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Growing to a height of 200ft and found mostly in the lush forests of tropical Southeast Asia, Central Africa and Central America, the teak wood is a favorite hardwood used for outdoor patio and garden furniture. The common variety (tectona grandis) has enjoyed immense popularity among furniture makers for its weather resilience, excellent wood grain and robust hardwood qualities. Not to mention that it is fairly easy to fashion into various shapes as a furniture and general home building material. Teak’s popularity for outdoor furniture comes from its innate resistance to weather elements without any surface treatment like varnish or oil. This is due to the natural oils the wood produces. As such, the history of teak as a choice for outdoor furniture has also seen it used as a boat deck exposed to all manner of weather aberrations and the usual wear and tear from general seafaring use. This same weather resistance made it an excellent choice as a construction material as well. It is interesting to note that the same oils naturally produced by the teak wood that makes it last for generations also make it easy to fashion into useful furniture. This malleability combined with its durability make it unique among hardwoods and thus, account for their popularity among furniture makers. As a hardwood, teak varieties from tropical countries are known to exhibit better durability and hardness than those grown domestically in the US. Hence, most outdoor teak furniture is made from imported teak material that does command steeper price tags. Despite this, it continues to enjoy a large following of clients willing to fork out a higher price for their patio and garden furniture. Beyond being popular as garden furniture, teak also finds its way as a board flooring material in indoor home building, stair banisters and as veneer for finishing, both in furniture and indoor wall panels. Even furniture that use teak veneer command high prices in the market. The qualities of teak as a durable choice for wood products have also found it as exterior panels for some of the more expensive homes in the countryside. No doubt, as long as wood harvesters can ensure that the variety is planted sufficiently where they are felled, we can see increasingly more use of teak as a material for our furniture, both indoor and outdoor, as well as a general construction material for our homes. | 
