Garden deck rescued from high street brand

This home owner’s garden deck is 3-4 years old. They had oiled it twice with a well-known high street brand of decking oil and had not cleaned the wood prior to these applications. They were never happy with the finished result and really thought that their deck was ruined. Luckily, even a deck in poor condition can usually be rescued with the correct treatment and protection.

Roger from R & A Pressure Washing Services Ltd. was brought in to attempt a rescue and using Owatrol solutions he has created a truly professional finish. It’s not necessarily as difficult as it might seem, and we’ll take you through what he did step by step so that if you’ve got similar situation in the garden at home you can fix yours too!

In this project Roger has used Prepdeck for stripping, Net-Trol for neutralising and D1 Pro saturating hardwood oil for long term protection of the Ipe decking.

Step 1: Strip the previous finish from the deck

First Roger used Prepdeck to remove the previous finish from the deck. To do this he applied the Prepdeck to the area to be stripped or cleaned and allowed it to work. After an appropriate time he tested a small area with a nylon scrubbing brush to see if the finish and dirt was lifting. When it was, he used a pressure washer to remove the stripper and rinsed the area with lots of water. You can do this with a scrubbing brush and a garden hose if you don’t have a pressure washer.

Step 2: Neutralise the surface of the deck with Net-Trol

After stripping it is necessary to neutralise the surface of the Ipe decking using Net-Trol wood cleaner. To do this simply scrub it onto the surface with a brush. Then leave for 15-30 minutes and then rinse whilst scrubbing, or, use a pressure washer.

Step 3: Sand the surface of the wood

Please don’t panic, this step is non-essential. Most professionals will sand the surface of a deck before finishing. However, as a home DIY-er this can be daunting and time consuming without professional kit. It really is not an essential step and you can still get a great finish without sanding. However, Roger sanded his and here’s how it looked.

Step 4: Apply D1 Pro hardwood saturating oil to the Ipe decking

D1 Pro is applied using ‘wet-on-wet’ coats which means that new coats are applied as soon as the previous one has been absorbed. As a saturating hardwood oil, its place is inside the wood, protecting the wood from within against UV and moisture damage and giving a rich matt finish. Roger actually applied 3 coats of D1 Pro for his project but the number of required coats will depend on your wood. You need to continue until no more oil can be absorbed so the actual number of coats will depend on the type of wood, porosity, age etc.

To apply the D1 Pro you need to work in areas which can be completed in 15-30 minutes. Always work along the grain and stop at a logical break, like the end of a decking board. Apply a first liberal application of D1 Pro and allow it to penetrate (normally 15-30 minutes). Then apply a 2nd application as soon as the first has penetrated and allow that to penetrate. Continue this ‘wet-on-wet’ application of until the wood is saturated i.e. will accept no more oil. Leave the final application for 20-30 minutes then brush out or wipe up excess product to avoid shiny spots.

Check out Roger’s bio below to find out more about his company and what he does. As always, thanks to him for sharing such a great project with us.

We hope you found this post on a garden deck rescued from a high street brand interesting. If you have any other advice or top tips, please feel free to leave them in the comments below. We love hearing from you!

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