About Grade-A Teak Furniture

Our Teak Furniture

Our Teak Furniture is the Finest Quality Teak Furniture in New Zealand and throughout the world. Teak wood is the premier choice for outdoor furniture. Teak is a stable timber with inherent water and rot repellency, due to its high content of oil and rubber compounds within the wood. Teak is a highly valued wood because of the even grain and beautiful color. It has been the natural material of preference in the shipbuilding and furniture making industries. Teak is a durable, strong wood, which has high resistance to insects and is virtually immune to decay. CLICK HERE TO SHOP FOR TEAK FURNITURE IN NZ

Teak Sustainability

The teak wood used by Design Warehouse is sustainably harvested teak from Indonesia. We use Javanese teak in our products obtained from the government agency Perum Perhutani, which controls the access to and harvesting of tectona grandis. Perum Perhutani also maintains the development and the industry surrounding teak wood. The initiatives and continued regulation of the teak farms allows this sustainability. The limitation of the felling of teak trees on an annual basis helps to promote further reforestation. Originally, Java teak plantations were planted by Dutch farmers (who held colonial control at the time in the area), which make these plantations among the oldest in the world.

Highest Quality Teak for use in Teak Furniture

Design Warehouse uses only the highest quality solid teak wood in our furniture. This teak is referred to as Grade-A, Triple-Grade-A or Super Grade teak. You can recognise this highest quality of teak, which is cut from the heartwood (the wood in the most centre areas of the log). It has a characteristic golden, honey hued color and a tight grain structure that is very uniform. This Grade-A teak wood only makes up about 20% or so of the harvestable timber. You can also recognise Grade-A teak by the low instance of knotting and the very uniform condition and look of the wood, which has a very warm and light color. The standards for inclusion into this grade of teak wood are exceptionally high. This teak is high in natural oils, making it the optimum choice for furniture and is usually only harvestable from trees more than 30 years old. Lesser manufacturers will often employ deceptive tactics to try to imitate this Grade-A look, while using inferior grades of teak. Grade-B and Grade-C teak are characterized by lower quality and density of wood, with coloration variances and a darker color palette. Often there will be knots, whitish wood tones, or patches of black grain and there will be fillers incorporated to try to hide imperfections. Be aware of these characteristics, especially in instances where you see teak for sale with stains or oils on it to even out the colour of the piece. The tectona grandis grows up to about 45 metres tall, and generally has a 1-2.4 metre diameter at the base of the tree. Its leaves are quite large at 0.6 metres long and 0.45 metres wide. The tree flowers with fragrant white flowers that are small in size and cluster together; they bud with cherry-sized fruits that have oily seeds.

Design Warehouse Craftsmanship Means Superior Teak Furniture

Our craftsmanship is at the highest level in every facet of the manufacturing process. Each individual piece is made to exacting standards and built for longevity. In most cases our furniture will be able to last a lifetime. We use kiln dried teak wood that allows for excellent dimensional stability, and ensures we are able to craft our furniture using precision cuts. All of our factories are now using computerized machines to achieve precise measurements and the most accurate cuts. Our construction techniques include using the time-tested methods of legacy furniture, including mortise-and-tenon joinery stainless steel and solid brass hardware and fittings and the highest quality marine grade epoxies. We use extra-fine sandpapers to finish our teak furniture to a smooth, silky finish, to highlight the natural beauty of the wood. The quality control measures we implement ensure that all of our products are manufactured, assembled and showcased for the customer exceptionally. All of our teak outdoor furniture, teak patio furniture and other teak furniture items are made to last a lifetime.

Here are several reasons that Grade-A teak is without question the finest natural material for use in Outdoor Furniture

Because purchasing the right outdoor furniture is often a once in a lifetime event and because discerning buyers of outdoor furniture require the highest quality and long-lasting furniture, Design Warehouse uses the best materials in design and manufacture of our outdoor furniture. Among those materials, is the King of natural outdoor furniture materials: Grade-A Teak. The material your outdoor furniture is built from is the single most important factor in the overall life expectation of your outdoor furniture purchase. Teak wood has an amazing history of uses in commercial environments and those which require the highest quality materials, such as the harsh conditions facing ships in marine environments. For centuries, this material has been the first choice for sea-going ships and continues now to see an immense amount of use in such environments. Because of the environmental resistances inherent in teak wood, it is also a perfect material for outdoor furniture, regardless of the outdoor environment. As far as natural materials are concerned, teak is THE material of choice for outdoor furniture.

Teak outdoor Furniture is capable of withstanding harsh weather extremes

From temperature range extremes to ultraviolet light to extreme moisture or extreme heat, teakwood is capable of handling the differences in weather and outdoor conditions. The naturally occurring oil and rubber compounds in teak wood make it extremely resistant to retention of water and make it difficult for the wood to soak up that moisture in the first place. This keeps teak from warping, cracking and changing the characteristics it starts with, due to moisture: the enemy of most natural outdoor furniture materials. Snow is also not a problem for teak wood; in fact, you can often find ski lodges and resorts using teak wood furniture because of the ability of the teak wood to remain in great condition given the harsh weather.

Resistant to pest, Teak Wood is long-lasting

Teakwood’s naturally occurring rubber and oil also make it unattractive to pest that other hardwoods invite. This includes nasty critters like marine borers and termites. Teak wood is also a very dense and hardwood. Furthermore, Grade-A teakwood is the densest, most evenly grained and hardest teak wood, because it comes from the premium core wood of the timbers. Design Warehouse uses only Grade-A Teakwood (and premium recycled/reclaimed teak) for its Outdoor Furniture.

Low maintenance outdoor furniture

Outdoor Furniture made with Teak Wood represents the lowest maintenance of any natural hardwood outdoor furniture. Teak wood can patina to a very even and gorgeous silver and grey color over time with exposure to the sun and weather. While this color is essentially only skin deep, the structural condition of the material remains intact. This means you can let the weathering process occur naturally, with little maintenance and get a handsome and regal patina, or you can choose to treat the teak with a finish to retain the natural honey colours. Either way, the underlying teak wood will retain its strength, density and attractive properties. To learn more about maintaining teak furniture, see our article How to Care for A-Grade Teak Furniture.

Teak Outdoor Furniture can last indefinitely

If properly treated and maintained (maintenance is minimal), teak outdoor furniture can last a lifetime or even longer. There are public examples of teak wood furniture and boats with original teakwood present, where the teak has been around in use for more than a hundred years. We are aware of many instances, where teak outdoor furniture has lasted more than a generation and been passed along to heirs of estates and relatives for multiple generations to enjoy. A purchase of quality teak wood furniture probably means you've made a purchase for your lifetime and beyond.

Teak Furniture has a certain character and beauty which cannot be matched

As a new piece of outdoor furniture, teak furniture has a brilliant honey and wheat colour profile with a slightly burnished or buffed look. In outdoor conditions, this colour, if not otherwise protected against, will eventually patina with a grey and silvery colour that tends to be very even across the color pattern. This is because Grade-A teak is a dense and even grained hardwood, with very little colour or grain deviation. Teak wood doesn't leech rust from metal fittings. Even though rust can occur on steel hardware fittings, Design Warehouse customers won’t have to worry about seeing rusty hardware as we use only brass or Stainless steel fittings and hardware. Teak furniture owners can offer some protection against the natural weathering and the patina which will eventually occur by applying an appropriate sealant and color retention treatment, though this is only necessary if the customer wishes to retain the original color or prefers not to see the handsome silvery patina that will eventually develop.

Design Warehouse Teak Furniture

Design Warehouse has a history of sourcing the finest materials, creating interesting and timeless designs and producing an exceptionally finished product. More than that, our Teak Furniture has larger, more robust dimensions and better quality wood with ONLY Grade-A Teak being used in all of our teak products. That means Teak Benches that will last a lifetime in your garden, Outdoor Dining Suites that exude class and timelessness and Teak Chairs that provide incredible value and functionality.
Call us today at 0800 111 112 or visit us at our Showroom in Parnell, Auckland!

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