Your house is a living organism that needs good care and lots of love. If you are lucky enough to have an outdoor deck, you need to maintain it with all seriousness.

If you care about it, your deck will bring you joy for many years to come. And if you wonder what you need to do to maintain your outdoor timber decking properly, this piece is for you.

We are believers in the method of combining regular care with once a year deep cleaning. This is the optimal way to keep your deck in top shape and enjoy your time on it. Let’s start with:

Regular routine

Here we have three rules:

1. Sweeping. Don’t let dead leaves decompose on your deck or sand ruin your deck’s protective coating.
2. Keep the deck furniture clean. Wipe it down regularly to prevent any stains from appearing on your deck.
3. Use non-aggressive cleaners. When you need to clean your deck between grand spring cleanings, use eco-friendly and non-adhesive cleaners. You will get a spotless deck and no additional problems with them.

Spring cleaning

The golden rule: once a year, your deck needs to get a full and very thorough cleaning.

This cleaning routine guarantees that your timber deck will be in perfect shape for years.

There are three steps in this yearly cleaning process:

Deep washing

You need to get rid of all the grease, dirt and other nasty stuff that your deck got during the last year. You can grab a bucket of water and a sturdy brush for wood or just use a pressure washer for this matter.

In this case, you need to choose the right method depending on the deck’s condition. It is important to clean it very well during this process: try to get to the places you never would during your regular cleaning routine.

Remember: if you don’t clean it properly, all these things will continue ruining your deck, and you can lose it!

Fixing

In this step, examine every board, screws, nails and connective parts of the deck to find out what needs to be changed or fixed.

Tightening screws will help you prevent any accidents from happening and ensure that the deck will be a safe place to spend your time on.

Also, you need to check timber for any cracks or fractures. Your deck experiences many temperature spikes, harsh rains and snowstorms during a year, so it is normal for timber to deform a little.

If you can’t, don’t want or don’t see the need to change a fractured board, you can use wood filler to fix small cracks.

Renovating

You can miss this step if the deck looks perfect. If not, you can choose to stain it to give it a second life. You can also choose to oil your timber deck if it is your personal preference. Whether you oil or stain it, this treatment will help to protect the wood from UV rays and make it look as good as new.

Also, don’t forget to use (and refresh yearly) a water repellent coating to make your timber deck more durable and water-resistant.

For more assistance head to therealestateuno.com.