Dear tim,
Thanks for all your advice on maintaining my wood deck. Would you recommend the same things for a painted deck? My wood deck is painted, however, the paint is peeling and there is a lot of dirt and green stuff growing on the wood. How would you recommend that I take care of that?
Thanks!

Helen,
You clean it the same way using Oxygen Bleach and then battle the constant-peeling paint.

Hi Tim,

I have a redwood deck which we treated 2 years ago with a UV protective stain. By the next year, we noticed that the stain is already peeling. If we want to clean and restain, do we use the oxygen bleach to remove the old stain? Is the oxygen bleach simply for cleaning, do I need to remove the old stain before resealing it? What product would you suggest for a sealer/ stain?
Joceliza

Joceliza,
Oxygen bleach and redwood do not always play well together. In some instances, the oxygen can make the redwood darker. You should use oxalic acid to clean redwood. I like the synthetic-resin sealers.

Hi Tim,

We purchased a home that had a large wood deck that had been built for 10 yrs. and had never been painted or stained. We decided to stain it white...which of course after 2 yrs. has really chipped and now it looks really bad again. So do you think since it had not been stained for the original 10 yrs., if we sand it down and clean with Oxygen bleach and re-stain it, it will last? At this point I am almost ready to remove and put a concrete patio out instead. Is it worth the time trying to salvage this deck and if so, what would you recommend treating it with?
Thanks!

Tammy,

You need to get off all of the white. That will not be easy. Wood decks are great, but they are maintenance nightmares. I love my paver-brick patio. Go read all of my Brick Patio columns and look at the photos. All I have to do each year is hit it quickly with my power washer.

Tim,
I cleaned and stained my deck last year. The stain still looks pretty good. Should I use a deck cleaning solution to wash it again this year, or will that ruin the stain?
Thanks!

Jason,
I would just use regular liquid dish soap and water. The deck cleaners are harsh.

We have a hugh redwood deck. My husband painted it red. The paint is peeling because the sun hits it all summer. What do you recommend him to do to get this deck ready to stain? What is recommended to use on a redwood deck? He presently started using something to lift the paint, it isn't working very well. Thanks for any help you can give us.

Trish,
You have to remove the paint, then clean the redwood with oxalic acid. Read all of my deck sealer columns for the best sealer.

Hello

My husband just put CIL woodcare exterior oil cedar treatement on our new cedar deck (he hadn't read your site). Unfortunately it rained that night and the deck now is uneven and full of spots.
Do you have any suggestions on how to fix this. Can we clean with the cleaner you suggest and start over?

Thank you

Hello

My husband put CIL woodcare exterior oil cedar treatment on our new cedar deck ( he hadn't read your site). Unfortunately it rained that night and the deck is now spotted with an uneven color.
Is there away to fix this? Can we clean off the oil with
an oxygen bleach and start over??

Thank you

My deck is 20 years old and we have had it refinished several times. I believe the last contractor pressure washed it and took all the gray mildew and algae off and got it back to the natural wood color. Then stained it and it looked like a newly built deck, beautiful!! That was 4 years ago. NOW, the new contractor said he pressure washed it but it still looked gray and then he was supposed to put a natural stain on it but I believe that because the wood was still gray, he decided to put a Golden Honey color on it and I hate it. It looks like a horrible caramel color paint instead of a stain. How can this be fixed? He's brought out other stain samples to try to see if it would help, but they just make it darker. Is there anything to put on it that will make it lighter and have a new look to it? I'm at my wit's end and so is the painter. Thanks

Tim,

We made the dreadful mistake of power washing our cedar deck before sealing and now it is peeling. Do we simply power sand, then use oxygen bleach, and lastly seal use water-based epoxy sealer with resin? If so, how much time should I allow between the bleach and sealing process?

Thanks

Chris