Deck Refinishing

no answer but...

Jack Guzman from Maine

I just wanted to thank you for a sure sign of warm weather to come. Deck question. It is spring.

I'd forget the chemicals

Tim Greif - West of Chicago

I have a 30 year old PT deck that I refinsh every 5 years of so with Wolman Rain Coat. I simply pressure wash each time to renew the clean look before applying the Rain Coat. I've done this multiple times on the horizontal deck surface and a couple times on the vertical posts and ballusters. Just dial the pressure washer down to a maximum of 1,000 psi so you don't damage the wood. The pic below shows the deck partially finished and with the unfinished section of pressure washed surface. I've never used any chemicals and it still looks good after 30 years.

Our Decks

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

get a lot of mold and tannin staining from the trees, so some bleach is necessary. Wolman's used to use oxalic acid which did a nice job along with a wide broom and the pressure washer. We do every 2 years with TWP oil sealer.

Re: Our Decks

Chuck

We have the green mildew problem out back and my wife found this" Wet and Forget" product o n amazon and wanted to give it a try, Well we tried it and it really works great, sure made a believer out of this old guy. Very easy use and so far so good.

Re: Our Decks

Henry (Raleigh NC)

Mark

I have recently used Cabot's deck cleaner - straight up, not a concentrate IIRC. Smells like a bleach and a detergent, so not so plant friendly either (no evidence, we covered the plants before use). Brush/scrub on and rinse off. Worked well on a not-maintained-for-20-years deck (not mine). Had to replace a dozen boards so went back with a 'solid' color 'stain' to minimize color differences.

Likely available anywhere Cabot's stains are, but aside from my local lumber yard, I can't tell you where that is.

Henry

Thanks

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

Will give it a try

Re: Deck Refinishing

Dave Bair

There are any number of homemade formulas out there. Try a recipe that uses hydrogen peroxide instead of bleach.

Wet n Forget is good stuff

Tim Greif - West of Chicago

Good stuff, although I've not heard of using it on decks. I spray it on the dark streaks of my roof shingles where residual moisture causes mild mildew stains. In that application, it needs the help of the sun weathering on it to make the stains go away. I was led to believe that it was an oxidizer that needed time and exposure to do its job.

H2O2 *LINK*

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

(peroxide) is a bleach (the original "bottle blond"). And a good sanitizer as well. see link

I'll try the Wet & stuff and maybe add some oxalic to it

Thanks again


Sanitizers

Re: Wet n Forget is good stuff

Chuck

Yes it does need time to work on our deck it took about three days to see the results after a week and a rain the deck is as clean as can be. It works on pavement also.