Summer is fast approaching here in the UK meaning that everyone with a garden is scrambling to get it ready for use after the winter. One job that everyone dreads is the good old decking restoration.
I don’t have decking myself but my mom does – it was already down when she moved into her current home 12 years ago. Since moving in, she painted it once, many many years ago. Since then, it has been slowly rotting away until now when we decided to finally give it the restoration it deserves.
There are three steps to getting a nice new-looking deck:
- Remove moss and algae growing on the deck boards and make any repairs necessary
- Remove the surface of the wood using a sander
- Apply a new finish to the deck
We will cover each one in turn below.
HOW TO CLEAN DECKING
The first step to refinishing a deck is to give it a good clean to remove any moss and algae growing on it.
There are three ways to clean a deck. One is to use a chemical deck cleaner. The second is to use a pressure washer and the third is to use a hard bristled brush and sand the deck down afterwards.
A lot of people opt for the chemical wash option where you can use a cleaner specifically designed for decking to scrub away the dirt. This is a good option if you don’t grow food near your decking, don’t mind using chemicals and don’t mind spending money on a cleaner. The product you choose will have instructions on how to use it but usually, you just apply it to the decking, leave it and then wash it off/ scrub it off a little while later. This option involves the smallest amount of elbow grease.
This wasn’t an option for us as we wanted to restore the decking on the cheap and these cleaners cost around £20. Mom also has some edible herbs growing around the decking and sprinkling chemicals on those didn’t seem like the best idea.
A second option is to use a pressure washer. This would have been a great option if we had one of those. As you can see from my patio cleaning post, I even clean my slabs by hand so without buying a new pressure washer this just wasn’t an option.
We opted for the third option of using a hard brush to scrub the decking. We used a flat-headed screwdriver to scrape any growth lurking in the grooves on the boards and used a hard brush to scrape the rest of the dirt off. In addition to this, you can also wash the decking with some hot soapy water to remove any leftover dirt.
After the cleaning, if you find that your deck needs any repairs such as replacing some boards, now is the time to do this.
HOW TO SAND DECKING
The second step to finishing a deck is sanding. Even if you opted to use a chemical cleaner or pressure washed your deck, you will still need to give it a sand to remove the old stain and prepare it for a new finish.
There are three options to sand decking down. One is to use a floor sander that you push across the deck. The second is to use a handheld electric sander and the third is to use sheet sandpaper and a sanding block. Note that the third option involves a lot of elbow grease.
The easiest option for sanding down a deck is to use one of those floor sanding machines that you just push across the deck. If like us you don’t have one of those, the next best option is a handheld electric sander. I have one of those rectangular sheet orbital sanders so this was what I used to go over the decking to get off all the blackened and greened patches on the boards.
I’m not going to lie, even with the electric sander it was really hard work. In total, the sanding took about a day because this deck hasn’t been touched for years and the black and green growth went real deep in the wood grain. In the pictures below, you can see that there are still some patches of black staining that I didn’t quite manage to remove.
The third option, if you don’t have an electric sander, is to use sheet sandpaper and a sanding block like this to sand the decking down by hand. This will be very hard work and I’m not so sure if it would be feasible on a deck that is as far gone as this one was. If this is all you have available, perhaps the best option would be to use a chemical deck cleaner and just go over the deck with your sandpaper briefly, just to roughen it up for the stain.
Regardless of which method of sanding you use, opt for a max grit of 80 on your sandpaper – you want it nice and rough so that the deck is not slippery and is ready to soak in the new finish you will be applying.
After the sanding job is done, you need to give the decking a quick clean before applying the finish. A sweep and vacuum or a wash using soapy water will do the trick.
HOW TO APPLY A NEW FINISH TO A DECK
The final and by far the most satisfying part of refinishing a deck is applying a new finish. Watching the deck turn from light grey/ yellow/ white to a beautiful rich natural colour board by board is the most satisfying thing.
There are a few options to choose from when deciding on how to finish your new deck. You can opt to use decking oil, decking stain or decking paint. Make sure that the product you choose is specifically formulated for decking so that it does not end up slippery and does not rot quickly.
DECKING OIL VS DECKING STAIN VS DECKING PAINT – WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
Decking oil
Decking oils are designed to penetrate the wood and protect it from within. They replenish the wood’s natural oils. Because of this, they will not crack or peel like decking paint can do. They also help protect the wood from UV rays to make it stay a nice colour.
Decking oils tend to come in either clear finishes or are just slightly tinted. This gives the wood a very natural colour and enhances it rather than changing it.
One issue with using oil on decking or any other wood furniture is that once you have used oil, this tends to be what you need to keep using. This is because the oil will soak into the wood. If next year you change your mind and want to paint the decking a funky colour, the paint may not sit well directly on top of the previously oiled finish. You will likely need to use some sort of a chemical stripper to get the oil out before applying a different type of finish.
Because oils soak into the wood, you are likely to need to re-oil your decking at least once a year and perhaps even more often to maintain the finish.
Decking stain
Decking stains are water-based and tend to sit on top of the wood rather than penetrate it as decking oil does. They are quite watery and don’t tend to crack much over time, however, cheaper brands are more prone to cracking. It really depends on the composition of the stain.
Stains come in all sorts of shades but they do tend to be quite natural coloured such as oak, cedar, teak etc. They are see-through meaning you will still see the woodgrain of your decking boards but the shade of the wood can be changed by using a coloured stain.
Some decking stains are designed to be anti-slip which is excellent as decking can be quite slippery when wet.
Decking stains also protect the wood from UV rays meaning that it slows down the ageing of the wood. In addition, because stains are coloured, they keep the wood from looking grey when applied regularly. High-end decking stains are excellent at keeping the wood protected but to get the full protection out of a stain, it does need to be applied annually. However, if you are short on money, the decking is not likely to look completely terrible if you skip a year and keep it well cleaned.
Decking paint
Decking paint also tends to be water-based but it is thick and it fully sits on top of the wood. This means that if your decking is exposed to the elements, the paint is likely to chip and crack regardless of how high quality it is. Using decking paint will likely mean that you will have to reapply it every year unless you are happy to live with the cracked paint for a few years.
One benefit of decking paint is that it does come in a variety of funky colours so if you aren’t a fan of traditional wood colours, you can opt for a non-natural paint shade. This does mean that the grain of the wood will not be very visible but any big knots may still come through. This also means that any blacking/ greying of the wood will not be visible and the colour will remain vibrant throughout the year whereas stain and oil will fade.
A downside to decking paint, besides the cracking, is that it is quite expensive and the coverage tends to be less than stain or oil.
THE RESULT
On mom’s decking, we opted to use the Cuprinol anti-slip decking stain in Natural Oak. This is because I already had some lying around – I use it for outdoor furniture other than decking because I absolutely love the colour and find that it is excellent at keeping the wood protected even when it is exposed to rain!
We applied the stain using brushes to ensure we get it into the decking grooves. I did try using a small sponge roller to speed up the process but it just wasn’t filling the cracks which is really important to do. In total, because this decking hasn’t been finished for so long and I sanded it back to bare wood, we applied 3 coats for maximum protection.
It turned out beautifully and looks almost brand new. It’s a much better result than I was expecting and it only took 2 days to fully complete!
