Fill thin cracks in decking

Hi Forum
I want to give our cracked deck a face lift , it is a painted deck. The deck has lots of hairline cracks in it and is exposed to the outside.

What is the most cost effective filler? I will be painting over it. I used builders bog on one portion and it was OK but didn't last before a few cracks appeared probably movement from expansion and foot traffic.

The builder bog was also very labour intensive, with mixing up, laying in and sanding down.

I was thinking of a polyeurathane glue that has abit of elasticity in it. Has anyone got a good trick for this problem?

TIA

Multivits

If they are only hairline cracks, why don’t you leave them as they are and just redo the finish if need be? With the weather, sun then rain etc, the timber moves, gets wet and dries. By filling the cracks you have now, others will form anyway. Use something that will nourish the timber and this may ease or reduce the amount of cracking that takes place.

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Originally Posted by AngelaPetruzzi

If they are only hairline cracks, why don’t you leave them as they are and just redo the finish if need be? With the weather, sun then rain etc, the timber moves, gets wet and dries. By filling the cracks you have now, others will form anyway. Use something that will nourish the timber and this may ease or reduce the amount of cracking that takes place.

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Thanks Angela. I think it will be hard to nourish the timber and then apply the painted finish, the decking planks already have a painted finish.

What could I nourish the timber with that can be painted afterwards?

TIA

Multivits

Sorry multivits, my mistake, if you are going to keep it painted again here, it may be best to leave the cracks as they are. If you did want to fill, timber mate putty have a new exterior one that you can fill, light sand and then paint over.
With your paint, best not to go for the cheap ones and rather than thick coats, rather do very thin coats. This will then fill some of the minor cracks anyway and there will be less evidence of wear and tear.

AGNEWS water putty is an oldy but a goody,very cheap,easy to use and is made for exterior repairs,if you follow the directions on the container and make a thin paste that will fill small cracks it sets very hard and sure is far easier to use than builders bog,plus being water based you can paint over it without delay if you are useing water based paint.:2tsup: