Hard wood garden furniture...treatment??

i recently bought a beech coloured hard wood set of patio furniture...it was expensive but i bought it as i liked the colour of the wood.





my husband (when i was out) treated it with 'teak oil'..and it has completely changed the colour...and i now hate it...so as you can imagine..we exchanged a few words!





my husband said it is the correct treatment for the wood...and it has to be treated. anybody know if this is true... are you supposed to coat outdoor wood in teak oil?? thank you for any serious answers.





p.s. he told me to ask on Yahoo...to prove he is right!!

Hard wood garden furniture...treatment??
As a member of his gender, I am sorry to say he is WRONG!


TEAK oil is a darker colour than beech wood, hence it will obviously darken the colour of "beech coloured hardwood".


To best retain the appearance of light coloured woods, I recommend a clear water-based exterior varnish. There are many brands on the market these days, your local hardware store will advise. Oils are good for wood, but they generally darken the colour initially, with the added disadvantage of not sealing the wood from staining by just about anything else. Try washing it off with caustic soda and bleaching it to get the original colour back. (Well, let him do it to retrieve the relationship. hehehe)
Reply:Is beech Teak......? ask him that.
Reply:we have hardwood window frames and they have always been treated with Sikkens fluid, its not cheap at about £20 for a small tin, but it comes in all sorts of colours that you can use to treat your garden furniture, its also weatherproof. Its called sikkons cetol 7. i hope this helps, alternatively you could contact the makers of your furniture and ask them what they used.
Reply:Beech is light colored. Any wood that is going to be exposed to the elements should be treated. Unfortunately any treatment will alter the color some. Plain linseed oil or boiled linseed oil may have been a better choice but it will still darken the color of the wood. A clear, non yellowing exterior (marine) grade polyurethane would also be ok but will still darken the wood some.
Reply:if it's beech coloured: what hardwood is it made from as there are only a handfull of white hardwoods and not many i can think of thast would be suitable for outside use.