Deck cleaners and sealers

[Kraniac]

Pam wrote:
[quote=Kraniac]
Hi Pam..

don't use a deck cleaner.

What kind of wood?
Size of deck?
Is it a Sunny deck?

After 8 years...


I would suggest that you go to your local tool rental and rent a 12 x 16 or thereabouts, orbital sander..it'll save you a lot of unknowns..most of these 'washing' agents are harmful and really not what you want to do with wood...

Dry the deck out and sand it..find a good clearish coating..the darker the better because, as you noticed, the ones with pigment offer a 'bit' more longevity and certainly more protection..pigment is the protector..not the plasticized coating..gone are the days of real, slow drying and longer lasting, oil based products..the stuff you get these days is basically plastic that dries so fast that it never, ever, gets a chance to bond properly..

These sanders are easy to operate once you get the hang of it and they do a great job...any detailing can be done with hand tool..a random orbital sander..

The greater goal here is to completely remove that 8 year old finish..Even in a 2 year cycle for avid maintenance of a deck..it's best to sand..be a rebel..dont fall for this power wash /power wash with cleanser thing..and don't forget to sand in the cracks like your Aunty told you..

I have two decks. Both are large, pressure treated lumber. Nothing fancy. The upper deck receives a lot of sun. A third of the lower deck sees a lot of sun. No doubt sanding would be best. That's not too bad on the large horizontal surfaces. The vertical part of the railings would be a pita.
Pam..how large..rough square footage of both?

Treat your verticals and your horizontals as two different things..

The horizontals (deck, duh, i know) are the most important..so sand those..

Come up with a scheme for the verticals n railings..if it's pressure cleansing or whatever..maybe get those prepped and finished, first..

then do your deck..you could probably flip that around but you'd want to protect the finished deck from the cleaning agent if it was me i'd the railings first.

Is there a ton of cupping in the deck boards..you know..where the board becomes concave?

If, over the last 8 years, you've developed serious cupping, then you might want to go the route of cleaning and finishing..bad cupping can be a difficult to sand..reaching the low spots..I've done it many times with typical cupping though.. and usually a couple of passes gets most of it off and then detail with a large random orbital..

[OWC Jamie]

If it's a pre-2003 CCA treated deck you might not want to sand. Just get a cleaner and scrub the mold and mildew off.

For a post-2003 deck likely ACQ or CA treated you could still use a cleaner to get the mold and mildew off, but if you've got opaque stain to remove and especially if you're changing or deleting colored stain, you might want to sand it.

I used to get a year or two more out of Cabot than the cheap stuff except for on horizontal surfaces that baked in the sun .
I,ve also just rolled another coating on in the Fall or Spring where needed without even cleaning when I used to use Thompson's.

Now all I have is a 6x6 'deck' ( more of a stair landing really ) and four steps that have been "painted" with a semi-opaque stain to match the paint of the house. I just clean where the paint hasn't maintained adherence scrape off anything loose and repaint it. Last done over 5 yeas ago.

[space-time]

PeterW wrote:
Sanding pressure treated pine is a really good way to die. I cannot believe anyone would be so stupid to even try.

is it just the dust or there are nasty chemicals in this pressure treated wood?

Thanks

[Pam]

billb wrote:
If it's a pre-2003 CCA treated deck you might not want to sand. Just get a cleaner and scrub the mold and mildew off.

For a post-2003 deck likely ACQ or CA treated you could still use a cleaner to get the mold and mildew off, but if you've got opaque stain to remove and especially if you're changing or deleting colored stain, you might want to sand it.

I used to get a year or two more out of Cabot than the cheap stuff except for on horizontal surfaces that baked in the sun .
I,ve also just rolled another coating on in the Fall or Spring where needed without even cleaning when I used to use Thompson's.

Now all I have is a 6x6 'deck' ( more of a stair landing really ) and four steps that have been "painted" with a semi-opaque stain to match the paint of the house. I just clean where the paint hasn't maintained adherence scrape off anything loose and repaint it. Last done over 5 yeas ago.

We're talking post 2003. What I have now replaced the CCA treated lumber.

[PeterW]

Without “nasty chemicals”, termites turn southern yellow pine into sawdust within a year or two. The current chemicals are not as bad as CCA was (used prior to 2004) but they still are not something you want to breathe. And those particle masks they sell in the big box stores do very little to stop small dangerous particles. With dust, it’s not the particles you can see that you need to worry about.

[Pam]

Kraniac wrote:
[quote=Pam]
[quote=Kraniac]
Hi Pam..

don't use a deck cleaner.

What kind of wood?
Size of deck?
Is it a Sunny deck?

After 8 years...


I would suggest that you go to your local tool rental and rent a 12 x 16 or thereabouts, orbital sander..it'll save you a lot of unknowns..most of these 'washing' agents are harmful and really not what you want to do with wood...

Dry the deck out and sand it..find a good clearish coating..the darker the better because, as you noticed, the ones with pigment offer a 'bit' more longevity and certainly more protection..pigment is the protector..not the plasticized coating..gone are the days of real, slow drying and longer lasting, oil based products..the stuff you get these days is basically plastic that dries so fast that it never, ever, gets a chance to bond properly..

These sanders are easy to operate once you get the hang of it and they do a great job...any detailing can be done with hand tool..a random orbital sander..

The greater goal here is to completely remove that 8 year old finish..Even in a 2 year cycle for avid maintenance of a deck..it's best to sand..be a rebel..dont fall for this power wash /power wash with cleanser thing..and don't forget to sand in the cracks like your Aunty told you..

I have two decks. Both are large, pressure treated lumber. Nothing fancy. The upper deck receives a lot of sun. A third of the lower deck sees a lot of sun. No doubt sanding would be best. That's not too bad on the large horizontal surfaces. The vertical part of the railings would be a pita.
Pam..how large..rough square footage of both?

Treat your verticals and your horizontals as two different things..

The horizontals (deck, duh, i know) are the most important..so sand those..

Come up with a scheme for the verticals n railings..if it's pressure cleansing or whatever..maybe get those prepped and finished, first..

then do your deck..you could probably flip that around but you'd want to protect the finished deck from the cleaning agent if it was me i'd the railings first.

Is there a ton of cupping in the deck boards..you know..where the board becomes concave?

If, over the last 8 years, you've developed serious cupping, then you might want to go the route of cleaning and finishing..bad cupping can be a difficult to sand..reaching the low spots..I've done it many times with typical cupping though.. and usually a couple of passes gets most of it off and then detail with a large random orbital..
We're talking 200 sqft. Each. No cupping.

[Kraniac]

Pam wrote:
[quote=Kraniac]
[quote=Pam]
[quote=Kraniac]
Hi Pam..

don't use a deck cleaner.

What kind of wood?
Size of deck?
Is it a Sunny deck?

After 8 years...


I would suggest that you go to your local tool rental and rent a 12 x 16 or thereabouts, orbital sander..it'll save you a lot of unknowns..most of these 'washing' agents are harmful and really not what you want to do with wood...

Dry the deck out and sand it..find a good clearish coating..the darker the better because, as you noticed, the ones with pigment offer a 'bit' more longevity and certainly more protection..pigment is the protector..not the plasticized coating..gone are the days of real, slow drying and longer lasting, oil based products..the stuff you get these days is basically plastic that dries so fast that it never, ever, gets a chance to bond properly..

These sanders are easy to operate once you get the hang of it and they do a great job...any detailing can be done with hand tool..a random orbital sander..

The greater goal here is to completely remove that 8 year old finish..Even in a 2 year cycle for avid maintenance of a deck..it's best to sand..be a rebel..dont fall for this power wash /power wash with cleanser thing..and don't forget to sand in the cracks like your Aunty told you..

I have two decks. Both are large, pressure treated lumber. Nothing fancy. The upper deck receives a lot of sun. A third of the lower deck sees a lot of sun. No doubt sanding would be best. That's not too bad on the large horizontal surfaces. The vertical part of the railings would be a pita.
Pam..how large..rough square footage of both?

Treat your verticals and your horizontals as two different things..

The horizontals (deck, duh, i know) are the most important..so sand those..

Come up with a scheme for the verticals n railings..if it's pressure cleansing or whatever..maybe get those prepped and finished, first..

then do your deck..you could probably flip that around but you'd want to protect the finished deck from the cleaning agent if it was me i'd the railings first.

Is there a ton of cupping in the deck boards..you know..where the board becomes concave?

If, over the last 8 years, you've developed serious cupping, then you might want to go the route of cleaning and finishing..bad cupping can be a difficult to sand..reaching the low spots..I've done it many times with typical cupping though.. and usually a couple of passes gets most of it off and then detail with a large random orbital..
We're talking 200 sqft. Each. No cupping.
Easy Peasy, IMO..I'd sand.

Are you doing this project? hub? Flock of cousins?

take some pics, could you? I'd be interested in seeing the deck surfaces and the railing set up..

[Pam]

http://s296.photobucket.com/user/psphil/library/Deck

Only one board on the upper deck has popped up. That'll be easy to nail back down.

Edit: only pressure washed the lower deck so far

[J Marston]

A very large majority of deck cleaners use sodium hypochlorite or its variants: in other words, bleach. It's not good for wood (or composite decking). Sand it.

[Pam]

J Marston wrote:
A very large majority of deck cleaners use sodium hypochlorite or its variants: in other words, bleach. It's not good for wood (or composite decking). Sand it.

Definitely not using sodium hypochlorite or a chlorine bleach product. I had considered a homemade potion of 1/2 cup of oxyclean to 2 gallons of water.