Older lady from church asked if I could clean her deck. This is what I found when I stopped by. Was expecting something less worn and weathered.
Any point in starting up the PW? I just have a homeowner 2…8 gpm machine. Planning to rent a 4 gpm to clean up the church sidewalks and patios, but not to do things for the church ladies homes.
Many thanks for any insight on if in should just tell her she needs it repaired/replaced or if it will actually cleean up enough to be worth the effort.
Link wont work for me
I was always told to pre-wet thoroughly, before running SH or some other cleaner. Don’t use much pressure, or you end up with a furry surface.
If this doesn’t work,
Turn the boards over and get another 20 years out of 'em.
If it was built right in the first place and all the boards were crown up and they flip the boards, after a couple years it’ll turn into a swimming pool with all the boards crown down.
It doesn’t looked like it’s cracked. Just needs a good cleaning.
Search deck cleaning. There was a good thread on it a week or so ago. @spc sent me some of the cleaner @steve recommended but I have yet to try it.
If you’re looking for the quick answer without much work the let the proper chemicals do the work and use low pressure. That’s the extent of my wood cleaning knowledge, but it’s sound.
It looks pretty low to the ground. I bet there is little air circulation and everything under there is wet and rotting and infested with carpenter ants.
You could sand that with 24 grit and it will do nothing. A new board is only a few bucks. IF and only if the framing is good, I’d recommend replacing the boards. They look easy to replace.
Yoy could use a really thick deck paint like Behr DeckOver. That might make it look decent for a few months. But that is just a bandaid. And by the time you fill in all those cracks, you’ll use a lot of paint. It won’t be cheap.
Step one is check the framing.
If you look close, the boards aren’t all crown up, so, last resort, flip 'em over.
Anytime I see people pulling nails with a 8” cat’s paw I wanna hit them over the head with one of these.
yeah, well, they obviously were not ring shank nails. Ever removed decking with ring shank nails?
Run away! I rather tackle rusted screws than ring/spiral shank nails
Yeah, it’s tv. But wait, there’s MORE!
Renew all from southside
Is this not a typical deck that needs cleaned?
That is not the kind of deck you want. You want decks where the boards look brand new aside from the color. You can just soft wash them. .
This deck, the wood is warped, the grain is raised and splitting open, knot holes completely fell out. Chemicals are not going to be able to get in there and get it clean. And people with decks like this usually don’t have a lot of money. So you’ll wind up doing twice the work for half the money.
Can you just price it the same as an “ideal deck” and set expectations. If they want better results than a normal cleaning set price accordingly?
In theory. But if somebody’s paying you to clean something, you should get it clean. Otherwise, it’s just a big gray area and too much room for somebody to be disappointed.
It’s a $200 deck. The little old lady wants it for $100 because she’s a little old lady. You need $400 because of the condition. It just isn’t going to work.
Of course, it’s a judgement call. Nothing comes wrapped up in a pretty package. If you need the work, why not? But your hourly rate will suffer.
When I started out, I read all this stuff about cleaning decks and I tried all different chemicals and concentrations and techniques. I couldn’t get to work. And I couldn’t understand why everybody was against using high pressure on wood, because that was the only thing that worked! Eventually I figured it out. They were talking about deck cleaning. I was trying to do more of a restoration.
Thanks all…she is hoping to throw down some paint on it after I clean it off. So I will give it a try and see how it goes. Given the church needs and doing random stuff I bought the sample set of chems from Pressure Tek which seems to be the darling of this community and I bought SH from Walmart. I am pretty sure there is some wood cleaner in there so it seems worth giving it a shot for her since it sounds like it is not a hopeless deck altogether. I will post a picture when I am done…lol. Ya’ll rock.
Wow…
Wow that Looks awesome. You use a pump up sprayer to apply the renewall?
One last question Given the situation, you think it would be safe to use this attachment that came with my PW? Or stick to the wand? I did learn about low pressure and have a #8 greentip that I think gets me too about 500 or so psi, but I am confused as the wand has a dial that goes 2000 to 3200 psi, so not sure what range that #8 makes, but it is low…lol
Yea pump sprayer 1:10 dilution. Let it dwell for 25-30 mins keeping it wet
