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Deck Management

Posted by Awe-d-o-file (D) on July 28, 2014 at 12:39:15

I thought I'd share my experience with resurfacing my deck. I have posted before I live in a temperate rain forest with a very thick tree canopy where on the forest floor not much grows other than moss and mountain laurel. Mushrooms and other fungus are often present.

Anyway the person that built the deck did a good thing for this area: the floor boards are about 4/10ths of an inch apart which allows for better and quicker drying after getting wet. Deck flooring where floor boards butt up against each other trap moisture. Not good anywhere especially here.

When I bought the house which was built in 1982 in 2002 the deck needed resurfacing badly. When it got wet there were several dark slimy areas where one could easily slip and fall. So I borrowed a really good gas pressure washer from a friend. It has a 10HP Honda motor! You had to be careful to use the correct tip (25 degree) and not get too close or it would carve into the wood.

So in 2003 I pressure washed it well and waited for a forecast of several dry lower humidity days in a row and used solid oil based stain after talking with a few local old timers applying two thick coats.

Well 11 years later (this spring) the wood is fine and there were no slippery spots. There were some fence pickets that had a green mold on the side not facing the sun. Also a lot of the color had faded on many floor boards and railing tops and it was time to resurface the deck. I am very happy to have gotten so long out of the last resurfacing especially with my environment.

So my friend had moved and it was time to mooch another pressure washer. This time it was another Honda gas powered ( all the electrics I've seen and tried were a waste of time) but only 5HP. Ultimately it boils down to the PSI coming out of the wand but I don't have those numbers.

Like last time I had to repair bad lines on the washers but once I got the 5HP unit going I noticed that I needed the 15 degree tip and the wand needed to be closer to the deck surface. So it took longer but it looked fine just like the previous time 11 years ago. By the way I used no cleaner or "prep solution" either time, just water and it works fine.

When buying stain this time laws had changed and it was almost impossible to find solid oil based stain. None of the big stores had it. Solid stain has much more UV protection. Laws vary by state but most everything today is acrylic based like Rustoleum 10X restore. No way I'm going to use that. A neighbor used Behr acrylic solid and within a year some stain actually came off showing bare wood under a leaking gutter. I did find one place that had solid oil based stain although is was labeled as for fencing not decks. A phone call showed that it was because they don't want people walking on it in bare feet. I was told it is the most protection I could get and since I have over 1000 sq ft of deck I want something to last a long time. I won't even discuss things like Thompson's water seal that is the consistency of water.

There was a time there was actually mercury in oil based deck stains and other nasties that help prevent mold and increased the stains life. So with new laws it is almost impossible to find solid oil based stain. I lucked out and found it for buy one get the second half price. I need 12 gallons so I save over $150 compared to the big stores and didn't have to settle for acrylic or semi transparent.


Another hint is if you have some floor boards with splits or minor cracks you can simply flip them over and reuse them. I did this on a few boards, the bottom sides were perfect and I even reused the same nails! Of course you need access to the bottom side of the deck and as mine is up in the air on three sides of the house, no problem.



I hope to get 10 years plus out of this too.



ET
ET

"If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking till you do suck seed" - Curly Howard 1936

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