How to Renew a Weathered Deck and Restore Its "Youthful" Appearance

After 12-15 years of exposure to the hot sun in summer, freezing rains, ice and snow in winter and everything in between even the best constructed deck can begin to deteriorate and show the beginning of structural failure.

When building my deck some 15 years back I used the highest quality, pressure treated decking I could buy. While some say I over constructed I used sturdy 2" X 8" X 10' pressure treated number one, prime lumber for decking. After 15 years the results of using the best, heavy duty decking have shown this to be a good choice. While the deck surface is just now becoming discolored and badly worn in some spots, most of the decking maintains its' integrity. Selected, individual deck boards have become pitted with the beginnings of small recesses, the result of water penetration and ice expansion wearing away at otherwise stable boards. Close examination shows that decking that is located in heavily shaded areas suffered more from the invasion of mold and mildew, which I had not removed as often as I would have liked. The result was the failing of some surfaces of about 30% of the decking.

It was time to replace the decking boards.

My relatively small deck measures 45' X 10'. To replace the decking I would need approximately 45 boards measuring 2" X 8" X 10' at a cost of $10.45 per board. In addition I would need to replace the rail top boards around the perimeter of the deck. To purchase new decking and rail boards my board cost alone would run over $500.

The cost of replacement boards gave me serious pause as I did not have a spare $500 to commit to this project.

As a result I developed an alternate plan for restoring the appearance and stability of my deck.

I began the restoration by carefully removing the existing decking boards. Each of these boards were nailed securely in place with 3 16 penny nails spaced at 24 inch intervals lengthwise down each board. This required the wedging and removal of 15 nails per ten foot decking board. I found purchasing a special nail removing bar purchased from my home supply store much facilitated this task and protected the wood surface from damage.

After carefully removing each board I used plastic wood to fill the nail holes and to fill any of the surface cavities I had found earlier. This restored some of the surface integrity of the original surface of the deck boards.

Turing the boards over I used an environmentally friendly product called Mold Off to clean and remove mold and mildew from each board.

Once the under surface was dry from cleaning I used a radial sander to smooth the entire board surface and further remove dirt, grime and mildew missed in the cleaning.

I then used my garden sprayer to thoroughly coat the underside (as opposed to the original deck surface) of each board with Defy Water Repellent I purchased from my local home supply store.

After cleaning, sanding and water repellent treating the underside of the old deck boards looked almost like new.

I next replaced the boards on the deck with the previous underside up and secured these using 4 inch long deck screws ( to facilitate removal next time).

The replaced boards not only look new they are very sound and sturdy.

The cost of my reconditioned deck was under $60 and it does look like new.

I expect to get many years of service form my 'new' deck.