There seems to be mould on my furniture, what is it?
The heading to this blog may come as a little surprise to you all, but please be assured that we do not sell a range of mouldy furniture! Very occasionally you may find that your piece of teak garden furniture has some dust or mould on the surface when you unpack it. Before you panic, please take a moment to have a read below and we will explain what this is and how easy it is to deal with.
Here at Ottena we are always trying to make our product as eco-friendly as possible. We have been working closely with a sole manufacturer and supplier in Indonesia since 2015. Our supplier wraps all of our teak garden furniture in cardboard, rather than plastics. This means the packaging is recyclable! The teak outdoor furniture has a slight moisture content, this is a biproduct of it being a natural wood product. Once it is wrapped in the cardboard there is limited air movement in the packaging and this can result in the development of some condensation. As a result, you may find that your teak table and chair set, teak Adirondack or teak garden bench arrives with slight white/green dust over the surface of the wood.
Before we go any further let us say that in no way is this at the detriment of the quality of your teak garden furniture. The development of the dust/mould is the result of a totally natural process and can be easily removed without any specialist equipment or causing any damage, as we will explain shortly. Our teak garden furniture is stored in a dry, modern well ventilated warehouse so we can assure you this is not the result of any water damage or similar. Mostly, we believe this condensation develops on the journey our teak garden furniture makes from its origin in Indonesia to us here in the UK.
As you can see from the photos, our warehouse team have come across an example of a situation like this, affecting a 60cm folding octagonal teak table. On the leg sections and the table top you can see a light film in places. This is an example of what we have described above. This can vary in thickness and colour. The best way to remove this from your teak garden furniture is with a dry microfibre cloth. If it is proving to be a little more stubborn then simply dampen the cloth and it will make it easier.
You can see that once wiped down and left to dry naturally, the film/dust on the surface has completely disappeared from the teak folding table. We completely appreciate that when you purchase your new teak garden furniture, you wouldn’t be expecting to have to clean it before you use it. However, we hope this blog has explained a bit more about what this is, a totally natural process that is easily remediated and does not have any impact on the condition, life or performance of your teak garden furniture.
If you have any questions about this or any of our teak garden furniture then please drop us an email at hello@ottena.co.uk and we will endeavour to answer your questions.
Before - some light white mould can be seen on the surfaces of the teak table
After quickly wiping down with a damp cloth
