Caring for Timber Decking

There’s nothing more quintessentially Kiwi than the trusty timber deck. It’s our entertaining area, summertime dining space and often a favourite place to chill with a cold drink. If you’ve recently built a deck and you’ve not had one before, there’s some good ways to keep it maintained and looking good, year-round. 

Maintain your deck regularly

As with most house maintenance, regular checks and small fixes are way less hassle (and cost) than big facelifts every few years. The more you let a deck get worn, damaged and dirty, the harder it is to bring it back to former glory. 

There’s no need to obsess over the deck daily, but just keep an eye on it naturally as you use it. If you notice cracking, staining, wear or damage, get on it right away. Remember, a deck costs thousands to build - you want to protect your investment. 

Fixing Damaged Decking

If you’ve got a deck that gets a lot of use, you’ll likely encounter damage to a board. Sometimes timber just gets old and rotten, requiring attention. In other cases you could have nails or splinters sticking out which is obviously dangerous to people and pets. Damage requires the most urgent attention as no amount of cleaning will cover this up. The good news is quite a bit of decking repair can be done with some quality tools and simple advice. 

If you need to replace a decking board entirely, make sure you find the same size and type of timber, then head over to our Attaching Decking Boards guide for some help. If you’re missing any tools to do your repair, you can browse our range or speak with a Hirepool expert who’ll get you equipped! 

Cover or store outdoor furniture during winter

Decks get used a whole lot more during summer than in the middle of the year. When it’s cold and wet our outdoor furniture can get damaged, worn and retain moisture.  This can leave rust or grime on the decking. Over time this will stain and require cleaning and/or re-staining. 

To prevent damage to the deck from outdoor furniture, make sure you keep it well covered and dry - it may even be best to store it away if you have a shed or garage space. 

It’s not just furniture that can mark up a nice timber deck. Outdoor pot plants on a deck during winter can trap moisture generating mildew underneath - often discovered months down the track. You might consider moving your pot plants off the deck during winter and instead place these on a concrete or stoney area outside. Once the sun’s back out regularly, just shift them back along with your furniture!  

Choosing the right furniture

If you’ve still not yet bought the furniture for your deck then you can make some decisions to make future deck maintenance a bit easier. There aren't any hard rules here, but remember anything that can rust, can stain your deck.

Consider furniture that:

• Is lightweight to move or pack down

• Comes with good covers

• Is made from waterproof materials

• Has well-protected feet that don’t scratch the decking boards

• Is weather resistant and/or clear weather proofing guidelines

• Suits your decking timber and colour.

Keep the deck clean

Cleaning a deck is one of the better ways to preserve the original finish. To our point above, you can reduce the amount of heavy cleaning by keeping the deck tidy on a regular basis. 

Light clean

Here’s a few low effort ways to keep the deck clean:

• Sweep away debris off the decking boards - leaves, dirt, seeds, twigs, food etc

• Cut back trees and bushes that overhang the deck to reduce the amount of debris you need to sweep away in the first place.

• Clean the outdoor furniture that lives on the deck normally - ensure that there’s no rusty metal like chair feet touching and rubbing on the deck - keeping metal objects covered from the rain is a good way to avoid this!

• If the deck is covered by a verandah or other covering, make sure to give that a clean too - leaves in gutterings are a common way debris gets onto decks. 

Just doing these basic things will extend the time between big cleans. 

The heavy deck clean

 The reality is you will eventually need to clean the deck properly - unless you plan an unhealthy sweeping obsession. Factors like foot traffic, garden debris and UV light from the sun will affect the condition of the deck requiring more serious cleaning measures - let’s go!

Have a water blaster or hose ready

A water blaster or ‘power washer’ can be a powerful tool for cleaning a deck (as long as you’re careful). If you don’t own one, Hirepool hires out high-quality water blasters all across New Zealand. Otherwise you can use a garden hose and a broom.

Get detergent

You should do research on the timber you’ve got and purchase detergent that’s suited specifically for your deck. You might want to find something non-toxic if you’re concerned about nearby plants or the lawn.

Clear furniture and other objects off the deck

Remove everything off the deck - it’s a much easier job with a nice clear surface.

Sweep up all debris

Ideally, you’ll have an outdoor brush with bristles stiff enough to sweep the deck regularly. Do a thorough sweep of the deck to get rid of all dirt and debris.

Wet the deck and apply Detergent

Now you can use the water blaster or garden hose to do a surface clean and wet the deck in preparation for the cleaner.

Apply the deck cleaner using the instructions on the product. You’ll likely use your broom for this job.

Clear off the detergent with a water blaster or hose

Okay, so your detergent has been applied for the required amount of time across the entire surface of the deck. It’s time to wash it off and admire your handiwork. 

Using your water blaster (or hose) with a reasonably broad nozzle spray setting (not a thin sharp stream of water) positioned at a safe distance from the decking boards, start washing away the detergent. Keep the water blaster moving in smooth up and down motion following the direction of the boards. 

It may take a couple of rounds to wash everything away, but don’t over do it - the detergent should have done its job and you’ll likely see the result as soon as you start washing it off. 

Let the deck dry

Once dry, you’ll see the actual result of your clean - all things going well you should have a beautifully clean deck that you and others can enjoy. Keep reading if you need to maintain it further.

A word on water blasting

Okay, this is important. Water blasters are fantastic tools and can speed up cleaning jobs a lot. But the power of a water blaster can also be damaging to a surface that’s not designed for the pressure it puts out. It’s essential you use a water blaster or pressure setting that does not damage decking boards. Make sure you’ve done the research on your particular timber (and stain/oil) and have an understanding of what cleaning it can take. 

Avoid narrow powerful streams that leave tracking marks or damage the deck, and instead, use a wider spray that disperses water more evenly. If you’re unsure what water blaster would suit a deck, chat to one of our team at your local branch.

Staining and oiling a deck

Staining or oiling is an excellent way to breathe new life into your deck and protect it from the elements. Once the boards are in good shape and clean, you can look at applying either stain or oil. So, what’s the difference?

Decking oil

Decking oil is mostly designed to protect and care for the timber boards on your deck. The oil you choose should match the timber you have and you’ll need to decide between water-based or non water-based oil.

Decking oil does not stain - it may bring out the natural colour of the timber a bit (especially at first), but it’s really there to protect against drying and cracking from sunlight (UV) and other elements. 

Water-based oil will sit on top of the deck, whereas non-water based will sink into the timber more. There are quite a few options when it comes to decking oil so do your homework online before buying some.

Decking Stain

You’ll stain your deck when you want to actually change the colour of it. Many stains also have properties that protect your deck from UV rays as well. The options for stain again depends on the timber of your deck, but you’ll enjoy plenty of choices for colour. Just be sure of the colour before jumping into staining. We’d even suggest applying a test coat of the stain to a decking board offcut if one is lying around.  Let it dry and see what colour it comes up. 

Looks good? Go for it! 

What's your decking tip?

We love hearing DIY and maintenance tips from our Hirepool community. If you’ve got some decking care advice to share, let us know! Otherwise, if you’re looking for the right tools for a decking project, browse our range and book online or contact your local branch today.