Everything you need to know about Teak wood

Teak is indigenous to just four countries in the world – Burma, Laos, Thailand, and India. However, due to excessive, unsustainable logging over the past century, natural teak forests have practically disappeared in all these countries except for Burma.

Fortunately for the world, teak continues to flourish in plantations throughout South and Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It is from the well-managed, Indonesian plantations of state-owned Perum Perhutani, on the island of East Java, that we source our teak.

Teak is one of the most sought-after timbers for high-end furniture production and as such, there is a growing Global demand. Teak is not indigenous to Indonesia; it was brought to Indonesia by the Buddhist monks in the 16th Century from Burma, and it was then expanded into larger plantations by the Dutch to service their ships plying the Dutch East Indies spice routes.

All Indonesian teak comes from plantation sources controlled by Perum Perhutani, the government body that controls all the plantations across Indonesia. To ensure we can obtain sufficient teak resources, we have a team of 22 graders who spend the majority of their time traveling to over 30 different locations across Java to select the ideal logs for our production. When selecting logs, our graders select the best logs with the fewest natural defects. This way, we ensure we obtain the best quality and yield recovery to maximize this valuable resource.

Teak trees are not indigenous to Indonesia but the climatic conditions on Java are ideal for growing teak. Teak grows best in sub-tropical conditions with temperatures ranging between 17 – 43 Celsius and with an annual rainfall of 1250 – 3750mm. In Java, teak can grow on a variety of soils, but for the best results, it needs moderately fertile soil with humus-rich topsoil – well aerated and free draining.

Teak is widely known as the most valuable tropical hardwood and is mainly used for luxury furniture, ships, and decorative building purposes. With its high natural oil content, teak withstands extreme weather conditions and is extremely stable once properly seasoned by kiln drying.

We at Design Pergola, choose logs that have a thin sapwood layer, which normally also goes hand in hand with a tree that has grown at a slower growth rate, meaning higher levels of density and oil content. We only choose logs with a minimum age of approximately 35 years and upwards to ensure the timber is of sufficient quality, whereas other companies use teak which is only 10 years old and has little density or oil content.

Teak plantations are really no different than any other crop, except that the growing cycle is far longer. It can take anything from 35 to 50 years for a teak tree to fully mature. Teak is a noble material and not something that can be rushed!

The teak plantations in Java have been managed over countless generations by Perum Perhutani, and today their plantations comprise some 1.1 million hectares of teak, making them the largest teak plantations in the entire world. Perum Perhutani also works extensively with local communities during the rotational plantation cycle, where they allow the villagers to plant crops during the spelling period between harvests.

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