Distinction Between Good and Poor Quality Teak Furniture

Teak garden furniture is the most sought after furniture for any outdoor setting. The huge demand for this furniture has lead to many unfair practices by teak manufacturers. The difference in prices has created a big confusion among teak buyers. Sometimes, even the teak importers get trapped in this because of the limited information and knowledge. It is our obligation as a responsible teak manufcturer to inform our cusotmers in particular and public in general the difference in quality and the methods those manufacturers are using to deceive the cusotmer and thus harimng the whole teak furniture industry. In 21st century when the demand for quality is ever increasing we wouldn't want to label the teak furniture as some sort of cheap furniture because of some irresponsible producers and sellers of this beautiful and most durable wood.
We understand that in open market a customer can purchase a teak chair for just $15.00 and a similar chair would cost $150.00 from another suppier!!! Why such a HUGE difference???? This is the questions we are trying to answer here. Please read through carefully and judge yourself.
The teak furniture industry in indonesia can be categorised into two: Organised and Unorganised. The organised sector includes the big manufacturers who produce their goods using modern machinery with standard internatinal manufacturing procedures. The unorgainsed sector comprises of individual carpenters and small small exporters and wharehouse operators. The main difference is WHO MAKES YOUR FURNITURE? Is it facotry made OR some local carpernter at his home with no control or procedures to follow!! The others factors which determine the quality and thus the price of teak furniture lies in quality of wood, fittings used, type of glue and guarantee provided by the seller.
It is very important to understand how this works. The cheap furniture( which is full of sapwood with no real joinery)made by an individual carpenter goes to a BIG WAREHOUSE( these are normally the internet companies who claim to be manufacturer and so on). In these warehouses they collect the goods from hundereds of other carpenters. The warehouse will TREAT the furniture with CHEMICALS to attain the yellow brown color of the teak. Ofcourse, it looks almost same to the customer but we do not know how it affects the durability of wood, the adverse effect on environment and the person sitting on the chair which has been CHEMICALLY TREATED. They will put it under sun for few days and then pack it in a nice looking carton box with fancy brand name on it!!!! Infact, these warehouses are HUGE and have grown many folds in last couple of years. They have no investment at all except a rented warehouse which they can close down anytime. What guarantee should one expect from such warehouses/exporters!!!!!!

GOOD QUALITY TEAK FURNITURE
1.WOOD SOURCE
The wood is sourced from Perhutani only. Perhutani manages the teak plantation under TFT/FSC supervision. The wood from perutani is guaranteed to be cut from sustainable plantations.

2.QUALITY OF TIMBER PIC TEAK WOOD
The wood used in these products is free from sap, knots, termites and black grains. To get this quality of teak planks one needs to use bigger logs -meaning better quality wood.

3.DRYING PROCESS
KILN DRY: The teak components are placed inside huge kiln dry chambers for almost 2 weeks to attain the desired moisture content of wood before processing. This step is most important in producing teak garden furniture. The teak furniture which is made from properly kiln dried teak is guaranteed to stay intact for generations.

4.PRODUCTION PROCESS

Generally the companies have good infrastructure to make such products. Everything is done under one roof. Modern machinery is used at every stage with strict quality control staff. Very experienced and skilled labor force is employed; qualified and experienced management team usually manages the company.

5.ASSEMBLY
Hydraulic presses are widely used to ensure that the parts fit tightly and precisely.

6.GLUE
Only waterproof polyurethane and high quality epoxy glues are used in these products. The polyurethane glue is highly elastic and adjusts itself to any weather condition.

7.FITTINGS
High quality SOLID BRASS or stainless steel fittings. Rust proof and guaranteed to last for decades.

8.CHEMICAL TREATMENT

NO TREATMENT AT ALL. The products are always delivered in natural color. Finley sanded.

9.FINAL PRODUCT
In general, these products are delivered in natural finish. No teak-oil or any other substance is used. The end product is finely sanded to give a smooth end finish.

10.PACKINGPacked in quality hard carton boxes with complete product detail printed.

11.GUARANTEES

ATLEAST ONE YEAR MANUFACTUER GUARANTEE

POOR QUALITY TEAK FURNITURE

1.WOOD SOURCE:
The wood is sourced from private plantations. Since the warehouses have no control on production even the illegal wood is used in such products. The certification like BRIK/ETPIK has no meaning except that the company is allowed to export furniture. All freight agents in Indonesia possess such certificates!!!!!!!! The certificate from Perhutani is the only proof that wood has been bought from legal source.

2.QUALITY OF TIMBERThe wood used in cheap quality teak products is full of sap, termites and uneven grains. Since the logs are vey small in diameter, freshly cut the planks are full of sap.

3.DRYING PROCESS
SEASON DRYING: The wood is put outside in open sun for few days to few hours hoping the wood will dry by itself!!!!!!! Most of these carpenters do not own a drying facility neither have access to any kiln drying facility.

4.PRODUCTION PROCESSNo infrastructure. Usually they work in groups but with no coordination. The workers are paid on contract basis. The owner only provides the shed with some working space with minimal tools. No control or quality check is performed.

5.ASSEMBLYThe parts are glued and pressed using rubber bands and strings!!! How well the parts are joined together will depend much on the manual strength and patience of the person. Consistency is lacking because of no parameters to follow.

6.GLUE
Locally produced epoxy glues are mostly used here. The price of such glue is only the fraction of polyurethane gule. Since the epoxy glue produced a hard film between the two adjoining parts, the joinery becomes much weaker after the product has gone through its first winter.

7.FITTINGS
Low quality brass fittings are used. There is a large home industry here which will use the scrapped brass with large impurities and reprocess it and sell at very cheap prices. Such fittings will look fine for first season but will ultimately rust and even breaks in some cases.

8.CHEMICAL TREATMENTAs above said, the end product is treated with a solution of sulphuric acid to hide the sapwood and other defects. This is a decesive process which makes it hard for a customer to figure out whether there is any sapwood in the product. The customer will know after few months of use but that is already too late!!

9.FINAL PRODUCTAfter treatment, the products are left to dry for a day or two. During this process, the color becomes almost uniform with light brown color. There are other methods besides treatment. Most of the products which are stained or finished with teak-oil are mostly lower grade products.

10.PACKINGNow, even these products are nicely packed. That is where the customer got to be cautious. After all, we are not paying for boxes but what in inside the box.

11.GUARANTEE

NO guarantee.

Indonesian Teak furniture Industry

Furniture Industry in Indonesia has boomed since the 1998 Asian crisis. The main reason behind this boom was the weak Rupiah, availability of abundant teak plantations and no or very little competition from outside. Furniture buyers from all over the world took advantage of this cheaper teakwood furniture prices including a lot of big global hypermarkets. The result was the availability of Indonesian teak furniture in almost every part of the world. Plenty of small furniture manufacturing firms start entering this furniture boom to provide cheap teak furniture to the global market, which benefited everybody at that time. There is no denial that the growth in number of enterprises and the number of jobs in furniture sector did rose dramatically but since then other internal and external factors had slowed this Indonesian teak furniture boom.

Indonesian teak furniture industry is suffering from the scarcity and cost of the raw materials. The illegally logged timber is not available the way it used to be few years back. This made the small furniture enterprises, which had benefited earlier with the abundant use of illegal logged wood very difficult to sustain and most of them have even stopped their operations. The prices of teak timber for viable source (PERHUTANI) has almost tripled in last 7- 8 years and the buyers from outside still want to pay the same or even less. They don’t want to increase the prices at which they used to buy as they are selling their goods cheaper in their markets compared to 7 years back. This has forced many small enterprises to lower down the quality of teak timber used in their furniture. This has resulted in the evolution of treated teak furniture in the market. Treated teak timber furniture is made of very low quality timber which is then chemically treated to make sure that furniture has the homogeneous color.

Language barrier and the lack of need to invest in their infrastructure is another major factor which has stopped or hindered the local furniture manufacturers to get the good price for their furniture products. This has benefited a lot of big foreign trading companies. These foreign trading companies represent themselves as furniture manufacturers to the global market but in reality they just buy the furniture from local manufacturers and then export these furniture items under their brand name to the worldwide market. These foreign companies are exerting lot of pressure on local manufacturers and demanding the cheapest price possible. This resulted in local manufacturers paying lower wages to their workers, using lower quality raw materials and do everything they can do keep their business profitable. This vicious circle has a bad effect on all sectors of the industry: labor, investment, social responsibility, quality of products and so forth.

Another challenge to Indonesian teak furniture Industry is the competition from countries like Malaysia, Vietnam and China. Malaysia is one of the major exporter of wood furniture to the global market, though it does not have plantation resources like Indonesia, still very good amount of teak furniture to the global market is exported from Malaysia. It is because of the fact that illegal logged timber from Indonesia still goes to Malaysia. Malaysia, Vietnam, and China export the teak furniture from their countries at cheaper prices than Indonesian though those countries still lack experienced and skilled craftsmen.

In conclusion, the Indonesian teak furniture industry has benefited a lot of people in Indonesia and abroad but the competitive pressures now from inside and as well as outside, are dragging the industry into the race to the bottom.

Importance of production process in Teak furniture manufacturing

Teak furniture has been the preferred choice as garden furniture since decades because of its beautiful grains and its unique characteristics. The presence of high oil and rubber content help it to repel moisture, sun fading, and termites making it one of the durable and preferable woods. A lot of consumers buy teak furniture to last for ages. There is no doubt that the teak will last for ages but if the furniture built of teak does not go through a proper production process, it is same as any other cheap furniture.

The production process is as important as the sorting of teak for the furniture manufacturing. In proper production process, the wood has to be dried well, the joinery has to be good and the glue has to be of good quality.

Drying process: The proper drying of wood is very important in any furniture manufacturing. However it is more important in teak furniture manufacturing because of its higher cost and the expectations the consumers put on these pieces. This stage of the manufacturing process will make sure that the teak furniture pieces does not crack or warp. I see lot of consumers complaining on various forums that the furniture pieces they bought just few months back are showing some cracks or have started to warp. The main reason for these problems is just that the wood was not dried properly. The sawn timber should go through well regulated modern kiln driers for almost 14 days to attain the maximum moisture content of 12%. The well regulated modern kilns make sure that the wood is dried inside out and not like the old kilns where only the wood dries from outside.

Joinery: All furniture pieces have some sort of joinery. It is this joinery process which makes it possible for the furniture pieces to be intact for the lifetime. The tongue and grove joinery is the best joinery from centuries and is used even today. However these days there are mortise and tenon machinery in furniture manufacturing which makes the tongue and grove joints even stronger.

Glue: The good joinery has to be followed by the good glue. It is this glue which will make sure that the tongue and grove or mortise and tenon joints remain intact for the lifetime. There are various type of glues used in the furniture manufacturing. However for outdoor furniture the glue has to be waterproof. So for teak furniture manufacturing polyethylene waterproof adhesive should be used.

So if you are looking to customize your outdoor setting with beautiful, unique, durable teak furniture pieces make sure that those pieces have been made through the proper manufacturing process.

The company produces teak outdoor furniture of traditional and modern contemporary designs. Browse Triconville for stainless steel and
patio wicker furniture.

Teak Furniture Manufacturer

Teak has always been the first priority for patio furniture.
It is the high rubber content present in this wood which makes it resistant to heat, rain, termites and to extreme cold conditions without the need of any treatment. Because of this unique ability of not rotting or corroding when brought in contact with metals, many furniture manufactures have chosen to use teak with other metals like stainless steel to provide an alternative modern and contemporary looking teak garden furniture. This modern design teak garden furniture has become the new trend in teak furniture market. We see plenty of items, which are, mix of teak and stainless steel or teak and aluminum. Besides metals, all weather contemporary patio furniture had grown rapidly in recent years because of its unique qualities as outdoor furniture.
Having said that, consumers nowadays got plenty of options to choose from according to their life style. Traditional classic outdoor furniture made of teakwood and modern looking furniture made of mix materials. One fine example of these types of products you can find at S.N.Indonusa.

The company produces teak outdoor furniture of traditional and modern contemporary designs. Browse Triconville for stainless steel and
patio wicker furniture.