Fall marks a welcomed change in weather, but it also means more maintenance for your deck. The trees around your home shed leaves and rain substitutes the endless summer sun. Follow these fall deck tips and you’ll be on your way enjoying autumn on your deck.
Reseal your deck
Before heavier rain rolls in, make sure your deck is sealed and ready to repel water. Exposing your deck to water without a sealant will result in swelling, twisting, cupping, or buckling. If you have an Ipe, Cumaru, or Tigerwood deck, you don’t need to seal anything; these woods are naturally water resistant.
Clean standing water
Standing water is wood’s worst enemy. If you leave puddles on your deck, they can penetrate improperly sealed wood or trigger surface mold growth. Grab a mop or stiff brush and remove the water to avoid costly replacements.
Don’t let leaves sit on your deck
This tip is often ignored, but it’s important to keep your deck looking good in fall. Not sweeping off fallen leaves, acorns, twigs, and pine needles will cause discoloration and mold growth on your deck boards. Be aware that all this debris also accumulates in the space between your boards, leading to rot.
Think about what decorations you’ll display
Fall also marks the beginning of pumpkin carving. This is a favorite activity among kids and adults. Remember to never place the carved pumpkin directly on your deck’s surface. The moisture from the pumpkin can help grow mold and lead to rotting wood. This tip applies to any decoration that accumulates moisture in the bottom, like flower pots.
Check surrounding trees
If your deck has trees surrounding it, take an hour out of your weekend to make sure the branches are in good condition. The last thing you want is branches breaking and landing on your deck during snowfalls. If you see some weak branches, cut them and avoid the mess they’ll create on your deck otherwise.
Following these simple 5 tips, you’ll make your deck enjoyable during fall and ready for the winter snows.
we use ipe lumber for our deck and put cabots oil stain to seal that was recommended by the company which sold us the lumber. The deck is peeling and did not last even a year! Very disappointed in how it looks! Ideas???
Sorry to hear about that. I’d recommend stripping off the remaining sealer and giving the deck a good cleaning. Because it’s ipe, you don’t need to do anything else; sealing is unnecessary and you don’t even need to oil it if you don’t want to. But if you want to restore and preserve the color, we recommend Ipe Oil brand. It’s specially formulated to work with ipe and other dense tropical hardwoods.
A former homeowner PAINTED my IPE deck! Horrible thing to do. I am, however, so pleased to see this beautiful wood (actually think it is Cumaru) under that paint.
What can I use to strip off the paint? I tried sanding, too hard, except on the rail. I am about to use a chemical stripping produce on the deck boards themselves. I don’t see you having any such a product for sale. Is this ok? Then do I just oil it or will I need to brighten it?
Also, some of the fasteners have broken or are no longer holding down a few of the boards. How do I get into those small spaces and put in new fasteners or how else to fix cupped boards? Please advise. Takes a special tool, apparently, and in some place, I would have to removed too many boards to get that job done. What do you recommend for loose boards in the middle of the deck?
Finally, how do I identify the kind of fasteners I need? Mine look round, with allen wrench type threaded heads. Please help.
Glad I was able to read this. Definitely needed this article for future use.