The holiday season is finally approaching and having had the past couple of years of false starts, we can finally turn our attentions to having a proper festive season with friends and family from close and afar. And where is the great Australian celebration held? On the deck! So, it’s time to look outside, and start preparing our ‘outside rooms’ for summer.
First thing we need to do is to remove everything from the deck, to let us see if there is any structural work that needs to be done. We want to walk up and down the deck and look for any boards that have movement. These want to be secured with self-tapping wood screws. It’s also a good time to note any moisture or dirt that may have been held in place by planters, so lifting feet can be used when they are returned to the deck to allow for air circulation.
Next, we want to start to clean our decks. This is a great opportunity to get the whole house washed. Washing the house not only brightens your property up, but also in washing away the corrosive salts, it adds longevity to your paintwork, as well as your aluminum gutters and windows. It can also add safety by cleaning slippery drives and paths, and of course, removes built up dirt on your decks. You could either do this yourself, or quite economically you could engage the services of a locally based company such as Coastal Cleaning Pressure Washing (www.coastalcleaningnsw.com) to reach all the difficult places for you.
Then we want to acid wash the timbers. This is done using a ‘timber reviver’, which is an acid that you mix with water. You can purchase this cheaply from your local hardware store. You first wet the deck, and then you scrub it with the solution and a decking brush. You then rinse the freed dirt off. This allows the natural colours of the timber to return. You may want to repeat this two to three times.
After the deck has had time to fully dry out now is the time for a final inspection to see if there are any offending marks of stains remaining. A quick buff with an electric sander and some 40 grit will send these packing. Now that the timber is prepared, what to finish it with? There are two options, firstly you could use a water based product such as Intergrain ultra deck. Water based products have some penetrative qualities but tend to sit more on the surface of timbers, however they have the advantage of being fast drying. Or secondly you can use an oil based product such as Sikkens cetol HLSe. Oil based products tend to penetrate timbers deeper, replace natural oils and cause the timbers to swell and close cracking.
Either way, if it has been a period of time between your last maintenance of your deck then you are going to want to apply three finish coats to you deck, allowing a day between each coat for the product to harden between coats.
After all this hard work the only thing left to do is to fire up the Barbie, fill up the Esky, and wait for the celebrations to begin!
If you are renovating, getting ready for sale, or starting strata works, and have any questions about painting contact Matthew of Labrador Painting at matthew.ballard@labradorpainting.com