Restoring Hardwood Decking.... and keeping it that way!

[Trikster]

About 2.5 years ago laid a load of hardwood decking (Balau iirc) in the garden - extrememly pleased with the results with the different shades of the wood rather than the uniformity of a softwood deck - but due to travelling with work didn't treat it properly and it greyed etc.

In the spring gave it all a good treatment of Owatrol Prep-deck which removed the grey, and then a few coats of Ronseals hardwood deck oil...

Problem is... over the summer the deck hasn't gone back to it's grey, but has gone blotchy... so looks like I've got to find another strategy...

So, in preparation for the spring.. any ideas????? And how can I keep the colours once I've got them back...?

[russ_a]

My Ipe deck was blotchy as the first oil I used was in fact a varnish (thanks B&Q). The blotches were simply where the varnish had not worn off.

I had to sand the deck down and re-oil using lyprinol oil but even that only seems to last a couple of months.

What ever you do, do not use a jet wash on full power as it will leave marks and require sanding again.

If you do happen to find something that lasts please let me know

[jeff m]

Trikster said:

About 2.5 years ago laid a load of hardwood decking (Balau iirc) in the garden - extrememly pleased with the results with the different shades of the wood rather than the uniformity of a softwood deck - but due to travelling with work didn't treat it properly and it greyed etc.

In the spring gave it all a good treatment of Owatrol Prep-deck which removed the grey, and then a few coats of Ronseals hardwood deck oil...

Problem is... over the summer the deck hasn't gone back to it's grey, but has gone blotchy... so looks like I've got to find another strategy...

So, in preparation for the spring.. any ideas????? And how can I keep the colours once I've got them back...?

I suspect you may not have rinsed off the Deck prep well enough before you applied the deck oil. Or the wood was possibly not dry enough when the oil was applied.
I would try re-oiling before repeating the complete process.

I use a tinted stain on mine, I re-stain it every second or third year with very little prep required. I have a fence also cedar that gets the same treatment every five or six years. (That does need prep)

[Trikster]

@jeffm.. what tinted stain do you use - what I do NOT want to do is remove the variation in the woods colour - some are redder, some are yellower as I think it adds character to the deck - I know a frinds cedar deck is a lot more uniform in colour...

But if it's sometihng that just helps lift the colour of the wood might give it a go - used an oak tinted oil when treating my softwood deck at my old house

[jeff m]

I'm in the US, so brands are probably different, but to answer your question ..Olympic.

Gives pretty good UV protection and water beads up better than on my cars

I'm not in one of very sunny states but wood will grey in a couple of months here if it isn't treated.