Teak wood: everything about teak, from tree to furniture

Teak has an almost mythical status: the wood of ship decks, of garden benches that stay outside year after year, and of classic sideboards. But what exactly is teak wood, where does it come from, and why does quality vary so much? This page sets out the facts, with sources, so you can judge for yourself what a seller tells you.

What is teak?

Teak comes from the tree Tectona grandis. The Dutch timber information centre Centrum Hout names Myanmar (Burma), Indonesia, India, Thailand and Indochina as growing areas, with plantings in tropical Africa and tropical America. In the trade you’ll also come across names such as Burma, Rangoon or Java teak and the Indonesian djati or jati (Centrum Hout, Dutch).

According to the Queensland Government, teak grows naturally in the monsoon forests of India, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, and is grown in plantations in Indonesia, Africa and the West Indies, among other places. In favourable locations the tree grows up to 45 metres (about 150 ft) tall (Business Queensland).

Properties: why teak is so sought after

Property	What the sources say
Colour	Heartwood light brown to golden brown, darkens under light; sometimes streaked dark brown to black (Centrum Hout, Dutch)
Feel	Feels “soft” and slightly greasy because of oily substances in the wood; a characteristic smell that some say recalls old leather (Centrum Hout, Dutch)
Durability	Durability class 1 to 3 against fungi, depending on where it grew (Centrum Hout, Dutch); class 1 above ground and termite resistant (Business Queensland)
Strength	Strength class D40 (Centrum Hout, Dutch)
Density	About 670 kg/m³ at 12% moisture content (Business Queensland)
Shrinkage	2.2% tangential and 1.2% radial to 12% moisture content (Business Queensland)
Working	Saws and planes well, but lime and silica in the wood blunt tools; pre-drilling needed for nails and screws (Centrum Hout, Dutch)

That the wood copes so well with weather and water explains its classic uses. The Queensland Government says teak is “best known” for boat building, for decking, rails and planking, and is also used for flooring, indoor and garden furniture and carving (Business Queensland).

One less well-known point: Centrum Hout notes that teak contains substances that can cause skin conditions such as eczema in sensitive people, so good dust extraction is needed when working it (Centrum Hout, Dutch). Sanding it yourself? Wear a dust mask.

Heartwood and sapwood

Not all of a teak trunk is equally good. The pale sapwood on the outside is, according to the Queensland Government, pale yellow, clearly distinct from the heartwood, and susceptible to lyctid borers when untreated (Business Queensland). The durability teak is famous for applies to the heartwood (Centrum Hout, Dutch). The proportion of sapwood is therefore one of the most important quality questions for a piece of furniture.

Natural forest or plantation?

Durability differs by origin. Centrum Hout gives teak from its natural range durability class 1, and teak from plantings outside that range class 1 to 3 (Centrum Hout, Dutch). So plantation teak is not worse by definition, but it varies more.

Teak from Myanmar. Myanmar is one of the natural growing areas. In December 2020, the European competent authorities for the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) concluded that no full due diligence was possible for timber from Myanmar, and that operators should therefore not place timber from Myanmar on the EU market (EUTR competent authorities, 2020). Those conclusions were not legally binding, but in 2021 the Dutch Council of State (Raad van State) confirmed the lower court’s ruling upholding orders subject to penalty payments against two Dutch importers of teak from Myanmar (Raad van State, Dutch). The Myanmar state timber company, Myanma Timber Enterprise, has been on the EU sanctions list since 21 June 2021 (EUR-Lex), and under the EUDR Myanmar is classified as a high-risk country (EUR-Lex). If you’re offered “Burmese teak”, ask about its origin and paperwork.

Teak from Java. In Indonesia, the state forestry company Perum Perhutani manages the state forests on Java and Madura. An FAO publication by Perhutani describes more than a million hectares of teak plantation, with a rotation of 40 to 80 years; the trees are girdled two years before felling (FAO). Note: that document dates from the 1990s, and current figures may differ. Besides teak from state forest, teak from villages is also processed, known locally as jati kampung (CIRAD/CIFOR).

More on origin and what it means for quality is in teak grades.

Jepara: the furniture heart of Java

If you buy teak furniture from Indonesia, sooner or later you’ll come across the name Jepara, a district in Central Java. A study by the research institutes CIRAD and CIFOR counted 15,271 production units there in 2007, with some 170,000 workers together, mostly small family businesses with a lot of subcontracting. Teak was the main wood, followed by mahogany, and the wood came mainly from Java itself (CIRAD/CIFOR). Those figures are now almost twenty years old, but the picture of a dense network of workshops still holds.

Drying. Indonesian producers give a moisture content after kiln-drying of 8 to 12% for furniture (Naramulya); Gloster says it dries its teak to 12% (Gloster). Well-dried wood is a precondition for furniture that won’t crack or warp.

Grade labels: A, B and C

“Grade A” appears on many price tags, but it is not a protected term. The Indonesian producer Naramulya writes that there is no generally accepted standard for grades in the Indonesian furniture industry, and that its A/B/C grading is its own internal standard (Naramulya). Bali Teak Furniture warns that terms such as “grade A”, “premium” and “FEQ” can mean something different at each workshop (Bali Teak Furniture).

Roughly, the gradings come down to this: A is heartwood from mature trees, C contains sapwood and younger wood. On B, the two sources already disagree: for Naramulya it’s heartwood from private plantations, for Bali Teak Furniture the outer part of the heartwood. Both are producers with a commercial interest.

In short: don’t buy on a letter, but on what you can see and have put in writing. Ask about heartwood, the proportion of pale sapwood, the moisture content and a photo of the raw wood. More in teak grades.

Reclaimed teak

As well as new wood, there’s reclaimed teak. The Dutch furniture company Troedoor, which works with it itself, describes knots, unevenness and inset repair pieces as part of it (Troedoor, Dutch). The FSC Recycled label means all the wood in a product has been verified as recycled or reclaimed (FSC UK); it is not a guarantee that the wood originally came from an FSC-certified forest (FSC UK). Read more in reclaimed teak or see all the variants in types of teak.

Legal and responsible: FSC, SVLK and the EUDR in brief

FSC is a certification for responsible forest management. There are three labels: FSC 100% (all the wood from FSC-certified forests), FSC Mix (a mix of FSC wood, recycled material and/or controlled wood) and FSC Recycled (FSC UK). Only a company with an FSC chain of custody certificate may put the logo on a product, and the logo always includes a licence code you can look up in the FSC database (FSC Nederland, Dutch).

SVLK is Indonesia’s mandatory system for assuring the legality of timber. On that basis, on 15 November 2016, Indonesia became the first country in the world to issue FLEGT licences for timber exports to the EU. Under the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR), which applies until 30 December 2026, timber with such a licence automatically meets the requirements (EEAS). Under the EUDR, a FLEGT licence only proves legality, not that the wood is deforestation-free (Art. 10(3) and recital 81, EUR-Lex).

The EUDR is the EU regulation against deforestation. Companies that place wood and wooden furniture, among other products, on the EU market must show that they do not come from recently deforested land and have not contributed to forest degradation. The EUDR replaces the old EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) and applies from 30 December 2026 to all companies and traders; sole traders and other micro and small companies that are the first to place wooden seats such as chairs and benches on the market have until 30 June 2027 (for wooden tables and cabinets, 30 December 2026 applies as well) (European Commission, EUR-Lex). If you buy as a private individual in the EU for your own use, you have no obligations yourself, but you can ask your seller how they comply.

The full story, including what these labels do and don’t guarantee, is in FSC teak.

Teak indoors and outdoors

• Outdoors, untreated teak turns silver-grey over time. Tribù calls this a cosmetic process that doesn’t affect quality or strength (Tribù); Gloster gives six months to two years (Gloster). Both advise against teak oil on outdoor teak.
• Indoors, teak actually darkens under the influence of light (Centrum Hout, Dutch) and can be finished with oil or lacquer.

Looking for furniture? See our buying guides to indoor teak furniture and teak bathroom vanities.

Care in brief

Teak needs less maintenance than many people think, but what you do depends on the choice between keeping the colour or letting it go grey, and between indoors and outdoors. Everything about that, with a decision tree and steps per situation, is in how to treat teak: the complete guide.