Aging exterior wood can be dangerous stuff. Although it survives the elements just fine without any kind of finish, the ever-present temptation to brighten up greying exterior wood with paint or stain usually leads to a cycle of serious regret. Everyone’s happy at first – after that new finish masks the barn board grey colour – but a year or two of peeling leaves aged wood looking much worse than before, requiring a lot of scraping and refinishing to bring back a sense of decency. There is at least one sane approach for sprucing up the appearance of aging, bare outdoor wood that’s fast and effective. It involves a process of sanding and oiling that I put into practice most recently as part of a volunteer crew fixing up an old playground. It works just as well on new wood, too. Oiling doesn’t add colour, but it does create a fresher,…
Q: What’s the best way to clean a dirty, mildewed, pressure treated deck? Should I use TSP? Does the wood need anything else before refinishing? A: Cleaning a…
Earlier this year I discovered a new product that’s not only surprisingly effective, but also does more than the manufacturer claims. It’s called Concrobium Mold Stain Eraser, and…
Building and finishing a deck is a lot like marriage. If you’re disappointed by the realities of the arrangement you’ve signed up for, you’ll find it messy, painful…
Success is rarely as simple as it looks, and fastening a deck to your house is one of those deceptive situations. Encouraging rot and deterioration of your house…
Questions about staining decks are the single most common calls for help I get from homeowners. More people struggle with deck staining than any other maintenance chore and…