Wooden Deck maintenance?

I am not a fan of wooden decks, so I built a paved patio (100% non-maintenance) at our house.

With my current home repair activities, I have had to do repairs on a number of decks.  However, for lack of personal experience, I am not positive as to maintenance recommendations.

If you paint a deck, it becomes a pain in the neck to replace 1 or 2 boards (I have to scrape paint out of each screw head to extract the old board).

  • If you do not paint, how frequently do you wash and reseal your wooden deck?

Before you go ahead and recommend composite decks, be aware that:

  • Cost is 3-6 times higher than regular pressure treated wood.
  • In the absence of lumber (2x4, 2x6 & 2x12) matching the composites, it becomes near impossible to do custom carpentry to solve individual installation peculiarities.

Thanks,


FWIW... when I was a teenager my parents had a deck/ gazebo that was approximately 15x40. They’d throw a $100 at me every spring and I’d get a stiff bristle brush and some Wolmans  Deck Brightner and water and scrub the floors steps railings and well over a 100 balusters. I’d then put in a pump sprayer a clear water sealer (Thompson’s). It would last the season and take about 2 weekends to complete.



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