Deck prep work for Stain/sealing

[Evan M.]

Hi everyone. I have a few questions on some work I need to do for my deck. My Deck is rather weathered looking to ssay the least. We bought the house 3 years ago and the Deck looked like crap. We did nothing to it and now it looks like real crap!! The wood is actually in very good shape with no rotting or warping at all. However the wood was black and dark gray with all of the mold and mildew on it. When it rained it was VERY slippery. I bought a deck wash at HD and sprayed it on and washed it off. It did nothing but laugh at me. I them sprayed it on and scrubed the heck out of it with a plastic/ nylon brush. It cleaned up actually quite well. There are some spots that still have the junk on it that is being a real pain. With more elbow greas I can take care of it. I do have a bunch of benches that surround the deck that I need to do also. My question is......will a power washer be a more effective method than scrubbing? If so maybe I'll just power wash the whole deck again instead of going over the tough spots. Also.....is a power washer and a pressure washer the same thing?? If I pressure/power wash everything do I spray the ceck cleaner (it really is basicaly bleech) on first and let it sit for a few minutes....then power wash it off, or do I fill the power washer with the deck wash. I have never used a power washer so I really have no idea what the best means are. After I do this should I spray on a wood conditioner to "revive" the wood from this beating before I stain? I plan on using the stains at Sherwin Williams ( I love their paints so I figure their other products should be good). Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

[marksr]

Pressure washer/power washer are the same thing. A pressure washer can reduce the amount of elbow grease involved in cleaning. Just don't get carried away with the pressure as you can eat away at the wood if not carefull. A commercial washer with a zero tip can go through a sheet of plywood in less than 5 min. Although most pressure washers have the capability of spraying chemicals/bleach I prefer to use a pump up garden sprayer. Wet the surface, spray on the bleach [never stronger than 50%] let set [not dry] and then rinse. Stubborn areas will respond to scrubbing with an old broom. Although some swear by the 'deck whitners' I've never seen the need for them. Try the deckscapes waterborne stain - I believe you'll like it. :)

[slickshift]

The deck wash at HD is pretty useless
But the good news is it's also overpriced...oh wait..uh..nevermind...

Anyway...
The pump sprayer is a much better way to apply the mildecide or cleaner
Then you can powerwash it off
(and head the warnings of how easy it is to destroy wood with the power washers)
You still may need to use a brush and scrub a bit if it's bad though

I live on the corner of river and ocean here, the land of rust and mildew, so I'm used to working on decks in that kind of shape

The mildew must be killed
Killed dead and as much removed as possible
Or else it'll come back real quick

I'll often use a Jomax, bleach, and water mixture on the tough parts if they need it
The whole thing if need be, but the stuff is a bit whiffy, and I try to use it as little as possible, not at all if I can help it, just in spots if I can't avoid using it
(Your deck would need it)
Power wash that off, scrubbing and re-treating where needed

Then I'll use the Cabot Problem Solver Cleaner on the whole thing
Power wash that off
Now it can often look a lttle blotchy so I'll use the Cabot Problem Solver Wood Brightener to even it out
And power wash that off

At this point any black stains that don't come off, aren't
And they are usually pretty dead so no worries of it coming back anytime soon

At this point you may have guessed that I then use Cabot stains to stain the deck
I'm sure any quality stain would do
Something with a little color would be better
(Cabot Natural has a bit of color)