Help with deck finishing

I have just purchased a house with a lovely deck but it is in need of some TLC. The previous owner stained part of the deck with Cabot's Merbau Decking stain and left the lower part of the deck untreated (picture attached). As the stain is already wearing away would I be able to use a deck cleaning solution and then recoat the whole deck in perhaps a decking oil or should I stain it all first. Will a tinted decking oil give a decent stain to the very greyed timber once it is cleaned I did not want to go with the stain option previously used as it looks to "paint" like and you can not see the grain at all.

I should also mention the deck is next to a salt water pool so I would like to protect the timber as much as possible.
http://users.tpg.com.au/annparis/P1040139.JPG

Welcome,

It might be wise to first clean the deck with one of those deck clean products (oxalic acid) and then see how the unstained and stained areas compare (colour wise).

If they are fairly close in colour you may be able to get away with a "clear" oil, as they generally have some colour to them and it may be enough to hide the slight difference.

If however there is a big difference in colour and/or you are REALLY keen on the two decks having EXACTLY the same colour - then you may need to go for a tinted/staining oil.

There may also be another option, but I'm not sure how feasible it is :confused: - you could sand the deck and try and remove the stain that way. But it really depends on how deep the stain has penetrated. Also if the stain has penetrated deeper in different parts of the deck, the end result may be patchy.

Thanks for the quick reply. I plan to clean the deck with cabot's deck clean this weekend weather permitting. Guess I will hold off on the purchase of oil or stain till I see the results of the cleaning. Is it possible to say do one coat of a stain to give the deck some sort of uniform colour and then over coat with a natural or tinted oil so as not to make the stain too dark.

The cleaner won't remove the stain, which will have soaked into the timber. You might have to stain the whole again to give an even appearance. As for a finish, have a look at Flood Co's Spa-n-Deck, I've used it, I recommend it too.

Cheers
Michael

Doing just one coat of stain is a good way to go.

If you are still not happy with the colour uniformity, you could always do another.

welcome to the forum,

and, you are also welcome to come round and collect a sample of some Sikkens decking oil, which I highly recommend. It will darken the deck a bit and perhaps you may not need to worry about the existing stain.
cheers,
conwood

Sorry to revive an old thread but I thought it was better than starting a new one. I have managed to get the stain off the deck (nappysan is the trick followed by a quick wash with feast watson wood cleaner). See attached pic below of clean and uncleaned timber. Now that the timber is completely bare should I stain it first to get a colour I am happy with and then oil or just do several coats of oil. I have 50m2 to cover and more than 50% is exposed and surrounds a salt water pool so I want something that is going last me a little while and not wear to leave a patchy looking colour.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aussieorchid

I have managed to get the stain off the deck
(nappysan is the trick followed by a quick wash with feast watson wood cleaner).

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I'd never thought of nappysan. Could you give some more details?
I.e: what concentration? how you applied it? multiple times? etc?

Quote:

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Now that the timber is completely bare should I stain it first to get a
colour I am happy with and then oil or just do several coats of oil.

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My $0.02 is that you'll be doing more coats of oil over the next 12 months
(since you're effectively re-starting with bare timber), so you can control
the eventual colour by using different oil colours subsequently. I.e: better
to start off with a lighter colour, since you can easily darken it later.

I'd never thought of nappysan. Could you give some more details?
I.e: what concentration? how you applied it? multiple times? etc?

A very helpful hardware store man suggested nappysan to me as I have a large deck and needed so much of the comercial solutions to get the stain off.

I actually used a cheap no name brand Nappysan just look for the concentration of "sodium percarbonate" on the side and get the one with the highest percentage. Costs around $4 for 1KG. Now for the part of the deck at was just dirty I used about six lids full dissovled in 5L of hot water. Wet the deck and brush it on with a broom. Keep it damp for about 20mins then give it a good scrub with a stiff broom and hose it well. For the part of the deck with the stain I used almost 500g in 5L of hot water and left it until when I scrubed with the broom it started to lift the stain.

On the stained timber after it had dried a little I just went around and spot cleaned the parts where the stain remained. I then gave the deck a quick once over with the feast watson wood cleaner just because I have no idea what had previously been done to the deck but it did not really remove any more and will probably skip this step next time.

My deck was very dirty and two different colours so I would maybe start with a low concentration of nappysan and increase it if you are not happy with the result just test a small spot and add more napysan to the hot water depending on what you want to do ie strip everything off or just give it a good clean for a new coat.


Thanks for the advice I have been leaning towards the oil option as I have heard others say their stain wears uneven and looks patchy over time. Oil seems easier to maintain.