Staining swim platform?

[C.J.]

Our swim platform has faded to almost a grey color, has anyone staind their platform before? if so how dark did you go and is there a certain type of stain?

[osukellen]

I assume it is teak? I just picked some teak stain from home depot I think. Light sanding, and then let it soak in, and added another coat.

[jmo]

You want to restore the original teak color via many iterations of: wet sand, apply starbrite teak oil, wipe excess, let it dry, then repeat. Start with 400 grit and sand paper and work your way up with each iteration. You might want to use one of the cleaning products first before starting the sanding/oil iterations.

You don't want to stain or use a lacquer/polyurethane finish as it will be slick and eventually peel anyways.

[osukellen]

Yeah, I meant teak oil...not stain

[east tx skier]

Be careful how fine you go with that sandpaper. You can get it to the point where it is as slick as glass when wet. 800 grit and few coats of teak oil (Amazon brand or Starbrite is good) will look great and will last all season with ordinary use. Wait about 10 minutes after applying and wipe off the excess. Let it dry in the sun for several hours (or a few days indoors). Then do another coat.

[mrbobolina]

Use a block sander or a palm sander and sand the surface smooth until all of the gray is fresh looking. You will likely have to trim 1 - .5 mm to get the grain right. If you platform is really bad you will have alot of raised grain already. On this use a belt sander and even it out. Yes a belt sander with some insane grit to even it out. Then follow up with a palm sander and then an block where applicable. You want to end at about a 400-800 grit overall. When you are ready, then follow up with the teak cleaner, oil kit. Your platform will look brand new. I did this to mine and it took a Saturday afternoon. My platform had been tortured previous to my ownership.