Grade A Quality Teak Outdoor Furniture

Got some customers who asks for highest grade A quality teak outdoor furniture. But they are shocked to know the price we offered. Well, to be honest, me myself not sure enough that my quality of teak furniture is the highest quality, as nobody really know what is the highest standard of teak.

Everybody has a different standard and make their own opinion, and most of the time they are thinking surely that everybody must has the same standard of how is the quality in their mind, only by telling A, B or C quality.

Of course it would be good when the price offered is accepted, and manufacturer’s standard quality is higher than the customer, so everybody is happy, no one disappointed. But it’s very seldom happen. Usually when manufacturer’s quality standard is higher than what the customers’ have in their mind, customer will shock and thinks that manufacturers are quiet crazy giving that price for that quality, greedy, or trying to get unbelievable profit for onetime order.

Meanwhile, it could happen only because manufacturers think about different quality and prices offered are match to that quality that customers don’t understand. Both customer and manufacturer may be hate each other after bargaining, only because they are actually not realized that they are talking about is different quality.

What is Grade A Quality Teak Wood

I often ask myself, what is grade A quality teak wood? My own standard, is when I am using plantation wood, less sapwood, less defect, similar colours between one and other components in the furniture, that’s already grade A quality teak outdoor furniture. Regarding the smoothness, the humidity percentage in the wood, construction, it should be the same in every grades of teak furniture, either it is A grade, B grade or even C grade furniture.

Is my grade A quality teak outdoor furniture already the highest quality teak wood? Of course not. That’s only my A grade standard quality, like everybody’s way of thinking, my grade A quality I think is the normal standard when people ordering furniture to me.

But not only one or two times I lose customers only by giving them price of A grade teak furniture. They said my price is crazy high compares to others. But some of customers still come to visit my office while ordering teak furniture to other manufacturers in my city. After some conversations, we finally match the standard. They said they got much cheaper price than what I offered but different quality to what they expect.

Not always like that, after a long discussion, negotiation and fights by emails, phone and whatsApp about the quality and price, he proudly sent me detail photos of the same item, same size, that he already bought few months ago from other manufacturers in my city, in A grade but about half price than my offering. Suddenly everything is clear, I told him, I can even give lower price than he got before, for that quality I saw in the photo. How come?

Well yeah, especially for teak outdoor furniture, we have a new magic way to change the C grade quality to naturally become A grade quality look. Yes. By magic. And because I want to be nice to you this time, I let you know the secret magic spell we are using, it’s called “Nitric Acid”. yes this high acid solution burns the surface of teak wood, this process caused the light colour of C grade teak wood turns darker, whole parts looks similar and natural. It’s not look like stain, it simply looks natural A grade teakwood, which is coming from a big diameter teak log.

Why Buy Grade A Quality Teak Outdoor Furniture

Okay, so why should we still offering grade A quality teak outdoor furniture while we can offer them the magical one with less than half price?

For us, quality is not only about the look. People buy teak wood furniture not only because of the beautiful grains it has, but also the durability and the ability to adapt in different weather. During the hot and dry season, the shrinkage characteristic of wood is effecting the construction of wooden furniture. A simple example, you sometimes find that your solid wood doors are so loose during this time, and very tight during the wet season, don’t you? Yes, this is because of this shrinkage natural characteristic of wood.

The adapting ability of teakwood, makes it one of the best wood kind for outdoor usage. In the extreme weather outside, direct sun and rain, the different temperature between night and day, the oil inside teakwood makes it stand in the same form compare to other wood, it won’t get too dry and crack easily or get rotten because of the rain. Yes time of course much stronger than teak wood, but it takes longer to fight teak wood until its really knocked out and broken.

About the construction and joints on teak wood furniture, the shrinkage is the second cause of broken furniture. How the join can be strong if the wood itself is shrinking? Although the proper way of gluing still takes the first place of causing the broken joints, shrinkage gives a lot of support to break the glued joint.

Now, because shrinkage is really a crucial issue on wood furniture, for grade A quality teak outdoor furniture we should use a big diameter of teak log. Big diameter of log is the first easiest way to estimate how old was the tree before we cut it. The bigger diameter will be (which mean older here), the more density it has. The more density a wood has, the stronger it will be. When it is strong and dried, it has less risk to shrink, and finally when the risk of shrinking is minimized, and the glue on joints made on a proper way, the furniture will last much longer.

We cannot use small diameter log or teak branches for A grade quality. First, small logs diameter has big sapwood on the edge. Of course we should not use this sapwood for this quality as the colour will be so much different, so we need to cut off the sapwood on the edge and use the darker of teak in the middle to make furniture. Second, since it is small logs, and we need to cut off the both edges with sapwood on a plank, the remain in the middle will be very small, and then after this we should also avoid the heart of the wood which is in the middle of logs, which most of the time not going in straight lihe. At the end, we have nothing left to make a good furniture.

Beware of Fake One

So let’s come back to the magical grade A quality teak outdoor furniture, this fake quality looks sometime even better than the real A grade quality. But the strength could never be the same. So if you think quality only means about how it looks, then this fake quality is match to what you need, as long as you’re not hopping to get a durable furniture. However, for about 2 summers this fake quality can decorate your garden and looks nice and natural, can last few years longer if you maintain it good. Friends and family who comes and see your teak garden furniture will not know that it is a fake quality if they are not an expert. You can even get the grey patina colour on this fake quality as it is on the real A grade, or maintain it with teak oil to avoid this greying process if you don’t like it.

While we are using the magical spell of Nitric Acid on C grade, it makes the strength of the C grade teak wood even less. When the acid burns the surface about 3mm deep into the wood, the surface will become weaker. Improper way of gluing process on joints will get worse when the chemical applied into the wood surface. Not only that, this acid can of course react to the metal hardware on this furniture. There’s a lot of things related to avoid this furniture broken, however with cheap price offered, on this quality still have a big demand in European markets. Yes, it is fake A grade, but it is still teak wood, and cheap! And if the manufacturer knows how to do it in the proper way, it can be a choice also, however you should never forget it is not a real grade A quality teak outdoor furniture, don’t hope it has the same durability.

My Honest Suggestion

Now we’re going back to the standard quality that most of the time being a cause of me losing a customer only by answering their question about highest quality teak wood that they want to have. For a long distance purchase with big quantity, there are some points we have to really careful about before deciding to buy from a teak furniture manufacturer.

Here we go :

1. Never think that everybody has the same standard quality in mind as you have. Your A grade is not always has the same meaning to theirs. Not because somebody wants to cheat you by giving lower quality, or they want to have unbelievable crazy price for high profit, mostly simply because no one realizes that they are not talking about the same things. So make sure, shows some photos for reference, ask more details from manufacturer what’s their grade A quality teak outdoor furniture and match to yours, if there too much and you can tell them no need to make it really high quality because for sure price will be higher than you expected. If it’s too low, then you must tell them what you don’t want on your A grade furniture.

2. Never compare prices when you don’t really know the quality standard between one and another manufacturer. There is no exactly measurement on quality, and could never be. If you compare only based on the price offered, you are very much close to disappointed at the end by choosing the cheap one, because good quality is never cheap. Except you are very lucky of course, or there is a stock clearance, or it’s a magical A quality for sure.

3. If you want to compare prices offered to you by different manufacturer, make sure you ask them to mention all possible details. Not only about the wood quality, also what kind of teak wood it will be, does it plantation wood, commercial wood or reclaimed. Also hardware they are using and packaging material. On some item, different packaging material can give you more than $20.00 per piece, let say on a big mirror. Some are using just a standard single face corrugated wrapping paper, some are thinking more about the safety and using wooden crate to pack it. Is it still better price to take the $20,00 cheaper if when you open the container and find some mirrors are broken because of unsafety packing? Sure not. Remember, we could never said a Toyota Yaris is a better car compare to the Lamborghini only because the price is cheaper.

4. Trust me, there’s no something called highest quality teak wood. One can make very high quality, but there is also higher. Mentioning high quality teak wood to a manufacturer on your inquiry only lead them to give you wrong price. Just tell them how good you want it. And to tell the manufacturer how good it is, then you must know first what you want of course. Sometimes it could be so much easier and faster discussion if you already have target price, manufacturer will let you know what is possible with that target price. An honest price deserves to have honest quality we may say.

Well, did I told you about the big differences on upholstered indoor furniture? Price can be up to 4 times different or even more although it has almost exactly the same look. Without a correct and professional information, this large range of quality can be a huge disaster at the end, either to customers and manufacturers as well. So be more curious on what you buy.