Decking treatment

gary29428

Just wondered if anybody out there has advice. I have just spent the guts of 200hrs building an 80sq/m decking area. It's cost me over 3k in materials and now I want to know what is best for caring for it, it's a softwood deck. Do I need to treat it straight away, what do I use, oil/stain/seal. If anybody has decking and has experience looking after it i'd appreciate your help.

Thanks

Skrynesaver

Decking oil will keep the wood healthy, if the softwood is a bit pale/green and looks cr4p then use a decking oil with a stain, I've used ronseal Ceadar decking oil on mine for years now and it keeps well, no sign of "slime" even on the north-facing shaded bit of the deck

gary29428

Yeah, the timber has that pale/green colour. I heard the stained oils look terrible over this timber but I do what to stain the wood, could I oil it and then use a stain over it. I taught the hard part would be building the thing....

Thanks for the reply.

Skrynesaver

If you are going to stain it, stain it first then oil. The wood absorbs the stain, the point of the oil is to prevent anything penetrating to the wood and so it would prevent absorbtion

Ryan T

Whatever you do don't paint/stain your deck.

It only makes work for yourself as it has be reapplied every year due to flaking.

No matter how cheap or expensive the stain you buy it simply does not last. Take this advice from someone who has just spent 2 days sanding the deck to get rid of the flaking stain paint applied last August at a cost of €85 per tin and I needed two of them.!!!

If the deck is pressure treated then leave it alone it will last for years anyway.

gary29428

Thanks for the advise Ryan, this is exactly what I was after, somebody who has been there and worn the t-shirt. Are you going to continue with another coat of stain, I guess you have to now that you done it originally. I think I'll leave it for a while anyway to weather and then maybe stain and then oil, the oil may prevent the stain from flaking. Don't really like the look of it in it's raw pale/green state. Makes you laugh looking at the Ronseal tin of stain "does exactly what it says on the tin"....my ars*.

Anyway really appreciate the advice.

gary29428

Just been advised in a local paint shop to stain the deck then coat in a few coats of deck seal. Will probably go this route, you would think it would stop the peeling over time, he said I will probably need to put deck seak on it every year.

Ryan T

Mine is sanded back to look like new!! No way will I stain or oil it. Gary no matter what you put on it will not stay on and look good. Have a look at other peoples decks- I think they look better weathered than oiled or stained. Just a simple power wash each year cleans a deck just fine