Decks

One purpose of this blog is to celebrate (aka complain) about all the work associated with home ownership.

If you have a house you either have a deck or dream of having home. Just think of it: if you had a deck, you could invite family and friends over for a BBQ and life would be grand. Right?

I built our deck myself five years ago. It was a lot of work and fairly expensive. Little did I realize the work and expense was just beginning. We have had to seal the deck every year since its construction!

Each year I use Olympic deck sealer with a 5 or 6 year guaranty and it only lasts one year!

Step one is the timing. It requires three rain free warm days in a row. One day to clean the deck, one to dry, and one to seal and let the seal dry. Finding three dry and warm days in upstate New York can be difficult!

The deck needs to be cleaned before it is sealed. It can be cleaned by sweeping it and then hosing the deck down, or better yet, poor a deck cleaner on it (basically it is bleach), scrub it, then hose it off. If you choose to use the deck cleaner method? Remember it is bleach and will turn anything it splashes on white (including your clothes).

Then comes the staining. At $40 per gallon, plus disposable brushes and various supplies - this gets expensive.

I tape plastic around the deck so the Cedar colored stain doesn't splash onto the white siding. The trick with Painter's tape is that it melts in the sun, so, it has to be removed within 24 hours or less.

I always apply the sealant with a brush so that I can fill the cracks and the areas between the boards. However, this year I used a plush roller because I didn't have the standard four hours that it normally takes.

Building a deck is very expensive and a lot of work, but it is just the start. The yearly maintenance on a deck is a huge consideration too. But now that it is done we can enjoy cookouts on the deck for the rest of the summer!