Comparison

Plantation or reclaimed teak.

Plantation teak is grown, harvested and documented through the state forestry system. Reclaimed teak comes out of old houses, boats and structures. They look different, behave differently and carry completely different paperwork problems.

Side by side.

Criterion	Plantation teakGrown and harvested under the forestry system.	Reclaimed teakRecovered from old buildings and structures.
The material	Younger wood with more sapwood and a lighter colour. Grain and density depend on the rotation.	Old, slow-grown, dense and dark, with nail holes, mortices and weathering. The character is the product.
Stability	Needs proper drying to a target moisture content before it is made into anything.	Decades of seasoning already happened, which is a genuine advantage, and it still needs checking rather than assuming.
Consistency	Reasonably consistent within a grade, which suits matched sets and repeat orders.	Inherently variable. Two identical pieces are not really possible, which is either the appeal or the problem.
Legality documents¹	Traceable through the Indonesian timber legality system, which is what a European or American buyer needs to see.	Harder. Demonstrating the legal origin of wood recovered from a building is a genuine documentation exercise rather than a formality.
Hidden metal	Not an issue.	Nails and fixings break machine tools and injure people. Detection and removal is part of the process and a workshop should be able to describe theirs.
Supply	Ongoing, plannable, reorderable.	Finite and opportunistic. What is available depends on what was demolished, which makes repeat orders difficult.
Price	Priced by grade and dimension in a functioning market.	Priced on scarcity and character, and it moves with what is being taken down.

Which to choose.

You need to reorder matching pieces: Plantation. Reclaimed cannot reliably be matched later.
The character is the selling point: Reclaimed, with the legality documentation settled before you commit.
You ship to the EU or the US: Whichever it is, get the legality paperwork clear first. On reclaimed material this is the hard part.
You are furnishing a project: Plantation for the matched elements, reclaimed for feature pieces where variation reads as intentional.

Questions buyers ask.

Is reclaimed teak better quality?

The wood is usually older and denser, which is a real advantage, and it comes with variation, hidden metal and a harder documentation position. Better depends on what you are making.

Can reclaimed wood satisfy EU requirements?

It has to be handled deliberately rather than assumed. Demonstrating legal origin for wood recovered from a structure is a different exercise from tracing a plantation log, and it is the question to settle before ordering.

Why do reclaimed pieces vary so much?

Because each piece came from somewhere else. If uniformity matters to you, that variation is a defect, and if character matters it is the reason to buy it.

Still deciding?

Tell us the application and the market. We will say which one your specification actually needs, and quote both if it is genuinely close.

Sources

1SVLK, Indonesia's timber legality assurance system. FLEGT licence information service. Checked 3 August 2026.