Treating decking, sand it down or just wash?

Hi all,

I have some wooden decking in desperate need of some love and attention, and wondered what the best practice is for preparing it for treating?

I have heard of people scrubbing theirs with a brush attachment of a pressure washer, but should I just get a floor sander and sand it straight away? Surely this will negate the need for a pressure wash?

looking for any advice for a newbie to decking, thank you!

 

Fair point it would make it more slippery to start with, although I assumed once then treated with a matte finish stain that it'd be OK to walk on. I like the idea of a bleach cleaning solution, how do you apply it?

 

When decking first became popular - I hankered for it!
When I moved here with a decked space - I thanked the previous owners for it!!
When I experienced my first post winter here: I said words that had previously not been uttered because of it!!!

Sanding would simply flatten the grooves and make it even more treacherous (in my opinion). Bleach sounds like a good idea, but, remember that bleach solution will .. well, bleach! So, your decking may not be as richly coloured as it was first intended.

Where is your decking space?
How much do you love it?
How desperate is "desperate"? (Do you need to replace some boards?)

I do know that Wilko's sell a reasonably priced "stain" if you want to liven up the colour a tad.

 

Hi M it's outside the back of my conservatory, covers a large area and the task of removing it is out of the question as I simply don't have the DIY nouse nor the money to pay someone. Fair point about the bleach doing it's job in terms of colour, I may firstly try brushing it with some Fairy liquid and see how clean I can get it.

I don't love it really, I just happened across it, and when I say "Desperate" I just mean really it looks all patchy and manky coloured, and I'd love for it to be an even colour. I had briefly researched stains and "Kingfisher" was the recommendation I had for the best lasting and spread, but thanks for the Wilko suggestion. I have found on my brief research, however, that to apply such a decking stain it does need to be almost back to the wood or it won't soak into the wood properly.

I think I will leave the sanding alone

 

Just thought I would add my two pence on maintaining decking.

First of all attacking the whole surface with bleech and jet washers isn't probably going to do the wood a whole lot of good in the long run imo. Wood should be nurtured and treated accordingly.

I've had two decks in my lifetime and can only offer this advice.

Never EVER stain decking with a colour different from the board original finish. It chips off very quickly like oil paint does and doesn't really protect the wood. Decking needs to be treated with decking oil every year. Oils penetrate much deeper into the wood than stain/paint/varnish ever could. I've been doing this for the past year on mine and it hasn't chipped off at all. It does fade and I intend to give it another coat in the summer and every year after that. I still have the same tin I paid about £20 for which works out at better valued than stains from cuprinol etc imo.

How old is the decking? Has it been stained in the past? I mean is the colour flaking off etc? If so I wood give it a sand buy hand with some 60 grit sandpaper and a stiff broom to remove the moss before hand and then oil it with a clear oil. Running the whole thing over with a floor sander is a daft idea and removing the grooves are a bad idea as well. It will reduce the grip on the deck and you will be left with lines from where the high points are. I should know, as I planed off an offcut to use elsewhere.

Hope that helps

 

We cleaned our decking at our old house with a brush & good old soapy water. We then treated it with an oil treatment which gave us a finished lovely natural wood colour a couple or so shades darker than when we started, which is what we were after. It only made it look richer, not painted. We avoided paint like the plague as, as has already been said, it chips & peels and you can end up with decking that looks worse than before you started

 

Perhaps I'm thinking of the varnish that I used. But I'm sure it was sold as "stain". But it certainly acted like varnish flaking off.