Restoring the color of wood decks
Unfortunately with any wood deck or wood tiled patio deck that is exposed to the weather, the typical rich brown colour of a newly installed deck will eventually fade to a soft silvery grey over time. To a large extent, the rate at which this will happen is influenced by the intensity of the sunlight that the deck is exposed to and the number of hours of direct sunlight that the deck receives each day.
It’s possible to reduce the rate at which the natural greying and fading takes place, but you can never hope to completely halt this process. The best you can do is to regularly apply one of the better quality, specialist decking oils which contain transparent microfine oxides in addition to traditional brown iron oxides.
So what are your options if you want to the restore the color of your conventional deck or wood tiles on a patio deck as close as possible to its original state?
Pressure washing with water – Whilst pressure washing can be effective in removing a lot of dirt and grime from a deck it can never restore the original colour or appearance. Pressure washing is also not particularly effective in removing mold and mildew, at least not on a long term basis.
Sanding back the surface – The most labour intensive, but most effective method of restoring a wood deck to its original colour is to sand back the weathered surface to reveal the original wood colour underneath. This certainly achieves the best result, although it’s virtually impossible to sand back the sides of the deck boards especially when the boards have a pencil round edge. It’s also difficult to use power sanding equipment if the boards are twisted, warped or cupped in any way. Immediately after standing back their deck you should apply one of the better quality decking oils/sealants.
Chemical cleaners and optical brighteners – Whilst chemical cleaners such as sodium percarbonate are quite commonly used, they can never completely restore the original rich colour of the wood. They also need to be followed up by an application of an oxalic based pH to assist in restoring some brightness to the wood.
But the principal disadvantage of the oxygen or chlorine type bleach products in particular, (apart from the issue of hazards in handling and in disposal of the waste solution) is that they are more likely to cause damage to the wood or result in an unnatural look to the wood when finished.
Over the past few years, other products have been developed such as Deck Restoration Plus which are claimed not to damage the wood or to give the deck an unnatural look and completely biodegradable. These products still tend to use a two-step process, firstly a cleaner to remove mold, mildew, and dirt from the wood surface and then a wood brightener to restore the colour as close as possible to its original appearance.
So to summarize, if you don’t fancy all the effort involved in sanding back the surface of your deck or wood tiles on a patio deck to reveal the original wood colour, your best option is probably to use the more modern biodegradable chemical products.
