Solid wood outside: living with a teak outdoor dining table

Teak is wood. That sounds obvious until you read a patio catalog where half the tables say teak and most of them are aluminum with plastic slats.

This guide is about the other half: the real teak outdoor dining table, solid wood top and wood base, standing in a courtyard or on a terrace through the season. We list a short run of them. They look warm next to brick and planters, they weigh more than anything aluminum, and they ask the operator for a little time every week. Here is what that time looks like.

Real teak or faux teak

Read the material line, not the name. Our wood patio tables carry a top material of wood and a base of wood or metal. The plastic teak tables carry synthetic teak slats on an aluminum or cast iron frame, and some of those names say teak too.

The two need different weeks. Synthetic slats take a rinse and dry off. Solid teak swells a little when wet, shrinks a little when dry, changes color in the sun and wants to be looked at, wiped and checked. Neither is wrong for a terrace. They are two jobs, and the buyer should know which job comes with the table.

What we list in solid teak

A short list. It covers dining height, bar height and tops sold on their own.

• A teak wood outdoor restaurant table at 30 inches, wood top on a wood base, 39 pounds, in 32 by 32, 36 by 36, 28 by 48 or a 48-inch round.
• A bar-height teak table at 42 inches with a 47 by 27-inch top, 51 pounds, also wood on wood.
• A teak restaurant table top one inch thick, sold without a base, from a 24-inch round up to 28 by 48, plus a teak top with a metal edge in a walnut color.

A top on its own suits an operator who already owns bases on the deck, or who wants an outdoor base chosen for weight. Our guide to the outdoor table base covers that pairing.

Sizing a courtyard in teak

Say the courtyard takes four teak tables at 36 by 36. A 36-inch square seats four, so that is sixteen covers. At 39 pounds a table, the four weigh 156 pounds together.

That number is the reason teak suits a space where the tables stay put. Move four of them every night and you are carrying 156 pounds of wood, plus chairs, through a door. Leave them out for the season on a courtyard you control and the weight works for you, because a heavy table does not slide when a guest leans on it.

Bigger groups go on the 48-inch round, a table for five or six. The 28 by 48 rectangle is close to the 30 by 48 shape that seats four in comfort, two to a long side. The bar-height table at 47 by 27 gives two guests a side at about 24 inches each, so four stand or sit at it on stools.

The weekly teak routine

Wood outside wants a habit, not a rescue. Set one morning a week for it, before setup.

Wipe each top with clean water and a soft cloth, then let it dry in the open air. Look at the surface along the grain for raised fibers or a gap opening between boards, and check the joints where top meets base. Feel for wobble with both hands. A table that rocks gets its feet and its spot on the floor checked before guests sit down.

After rain, give the wood a chance to dry before it goes under a cover. A wet top under a tight cover stays wet. At the end of the season, clean it, let it dry, and store it inside or under cover off the ground.

Color is the other change. Teak left bare in the sun weathers from honey toward silver gray. Many courtyards like the gray. If you want the warm tone back, that is a finishing job for the off season, not a weekly task, and the same finish on every table keeps the room even.

What the warranty asks of you

Six months: that is the cover on patio tables and on solid wood tops alike, for faults in what the piece is made of or how it was put together. Two exclusions matter most for teak outside.

First, natural movement of solid wood: a board that opens a hairline along the grain in a dry week is the wood behaving like wood. Second, outdoor furniture left uncared for. The weekly routine above is what care looks like, and a photo log of it on the plan notes costs nothing.

If something does arrive wrong, write within three days of receipt with the order reference and photos of the full table, the fault up close and the label. Our warranty page sets out the rest.

The mistake with teak on a sidewalk

The common one: buying solid teak for a sidewalk that has to empty out every night. The table is 39 pounds, the chairs follow, and the crew ends up dragging wood across concrete at midnight. The feet scrape concrete and every doorway is a chance to knock a corner.

For a frontage that clears at close, choose lighter pieces from the wider range of patio tables and read our guide to the folding patio table. Keep teak for the courtyard, the terrace and the rooftop corner where the tables live out all season.

If you want the teak look on a space that does break down, an aluminum table with faux teak slats at 36 by 36 inches weighs 27 pounds and has an umbrella hole. It reads as teak from the street. It is aluminum and plastic, and it takes the hose.

Before the teak order goes in

Walk the courtyard with a level. A heavy wood table on a sloped floor rocks, and you will find the low corner the first night it does.

Then pick the size by party: 36-inch squares for fours, the 48-inch round for the big table, the bar-height top along a rail with a view. Put each size on its own line in an outdoor plan and write the weekly routine in the notes, the day and the person who does it. For chairs to sit at these tables, our guide to outdoor bistro sets shows how a table and its seats work as one order.