FENWICK ISLAND – Windsor Teak Furniture is gaining attention nationally as its classic and custom built designs are being shipped across the country as well as building a strong local customer base.
“We are always coming up with something new,” said owner Ken Glass, explaining customer feedback has grown Windsor Teak Furniture’s line.
The furniture, made out of Grade A teak, is built in Indonesia. Glass visits the factory once a year to look over progress and approve the new designs.
“We are direct factory importers and as a result our prices are lower,” Glass said.
Ken Glass, and business partner Mike Weso, explained teak is a hard, closely grained wood that is high in natural oils. These three properties combined together is what creates the wood’s legendary endurance, truly making teak the king of the woods, best suited for outdoor use that is resistant to water and humidity.
“Teak is the best wood for outdoor use period. It is God’s gift to us because of the way nature made it. It is a very dense, tight-grain wood with a lot of teak oil inside. Within teak oil, there is rubber content and natural insecticides, and we all know water and oil doesn’t mix … so when it rains teak does not absorb water, and that is why it has such longevity. This is why they have been using teak on ships and boats for hundreds of years,” Glass said.
For teak to become Grade A, the teak tree has to grow for at least 45 to 50 years to fully mature before it is harvested. This length of time gives the tree opportunities to produce a heavy oil concentration, allowing the oil to spread to all parts of the wood, bonding the wood and making sure that nothing penetrates the wood.
In Indonesia, there are teak plantations strictly managed by the government to harvest this wood for the sole purpose of manufacturing, which is reforested and government regulated. Indonesian Teak Furniture is the only product certified by Rain Forest Alliance and Friends of the Earth.
The teak is Kiln-Dried before construction to optima moisture content of 8 to 12 percent. This allows the furniture to dry to the core and reduces cracking, splitting and warping for decades.
Quality craftsmanship is another mainstay of all Windsor Teak Furniture that offer machine-made mortise and tendon joints that provides maximum dependability along with solid brass or stainless steel fitting. All of the wood is solid pieces of heavy weight teak for these compositions.
Glass discovered teak when he was working as a distributor for a friend’s grandfather clock company, King Arthur, attending home and energy shows. When he came across a grandfather clock made out of teak, his mind began to wonder.
“It was something special and ever since then I have had a respect for teak, knowing it was different and special,” he said. “I started traveling to Southeast Asia about six years ago because that is where teak is grown. I traveled to Indonesia several times and visited at least a dozen factories when I decided I wanted to get into the outdoor teak furniture business and started to import it. There wasn’t anything like that around here.”
Windsor Teak Furniture started out attending home and energy shows to share their product and in 2009 the store opened in Fenwick Island.
“Teak really is the best outdoor furniture there is. It is traditional. It is not going to go out of style. It has been around for hundreds of year, and it will be around for hundreds of more years. It is timeless,” Glass said.
Windsor Teak Furniture includes, folding, dining, stacking, rocking, reclining and bar chairs, as well as folding and non-folding tables, extensions, bar and side tables, benches, gliders, loungers, double loungers, steamers, Adirondacks and deep seating. Custom cushions by Sunbrella are also available for seating.
Windsor Teak Furniture is located in the Ocean Bay Plaza on Route 1 in Fenwick Island. The show room in Fenwick Island is open daily until 5 p.m.
Visit Windsor Teak’s website at www.windsorteakimports.com for more information.