wood, it has to be left without treatment of oils, varnishes or sanding for a week or so, in order to guarantee that all of the natural oils and resins can settle in the grains of the wood so that it is able to reach its optimum time for treatment to take place and guarantee a perfectly flawless finish at the end.
The yellow Balau has an intensive and extensive time consuming treatment process that it must go through in order to maintain the grain and colour. It needs first of all to be cleaned, this is vital as it ensures that there are no dust particles on the surface of the wood that may interrupt the oils and varnishes and cause any unsightly blemishes in the appearance.
Once the wood has been cleaned it is then sanded at a high grade to remove all blemishes, more dust particles and anything that may again disturb the finish of the overall appearance in the grain or the surface of the wood. Once it has been sanded the wood is then treated with a varnish, it must have a UV protection on it to ensure that the teak of the wood does not fade and turn into a silver grey colour. This can however be a desired effect in a lot of environments, depending upon where the structure is placed and the environment it sits in. Very much like Cedar, the wood can be left untreated so that the natural aging and weathering of the wood happens.
The varnish is applied to the wood and left to set over a short period of time. This ensures that the varnish is solid and cannot be disturbed by further treatment. Once again it must be sanded, this will be done using a finer grade sander and will remove more and more dust particles to once again ensure that the wood does not contain unsightly blemishes once finished. The treatment must be reapplied and again left for a period of time to ensure it has set and remains undisturbed.
This precise and delicate process will need to happen around 5-6 times depending on how smooth the wood is to become, but the more and more this is done, the smoother the surface of the wood becomes and the longer the life of the wood itself lasts.
Yellow Balau after repeatedly being sanded and varnished ensuring it remains this way for years to come.
When speaking to one of our builders, we discussed how beneficial this treatment done repeatedly to the wood can be if done correctly, it is treated and sanded and retreated to such a high standard that the wood will look and feel the way it does on day 1 of completion for around 60-80 years.
This is obviously a very long, tedious and costly process. But in order for it to look beautiful, and maintain its tight grain without creating checks (Cracks in the wood) it is very worthwhile. The wood will require an annual clean, using a teak cleaner which can be easily sourced, but it does not require a professional to do such a job and will be very financially beneficial in the long term.
This may not be a necessary process when it comes to all installations of Yellow Balau, but in order for it to survive the sun, the rain, the hot and the cold for decades in the future. It needs a fair amount of support at the beginning.