Property Maintenance Tips: How to Clean Your Outdoor Decking

If you’ve added a touch of class to your home by adding stunning bi-fold doors, you will undoubtedly wish to continue this quality of your outdoor space by keeping your wooden decking clean. When we bring the outdoors into our homes, we have to be even more diligent about keeping our garden and hardscape looking its best.

Under the category of preventive maintenance, homeowners should be familiar with the various steps needed to clean their wood deck.

There are three generally accepted steps to this annual job. Decks tend to accumulate debris and drippings from trees and birds and can become unsightly pretty quickly. Before the deck is permanently defaced, let’s dedicate a little time to this project!

STEP 1 – PREPARE THE DECKOld
Before we can seriously clean our deck, we must remove all furniture and debris. It is easiest to get this out of the way in one fell swoop. You might need help if you keep a barbecue on the deck. Move everything off the deck but keep nearby. The goal is to have access to the entire surface.

Next, you should sweep the deck clean. Use a firm broom or push broom. Remove all leaves and loose impediments. Pick up the debris and close into a trash bag or can before moving from site.

Now the preparation gets a bit more challenging. You will need patience to scrape debris that is wedged or stuck between the slats. Once again, bag your debris and remove from site. This can be a deliberate task but the more attention to detail you exert, the better the end result will be.

Your last portion of deck preparation will be washing the deck with water from a hose. Make sure the nozzle is set to exert enough pressure to loosen any stubborn waste. The deck cracks may need extra washing.

STEP 2 – USE OXYGEN BLEACH
In your bucket, mix oxygen bleach with water. Many people do not realise that oxygen bleach is an environmentally friendly cleaner that will not harm nearby plants, lawn areas or flowers. Oxygen bleach is not chlorine which is not recommended for deck cleaning. Read the instructions and stay within the recommended strengths.

Apply the oxygen bleach to the deck. User a scrub brush, wear rubber gloves and scrub stained areas. Lightly scrub the entire deck. Before starting your scrubbing action spread the cleaner and let it stand for 15 minutes. This will loosen up stubborn residue.

Rinse the cleaner off the deck using a hose or pressure washer. Be thorough with your rinsing. Let dry and apply one more rinsing cycle.

STEP 3 – CLEAN WITH PRESSURE WASHER
If you do not own one, rent a pressure washer to ensure the best results. Most tool shops rent acceptable units. You should have a pressure washer that exerts no more than 1,500 PSI. Anything stronger could damage the deck. If you might wash your home, this strength will still allow you to get the job done.

You can add the cleaning solution to the pressure washer, but remember to read the instructions. Oxygen bleach should be the cleaner of choice. The pressure washer guide will indicate how much to add.

To wash clean, hold the pressure washer about 1 foot from the surface. Keep the nozzle at this distance across the entire deck. This will protect and clean the surface.

The all-important rinsing stage comes next. After washing, let the residue sit for 15 or 20 minutes. Then use the pressure washer without cleanser to rinse clean. Be thorough. Sometimes more than one rinse cycle is necessary. Make sure that you have emptied your cleaning solution form the pressure washer and rinsed the container before rinsing the deck.

If stubborn stains remain, go through the drill one more time with special scrubbing of these stains!

For information about how Multifold Doors can transform both your indoor and outdoor space, get in touch today.

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