If you’re in the process of cleaning your deck and wondering, is deck cleaner necessary or is it just a con for greedy supply companies to make a quick buck, then what you will read here could be the most important message you read all day…
Here’s what you need to know…
Is Deck Cleaner Necessary?
The truth is, deck cleaner is completely necessary and I can prove it…
See this deck right here?
This is a deck that was stained without scrubbing and washing with a deck cleaner first…
What you see here is a mould that is caught deep in the timber grain and is trapped under the deck stain…
The only treatment it had was a deck wash and a pressure clean…
Then they applied 1 coat of deck stain…
That’s when the contaminant raised its ugly head right under their deck stain…
Next they called me in to fix it for them…
What did I do?
I had to strip it back and use a deck cleaner…
A high quality deck cleaner will kill and remove any mould, algae and mildew that embed themselves into your decking timbers…
The thing is, you can’t see if your deck has any of these contaminants lurking deep inside your decking timber…
That is, until you apply a couple of coats of stain and they rear their ugly heads right under you perfect new deck stain…
That’s why a deck cleaner is always necessary…
The thing is, you can’t just use a deck cleaner on its own…
It’s part of a two step process…
This leads us to the next question…
Is Deck Brightener Really Necessary??
I can say whole heartedly, deck brightener is completely necessary…
And you know I can prove this too…
See this deck right here?
This is a deck that has been scrubbed with a special deck brightener…
You can see how the sections of the deck that have been scrubbed with the brightener are light and clean while the sections that haven’t been scrubbed are black and ugly…
Now, if you were to pressure wash your deck without using the deck cleaner, that black staining will never come out…
And if you attempt to apply a deck stain on top of those black stains, it doesn’t matter which colour deck stain you choose because that deck will be a dirty black colour…
Deck stain enhances the natural colour of your timber…
If your deck is “Dirty Black” then applying a couple of coats of deck stain will enhance “Dirty Black”…
Make sense?
At this point you might be thinking…
Can’t a pressure washer remove those dirty black stains without a deck brightener?
And the answer is…
A pressure washer can reduce dirty black stains but it will never remove them…
Check this out…
This is a deck with the same dirty black and grey stains covering it…
So to prove to you once and for all that a deck cleaner is necessary, I dropped a little bit of deck brightener onto the stained surface…
Now just wait to see what happens next…
I use a pressure washer to rinse the deck cleaner off and you can see what happens to the timber that has been exposed to the cleaner and the sections that haven’t been exposed…
There’s a huge difference right?
So the proof is right there…
A deck cleaner and a brightener is completely necessary, wouldn’t you agree?
Now, with all that said…
If you’re using a chemical stripper on your deck, a deck cleaner isn’t necessary…
You see, a chemical stripper will remove any old deck stain that you have on your deck…
And at the same time, will kill any mould or contaminants that sit deep inside your timber…
So that deck stripper is a souped up deck cleaner that also strippes deck stain…
In this situation, a deck cleaner is not necessary…
But it is critically important that you still use a deck brightener…
Anytime you use a deck cleaner or a deck stripper, your deck will turn black…
A deck brightening product contains oxalic acid which removes those dark stains and brings back the natural colour of your deck…
So you can see that a deck brightener is completely necessary whenever you’re preparing a deck to be stained…
But there are some other deck cleaners like a deck wash…
Now a deck wash is a whole other story…
Is deck wash really necessary?
In my honest opinion, no, I don’t think a deck wash is necessary…
A deck wash is just a cheap soap solution that can help to clean dirt from your deck…
You could just as easily use a dish washing liquid and scrub that into your deck and get it just as clean…
I wouldn’t ever recommend buying a deck wash…
It’s a waste of money…
You can easily make your own soapy solution when you plan to scrub and clean your deck…
It’ll be just as good as the store bought deck wash…
Maybe even better…
All you need to do is scrub it in with a deck brush and then just pressure wash it off and voila…
Your deck will be squeaky clean…
So what I’m saying is…
A deck cleaner and deck brightener are necessary but a deck wash isn’t…
Now before I continue, I have to address one little issue with deck cleaners and brighteners…
If you’ve used a deck brightener in the past and your results were, well… less than mediocre, then you may be thinking what I’m telling you is complete hogwash…
Well, let me tell you something…
As great as deck cleaners are, sometimes they don’t work… BUT…
I have a little magic trick that can increase the strength of your deck brightener…
This little trick can make that weak pathetic deck cleaner as much as 4 times stronger…
But before I get to that, first let me tell you why you’d want it to be 4 times stronger…
You see, some stains aren’t ever coming out of your deck…
For instance, you know those black rings you get from pot plants sitting on your deck?
Yeah well, 90% of those black ring stains are there for good…
They’re ingrained so deep into the timber that no deck cleaner or “magic spray” will ever get them out…
Or maybe you’ve had that dirty black layer all over your deck and 80 percent of it comes off but it’s that 20 percent that makes you feel that the deck cleaner was useless…
The thing is, if your deck cleaner was a little stronger, most of those stubborn stains would simply vanish…
Now let’s get back to my magic trick to supercharging your deck cleaner…
Don’t worry, we aren’t adding any dangerous chemicals…
The secret is actually in what we don’t put in that makes it a super cleaner…
You see, that brightener is actually diluted oxalic acid…
So if you follow the instructions on the bottle they tell you to dilute the oxalic acid even further…
And you should…
But, when you get those hideous black stains that refuse to budge, try halving the amount of water you use to dilute the deck cleaner with…
So instead of mixing 4 parts water to 1 part deck cleaner, try 2 parts water to 2 parts cleaner…
That oughta do it…
But if it doesn’t, then try 1 part water to 1 part cleaner…
And if that doesn’t work…
Good gosh man, what the heck have you been putting on your deck to stain it so badly??
Ok, if you’ve got those real “super duper” deck stains, then try the deck cleaner straight out of the bottle!!
Yep, sometimes a straight deck cleaner is necessary!!
Don’t you dare tell me that it still didn’t work…
You’re gonna say it still didn’t work aren’t you?
Ok, let’s get serious…
If a straight deck cleaner isn’t strong enough for you, here’s what you need to do…
Go over to Dirt Killers and get yourself a container of this deck cleaner…
This cleaner is a pure oxalic acid…
It’s the non-watered down version of your trusty deck cleaner or what we call a deck brightener…
It’s like deck cleaner on steroids!!
This stuff will bleach the dirty right off of an ugly deck…
But be really careful with this stuff…
Oxalic acid can burn your skin and kill every plant in sight if you don’t use it properly…
So start with a weak mix and then make it stronger and stronger until you’re happy with the level of stain removal…
You have to take your time with this and test, test and retest…
Don’t start with pure oxalic acid, burn your deck and then blame me for messing up your deck…
Start weak and test before you cause any damage…
That’s the best advice I can give you…
And with that, I think that’s about enough for this episode…
That’s a lot more top secret information than I was willing to give…
But it’s out there now…
Use it and realise this…
Deck cleaner is very necessary!!
Peace,
Jason…
Need some Expert Advice?
If you’ve been searching the internet trying to find an answer to a specific deck problem and you’ve found it impossible to get a straight answer…
Why not just reach out and ask me directly for an answer?
I’ve got 10 years of deck knowledge crammed into my noggin. I can pretty much guarantee I’ve got an answer to your problem just rattling around in there…
Come on, don’t be shy…
FAQ’s
Yes, you really do need to use a deck cleaner before staining. If you don’t, contaminants can get trapped under the deck stain and cause it to peel and fade prematurely…
You should use both a deck cleaner and a pressure washer together if you want to clean your deck properly. But with that said, the deck cleaner is more important that the pressure washer…
A deck cleaner will remove all of the mould, algae and any other type of contaminates that sit in the grain of your deck boards so your deck will be clean and ready for stain…
0 Comments