Looked at a house yesterday thats got lots of decking in the garden (partly as its built on a steep slope).

Anyway this decking was put in in about 2011, and already looks a bit tired, so im thinking what will it look like in ten years.

What are you meant to do to maintain it, does it need staining or something every year? This stuff didnt look like it had any stain / varnish / paint applied.

Or is decking the stuff of nightmares, made popular by Tommy Walsh and the Ground Force team in the 90’s 🙂

I wouldn’t bother staining it, that just makes a rod for your own back. Let it ‘silver’ off and scrub it once a year with some stuff like patio cleaner to keep it from being slippery when it rains.

Doubtless you’ll get a plethora of opinions as to whether or not it’s cool to have decking and how to look after it, so make your own mind up 😀

PITA.. scrubbing and keeping it non slippy is one thing, though it will take a while to rot it will and then need replacing id expect 10 plus years before your at that stage though.

Has to be done…

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Bg586-wl38[/video]

Decking in the shade is a no-no, in the sun it’ll silver as above (don’t fight it, nature always wins). Very dilute bleach will see to the slime without pressure washing the life out of it.

We have a fair bit of decking in the back garden, hate it. As soon as i can afford it its getting replaced with patio.

Ours is in a bit of shade and lots of plants/bushes around it so goes green pretty quickly in certain parts.

I pressure wash mine off twice a year, usually March and October. Keeps it looking newish but still slippy as hell in winter so I screw down some rubber mats for a couple of months.

PITA – small bit out the back of my house which is in the sun and still gets slippery as hell in winter. Gave in and gave it a coat of something last year but will need doing annually I guess.

Agree PITA, I built it years ago and you have to jet wash it annually and use that anti slime stuff, hadn’t thought of bleach it needs doing I’ve been a bit slack this year and I’m flogging our gaff anyway, leave it to the new bloke..

I reasoned not painting it with anything would mean I would have to do it again every so often but it does turn black with moss or whatever that stuff is that grows in the bits the sun doesn’t get at.

That plastic stuff is amazing, so grippy. If replacing I’d certainly use it.

I have 30 sqm of hardwood flat (not castelated) decking. It’s 50/50 sun/shade. It’s now been down over a year. I’ve jet-washed it once and it’s just been cleaned and will get it’s second coat of Osmo (put it on with a roller) later on today.

It’s great and I don’t find it’s slippy in the winter.

As recommended on here I used Liberon decking oil on my new decking.
Don’t know how it fairs on older decking but would think once cleaned off and a few coats it would come up ok.