Treating decking boards

Hi All
My decking will be two soon, never been treated by me but what do I use dont like stains I have left it natural any ideas greatly recieved..

Spruce

 

there was a thread on another forum recently, and someone suggested yacht varnish

probs is that if you treat it with decking stain, you will end up doing it every year

 

Decking is usually treated timber, Spruce.
So basically you only need to apply a decorative finish to smarten it up.

Having said that, something with a bit of water repellent qualities wont do any harm.

You could use Oil of some kind, teak oil was always, a good one, but these days there are all kinds of oil available.

I'm just wondering, if you dont want to use a stain, why are you bothering?

 

Hi Pete
Basically just thought it may need somthing to stop any rot forming plus yes a smarten up would look good I have hardly used due to me keeping the bees at the bottom of the garden and sitting on the decking was far from relaxing with my moody bunch but since I have moved them I want to use it more?? no one had told me its ok for a couple of years .

Teak oil sounds good I use that to treat the tables chairs etc , somone said in work wax ??
Just need some dry days and a bit of sun I supose

Spruce

 

I remember watching on GW a few years back...AT made a table and chairs and treated it with Veg oil....i've always gone for yacht varnish or teak oil but now you've just reminded me i might give it a go.....'Cheap as chips' compared to the others

 

Well I think there are all kinds of things available these days, mostly oil or wax based.
Would not go near yacht varnish though, it never was much use, in my experience.

Linseed oil was a good one from way back, or you can get it boiled, dries better I think.

Whatever you use, I'd wait for at least a week of good weather before applying

 

if it has not been stained or treated yet, you can use a blowtorch to burn it black .... was on a tv program recently on wow factor ..

I thought that looked good

 

i've seen that before, i thought it looked good myself too. bit different to normal stains/oils/waxes on decking.

Garden ER iirc.

 

Cuprinol 5 star is a colourless all round timber treatment against worm & fungus, like has been said, shouldn't need doing yet but only if you are sure whoever built it treated every cut surface. The protection from tanalising is only on the outside of treated timber unless it has been pressure treated.

 

I have used Danish Oil , to finish a redwood (spruce ) ( - no pun intended ) gate and a hardwood bench . Its a lot cheaper than the Sikkens stuff. It has a nice matt/satin finish and is very easy to wipe or brush on. Now a gate and a bench are light use verticalish surfaces. Decking is flat and high traffic.............so you need to choose carefully.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rustins-Dan...A5F8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335650606&sr=8-1

 

You can buy clear deck oil or decking preserver from Wickes - it's what I've used since I built my deck about 6 years ago.