How to Renovate an Outdoor Wood Deck

A wood deck is like an outdoor entertainment or a dining area for you to relax yourself or to have a good time with your family and friends. Overtime, your wood deck will start to deteriorate due to direct sunlight and other weather elements where you will see that the deck’s board has started to split, curl and loosen up. When this thing happens, you need to rebuild your wood deck, for example by removing damaged boards and replacing them with new treated wood. By renovating the wood deck, you will create a fresh look to your exterior section of your house.

To renovate an outdoor wood deck, you need:

  • Deck cleaner
  • Belt sander
  • Chemical stripper
  • Stain
  • Paint roller
  • Roller tray
  • Paint brush
  • Broom
  • Garden hose


Renovating an Outdoor Wood Deck


How to Renovate an Outdoor Wood Deck

  • First thing to do is to
    • Do some cleaning on the entire surface of your wood deck that includes the deck’s posts and railings
    • In order to remove a stubborn kind of dirt, mildew or other stains, you can use special deck cleaners available at your local hardware stores.
    • Other inexpensive cleaning option that you can use is by mixing water and detergent. Certain mold or mildew that grew on your deck can be removed with a mixture of one part bleach to three parts of water.
    • Remove all outdoor furniture, grills, tables or chairs from the deck to other areas.
  • Next, you should be able to evaluate the current condition of the deck and list down the areas that need to be renovated especially the section, which has been badly affected by weathering, damage, structural faults or surface features that you feel is not smooth anymore.

The task of renovating and cleaning of wood deck needs to be done when there is no rain. You must double check the weather forecast to see if it would be sunny day when you decide to do the task. You need at least three days in order to finish doing the task of renovating, cleaning and sealing the deck.

  • Once you have the list, you would be able to determine what kind of repairs to do
    • For deck boards that have cracks, rotting problem, gouges or other damage, you should be able to know whether to do repairs or replace the boards with a new one.
  • In order to prepare your wood deck for staining, you need to do some sanding process
    • You need to sand the entire surface of your wooden deck so that rough edges and the sides of the deck can be removed. The sanding process is to make sure that the deck is nice, smooth and free of splinters.
    • Once finished, sweep all the sawdust or debris that was created by the sanding task off the wood deck.
  • After that, use a pump sprayer to apply the wood stripper if your stain comes in different colors
    • You must ensure that the wood deck is covered with the chemical stripper evenly.
    • Then, leave it to dry for at least 15 minutes before starting to spray the deck with your garden hose
  • The next step is to apply wood stain that comes together with a sealer
    • Before applying them, make sure the wood is completely dry
    • You only need to apply thin coats of stain for the entire length on each of the deck’s board before doing it on another board. By doing this, you will not create any kind of marks at the starting and finishing points.
  • Apart from doing the above steps, you can also add accents onto your wood deck to make the area look fresh
    • You can add decorative trim or posts onto the deck, along with decorative caps on top of the posts
    • Place some lighting at particular area of the deck inclusive of general lighting connected to your house or place lights on the deck posts as well as the lamp post kind of lights
    • Make use of outdoor furniture to give a more comfortable look to your wood deck

Try to maintain your wood deck regularly so that the wood will not get rough very fast or create splinters and slick surfaces. An untreated deck will also cause algae and moss to grow and result to your deck becoming very slippery whenever it is wet.

Always remember that when you start to renovate an outdoor wood deck

  • Always use protection such as a protective eye wear (goggles) and a respirator mask for safety measurement especially when you are sanding the deck, repairing damaged boards or using chemical stripper as well as staining the deck.

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