How to Keep Your Deck Beautiful Year Round

One of the main places people like to invest in their home is the garden.

It’s the space they can entertain, have the kids play and have a little piece of the outdoors just for them to enjoy privately. Investing in the garden isn’t a one-time thing the same way that investing in new flooring in the home is. A garden is a space requiring constant maintenance, even more so if you have decking outside.

To be able to enjoy decking all year round, you need to be on the ball with maintaining it and keeping it clean. Sometimes, this isn’t easy, especially when you’re strapped for cash! However, other than decking floor sanding and polishing, there are plenty of other ways to maintain the look of your decking so it can stay usable all year around. Maintaining the perfect decking does take some time, so check out our tips below:

• Cleaning is important for decking and you should be doing this regularly. It sounds like an obvious thing to do, but surprisingly enough a lot of people don’t take the time to give it the right clean. The winter and fall are particularly bad for the weather, as the leaves fall off the trees and create a slippery muck on the decking. Clearing it of moss, leaves and mould is important so that the decking itself doesn’t get ruined. Use a pressure washer and cleaners like this to help you get into every nook and cranny that you can.
• Protecting your decking is as important as regularly cleaning it. Once a year, you should look into applying decking protector, stain or oil to keep it looking beautiful and cloak it from the elements. Protectors create a waterproof layer, whereas a decking stain like this one can change the colour while weatherproofing the wood itself.
• Restoring decking that is already looking a little sorry for itself isn’t a difficult job, either. You can use decking restorers and then add a protector a little later on. Don’t start with wet decking, though. Make sure it’s clean, dried thoroughly and clear of debris before you get started. Start in small areas of the decking and work your way across it, as it’s a fairly time-consuming job!

Ideally, you would be implementing the correct changes as you need to from the very beginning when your decking is installed. Cleaning, restoring and subsequently protecting decking is going to make the difference between whether you’ve just wasted your money on your deck or not! Decking can be a fantastic focal point in the garden for entertaining, covering a lawn so that it’s more low maintenance and simply for relaxing on throughout those warm summer days.

There’s no need to wait around for it to be warm outside to keep it clean. Arm yourself with hot, soapy water and a strong outdoor bristle brush and you can keep your decking scrubbed and looking new, no matter the time of the year.

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This is a contributed article written for WhimMagazine.com