Teak time is the way to hold up outdoors

by Melissa Schorr
When choosing furniture for your garden, experts say no other wood can compare. Unlike popular hardwoods such as oak and maple that are often used indoors, teak is vastly preferred for outdoor furniture because of its ability to withstand the test of time and the elements.

"Nothing holds up as well as teak," says Mike Robertori, owner of West Teak, a furniture manufacturer based in Alameda who will display his wares next weekend at the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show. "It's incredible wood."
Teak, which is mainly grown in Southeast Asia, India, Africa and Central America, is an oily hardwood with an ability to withstand insects, rotting, splintering, cracking, even saltwater.

"In the marine industry, there is one wood they've been using for years," Robertori says. "That's why they use it on swim platforms and submarine boat decks."
Robertori and his partner, Dennis Landau, two high school pals from New Jersey, have set up shop within a huge aircraft carrier hangar at Alameda's abandoned Naval Air Station, which they have stacked to the rafters with teak benches, tables and chairs.
Since they began four years ago, business has doubled annually, a success they attribute to the quality of their product. Their wood is culled from a plantation on the Indonesian island of Java, and they use only the most prime pieces of Grade A heartwood, the innermost dense part of the tree.