Overseas companies cannot ensure that their teak furniture is manufactured from properly dried lumber. Just to give it a thought– They build their teak furniture in a tropical environment. With them living in a moist atmosphere, they cannot control the lumber’s moisture content. They try their best to dry the lumber and assemble it believing that the moisture content will drop down below 19% by the time it reaches America. Even after 2 weeks of unloading the teak furniture from the container, the moisture content remains to be around 15% -25%. The teak furniture is usually purchased right before spring and stored in a heated warehouse where the moisture content dries up to 12% - 15%.

Lumber shrinks when it dries. This is why the furniture begins to fall apart. When you feel that a teak bench or a teak table is heavier than it appears, it is because the furniture still contains moisture in it.

Our experience with a competitor – I was at a well-known flower show in Philadelphia. We had a competitor there who imported his furniture from Indonesia. We noticed people coming from time to time to our booth and slightly lifting up a 4’ teak bench on display. Finally, I asked one of the couples what they were doing. They said that our competitor had boasted about his benches being constructed heavier than ours. I thought that they were comparing one of our residential benches to their commercial benches. I walked over to their booth during the show and I noticed it was made similar to ours (not as comfortable-looking or well built). The size and lumber thickness were the same. After the show was over, I went to their booth and checked the moisture content of the teak bench when they were not around. As I expected, the teak bench had a high level of moisture content. Wet lumber weighs more. Obviously the teak bench was heavy. The next day I had an argument with the sales person from that company but to no avail. They kept insisting that their bench was built with heavier construction.

Overseas companies still use hand tools to make their teak furniture. This method may suit making one item in their custom shop but is definitely not a good procedure when it comes to producing teak furniture in large quantities. When teak furniture is made by hand tools, there is no assurance that each piece will be cut with exact dimensions as mistakes may crop up. If the mortise and tenon joints are loose, they are usually filled with glue to compensate for the errors made. When the finished products are assembled, the incorrectly cut parts are not discarded. Instead they are filled with glue and other means. When you are looking for products, you want them to be the same every time you purchase them and not different.

Overseas companies also tend to use a lower quality epoxy. Using a cheap or incorrect epoxy with imperfect joinery will guarantee failure of any product.