The damage to this teak table was caused by water being underneath a table cloth. The policy holder did not realise for many days. When they removed the table cloth the polish had perished due to the water ingress. This left, as you can see in the pictures below “Tiger stripes” to one end as well as other damage to the middle of that leaf. You can also see in the picture below that the centre leaf, that is usually folded away, has not seasoned and so the grain is more pronounced and is a different colour.
We always explain to your customers that we cannot speed up the 20 or 30 years of seasoning (the ultra violet of the sun as well as humidity and temperature changes) that has occurred to the exposed leaves. We also point out that this colour difference is not an insurance matter but we always will try our best to match.
We stripped the table top back to bare timber (or in this case veneer). You can see from the background of the picture we do this on site which removes the cost of collection, storage and delivery.
Our dust sheets make sure that any mess is contained. You can also see there is no dust with our process.
We can then start to polish the table using traditional French polish (this is what gives it it’s beautiful deep richness) and then finish with a hard wearing lacquer that is water resistant and alcohol resistant.
The colour is now even across the whole of the table (as no extra time or cost to us, you or the insurer). A few words of advice to the policy holder to leave the centre leaf exposed on sunny days and they are over the moon.
