If your deck is too hot to walk on, then this guide will show you the most effective ways to cool it down…

Here’s what you need to know…

The quickest way to cool down a deck that is too hot to walk on is to spray it down with water from your garden hose…

The thing is, that sun will still be blasting away at your deck and that water will evaporate quicker than you can say, “Ahhh my feet are burning!!”.

It’s even worse if you have a deck built around your swimming pool…

Man, that pool deck can cook an egg!!

So the “old water the deck down” trick works for about 30 seconds but then you have to sit there all day watering your deck…

This is the quickest way to cool your deck down but it’s far from the best way…

That’s why I want to show you a couple of more permanent ways to cool your deck down on those hot summer days…

Let’s get into shall we?

How to permanently cool a deck that is too hot to walk on…

Do you remember when you were a kid and you went through your black clothing phase?

Black jeans, black T-shirt, black jumper, black shoes…

Everything was black just like your mood…

You were so cool…

That was until summer hit…

Then your dark mood got really sweaty in those black jeans…

That’s when some wise person told you…

“Hey moody one, black clothes absorb the heat and make you hotter. You need to put on some light-coloured clothes”…

You held out for as long as you could but those mushy, sweaty jeans got so hot and stinky that you couldn’t take it anymore…

You had to switch over to some light coloured clothes…

And guess what?

Your deck is exactly the same…

It’s dark and moody…

No, I mean it’s too dark so it attracts the heat instead of deflecting it…

Those dark moody timbers will soak up all of that blistering sun’s heat…

Then when you go to walk on it, your deck is way too hot…

So this next method of cooling a deck that is burning hot to walk on, is to lighten it up…

Before I show you how to do this, I have to admit that this is your best option if you’re in the market for a deck restoration…

If your deck was just recently done, you won’t like this…

But don’t worry because the cooling method after this one is for you…

Cool your deck down with the lightening method…

So we’ve established that your deck is too hot to walk on because it’s dark and sucking up all of that burning sun, right?

Well, it would make sense that if you lighten the colour of your deck, you’ll reduce how hot it gets…

This really does work…

I discovered this cooling method by actually burning my feet on a deck that was so hot that I couldn’t walk on it at all…

But there were also sections of the deck that had worn and turned grey…

And guess what?

Those sections were hot but I could walk on them with no problems…

So lightening the colour of your deck really does work…

There’s two options for lightening the colour of your deck…

The first is to strip your deck back and stain or paint it a light colour…

One of the best colours for a light deck would have to be grey…

But this works best for a light coloured timber…

If you have dark timber, it can be extremely hard to lighten it with a grey coloured stain…

Dark timber with a light stain will look  like this…

As you can see, it’s still fairly dark…

So if you go this option, you will be better off getting a solid stain that will block out most of the timber…

It will look similar to paint…

So staining your deck grey or painting it grey is the first option…

The second option is to let it turn grey naturally…

This is where you strip it back and then let the sun turn it grey over time…

This could take anywhere from 3 to 12 months…

Or you could speed up the process with the bleaching method…

What you need to do is, grab yourself a tub of pure oxalic acid…

Then make a strong mix, say 50 percent acid to 50 percent water and then scrub a small section of your deck with it…

You just want to test to see how the sample section turns out…

If it’s not bleaching the colour, make the mix stronger…

If it looks too harsh, make the mix weaker…

Test until you’re happy with the colour…

Then scrub that mix all over your deck and let it sit for 15 minutes…

All that’s left to do now is to pressure wash your deck and then your deck will be light in colour and no longer too hot to walk on…

Now I know there’s a bunch of reasons why you wouldn’t feel comfortable doing this to your deck, so this next option could be for you…

Cool a hot deck with the Shade Method…

If you think about it…

Your deck is hot because the sun is blasting down on it…

So if you install a sail shade over the top of your deck, it will block out the sun and your deck will no longer be too hot to walk on…

I don’t install sail shades so I can’t recommend anybody, but this is a great option…

It’s much cheaper than building a pergola over your deck and just as effective…

Plus, it’s pretty easy to install a sail shade…

You could have it done in a couple of days…

And in my book, that’s a win…

Hey, here’s an idea to really cool a deck that is too hot to walk on…

Why don’t you do both methods??

You can cool your deck by making it lighter and then keep it extra cool and maybe even semi protected by installing a sail shade over it…

I think your feet will thank you for this one…

I know there’s a bunch of other methods that you’ll find listed on other websites but I find them to be a waste of time and ineffective…

The two methods I’ve outlined above really are your most effective options when trying to cool a deck that is too hot to walk on…

Well, what are you waiting for??

Go cool that deck down…

I’m done…

Peace, 

Jason 

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