Protect Your Wooden Decks This Summer
First of all let us list out the items you need for this job. You will have to purchase deck protector paint, the deck mate application device with flat pad, around 4 to 5 hand brushes and hire the power wash machine that gives high-pressure water jet to effectively clean the wooden surface of the deck prior to actual coating. You will need some pairs of hand gloves to protect your hands while doing this job. All these equipments are available at any home item stores like Home depot, Lowes, etc. The deck mate arrangement consists of a device with a paint tank, control valve, and an application pad. You have to fill the tank with the paint by opening its lid. The control valve is to be kept closed to start with and then is to be opened very slowly depending upon the quantity you need on the bottom application pad. The paint tins are available in 1, 2, and 5 gallons capacity. We used “BEHL” make deck/furniture protector paint in natural clear shade. There are many shades available and you can select the suitable shade of your choice. The 6 inches size hand brushes should be good enough. The hand brushes are required to paint the railings and the deck interiors. You will need around one gallon of paint to cover 150 square feet area of the deck. We have two decks, each having 250 square feet area, thus making total area as 500 square feet. We purchased two tins of 2 gallons each. We spent $55 for the paint, $12 for the deck mate device, and $8 for the hand brushes. We hired the power wash machine at the rate of $10 per day. This machine is able to supply water jet at 1500 pounds per square inch pressure and is operated on the electricity.
We started our job on Friday evening. We completely vacated the entire decks and removed all the furniture items from them. We started power washing the deck with the machine and the result was amazing. We could clean both the decks within 90 minutes very effectively. Make sure to carry out this operation with gumboots to protect your legs from high-pressure water jet. If this jet hits you on the bare legs, there are chances of serious injury. We allowed to dry the decks for the full night and started our paint application next day morning. The deck mate device is ideal for this job. Assemble the deck mate device and taste the control valve by filling it with water first and ensure that no water is coming out while the control valve is closed. After this, fill in the tank with the paint. The tank capacity is half a gallon and can cover around 75 square feet area. Start applying the paint with this device by controlling the opening of the valve to your need. Move the pad keeping the semi circular portion of the pad towards you and by giving long strokes. Take each wooden plank one by one and finally go out of the deck. Make sure not to walk on the area where the paint is already applied. Use hand brushes for the railings and the deck interiors. We completed the entire application process within around 4 hours. On completion of this, the drying cycle begins. It is advisable to leave the surface without any foot traffic for at least 24 hours. You can start light foot traffic after this time but full-fledged foot traffic may only be started after 48 hours.
You will yourself notice the difference on your deck. Put some water on it and see if the wooden planks absorb the water or not. If the water does not get absorbed within around 5 minutes, you can say that the job done by you was perfect. Always apply the paint on the top deck first so that it does not spoil the bottom deck coating by dripping. We rearranged the furniture after around 48 hours of the job.
It was really a very pleasant and self-satisfying experience for all of our family. We could complete the total job in around 120 US$ only. We saved around $400 by doing this job ourselves. I would strongly request my all AC friends to take up the job by themselves and derive lot of pleasure, self-satisfaction and a large financial savings.
