Yearly Maintenance on Wood Deck for Various Deck Finish?

Posted by Jay Chan on September 14, 2008, 2:43 am

I am trying to select a good wood deck finish. I have found many info
about the various types of deck finish that are currently available in
the market. One thing that I cannot find info on is the type of
annual maintenance that I need to do for the deck if I choose that
type of deck finish. According to one of the DIY article that I find
in the net, I am supposed to clean and apply a coat of finish on the
deck yearly. But I am wondering if this is only applicable for some
type of finish but not other. I don't think I can simply apply a coat
of finish over existing finish; I believe I need to at least sand the
surface first; otherwise, the finish won't stick that well, right? If
I continue putting more and more coats of finish, I am afraird that
the finish will be too thick, and may start peeling, right?

Currently I am considering between using "clear finish with UV
protection" and "semi-transparent stain". Please tell me the kind of
annual maintenance that I need to do if I choose either one of them.
I will greatly appreciate if someone can tell me the step-by-step way
to do this annual maintenance. Then I can evaluate whether this kind
of finish is really appropriate for me.

By the way, what I want from the deck finish are: (1) prevent the
pressure treated wood deck from turning grey in order to maintain the
natural wood color or have a nice redwood color, (2) reduce water
absorption into the wood, (3) reduce mildew on the wood surface, (3)
annual maintenance is OK, taking too much time to do each annual
maintenance is not OK.

The current wood deck finish that I have on the deck is semi-
transparent stain. I pressure washed the deck and then applied the
stain. I didn't do any annual maintenance because I don't know if I
need to do this and I don't know how. By the end of the first year,
stain had started coming off in the center of the deck (high traffic
area). By the end of the second year, mildew started growing in where
the stain had come off. Then I using stain remover to remove the
stain, and did that over. But the same thing happened (just faster
than before). I figure that I need to do some annual maintenance to
keep the finish; this prompts me to ask around here.

Thanks in advance for any info.

Jay Chan

Posted by Shirley ann on September 14, 2008, 6:17 am

The only maintenance that we do is to wash the green stuff from winter/
( with 1 cup of clorox- 2 cups of water mix. then apply Thompson
waterproof.

I mop the solution with a mop to clean it.
Then in a couple days Hub applies the waterproofing by spraying it on.

Our deck wood is wolmanized wood. The waterproofing makes the wood
dark, that it looks like it is brown.

shirleyann

Posted by Jay Chan on September 14, 2008, 10:55 am

On Sep 14, 6:17=A0am, shirleya...@webtv.net (Shirley ann) wrote:

> The only maintenance that we do is to wash the green stuff from winter/
> ( with 1 cup of clorox- 2 cups of water mix. then apply =A0Thompson
> waterproof.
> I mop the solution with a mop to clean it.
> Then in a couple days Hub applies the waterproofing by spraying it on.
> Our deck wood is wolmanized wood. =A0The waterproofing makes the wood
> dark, that it looks like it is brown.
> shirleyann

Thanks for sharing your annual maintenance plan with the use of clear
deck finish. How do you clean it? Do you clean it with bleach along
with scrubbing, or using bleach alone to do its job? When I cleaned
my deck with bleach, I always scrubbed it after waiting 5-10 minutes
for the bleach to take effect. But you said you used a mop; this
leads me to think that you only used the mop to apply the bleach
solution and didn't scrub the deck at all. May be this has to do with
the fact that you did annual maintenance that kept the mildew in
check; therefore, you didn't need to scrub. On the other hand, I
didn't deal with the mildew until years-later that allowed the mildew
to build-up; therefore, I needed to scrub and more scrub in addition
to using bleach in order to remove the mildew. Do I understand this
correctly?

The clear finish sounds easy enough to be maintained annually. I may
remove the semi-transparent stain from my deck and try the clear
finish this time around.

Jay Chan

Posted by Edwin Pawlowski on September 14, 2008, 7:27 am

> By the way, what I want from the deck finish are: (1) prevent the
> pressure treated wood deck from turning grey in order to maintain the
> natural wood color or have a nice redwood color, (2) reduce water
> absorption into the wood, (3) reduce mildew on the wood surface, (3)
> annual maintenance is OK, taking too much time to do each annual
> maintenance is not OK.
> The current wood deck finish that I have on the deck is semi-
> transparent stain.

The semi transparent stain or a solid stain are not going to work well. No
matter what quality you buy, it is going to peel after a year. Railings and
other vertical parts will be OK, but the deck itself is not going to hold
up. I've tried various products over the past 20 years. They all peel and
the wood turns gray. Live with it or replace the deck top.

If I was re-building, I'd use either Ipe, mahogany, redwood, cypress or
cedar, in that order. I'd give it a coat of Penofin oil every year as it
has good UV protection.

The other choice is a plastic type material with solid color.

Posted by Jay Chan on September 14, 2008, 11:16 am

> > By the way, what I want from the deck finish are: (1) prevent the
> > pressure treated wood deck from turning grey in order to maintain the
> > natural wood color or have a nice redwood color, (2) reduce water
> > absorption into the wood, (3) reduce mildew on the wood surface, (3)
> > annual maintenance is OK, taking too much time to do each annual
> > maintenance is not OK.
> > The current wood deck finish that I have on the deck is semi-
> > transparent stain.

> The semi transparent stain or a solid stain are not going to work well. N=

> matter what quality you buy, it is going to peel after a year. =A0Railing=

s and

> other vertical parts will be OK, but the deck itself is not going to hold
> up. I've tried various products over the past 20 years. They all peel and
> the wood turns gray. Live with it or replace the deck top.
> If I was re-building, I'd use either Ipe, mahogany, redwood, cypress or
> cedar, in that order. =A0I'd give it a coat of Penofin oil every year as =

> has good UV protection.
> The other choice is a plastic type material with solid color.

I have read your suggestion of using ipe/mahogany/redwood in your
other posts. And I agree with you. The natural beauty of those types
of wood should require less maintenance than using stain to get the
nice color. And I don't like the plastic look of those man-made
material either. I would definitely switch to use of those natural
woods next time. But I am afraid that will be many years later
because the pressure treated wood deck seems like will out-last me.
Please let us how the natural wood deck holds up when you finally
decide to build a new deck with natural wood.

Anyway I am sorry to hear that the semi-transparent stain (and the
solid stain) will not hold up after just one year. Sound like I need
to clean / sand / re-stain the wood deck every year if I use semi-
transparent stain on my deck. This option doesn't sound that good:

1. If I rent a floor sander to sand out all the semi-transparent
stain from my deck before applying a new coat of semi-transparent
stain, I will have to pay for the rental every year and I will need to
run the risk of creating a lot of toxic dusts from the pressure
treated wood.

2. If I only light sand the deck (to allow a better adhension for a
new coat of semi-transparent stain), the remaining stain will show
through the new coat of stain even though their color are the same,
and the areas that have 2 layers of stain will look different from the
areas that have been sanded through and only have one new coat of
stain; this will look odd; I know this because I did this once before.

Seem like I am better off using clear finish because the annual
maintenance for clear finish sounds like much easier than using any
kind of stain (no sanding involved). Of course, I will need to talk
with my wife to see if she like the color of the clear finish.

Jay Chan

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