Spring Cleaning Your Composite Deck


You want to get your composite deck all set for Mother’s Day. That’s when you’ve invited a couple of moms — yours and your spouse’s — to your house to celebrate the yearly holiday. And if you’re lucky enough, they’ll bring along their parents. The house isn’t a McMansion, so you’ve decided to handle the festivities out back on the deck.

You know what the women who raised you are like. They give a white glove treatment to everything just like a Sergeant in charge of the platoon. Anyway, the last time you brushed-up the deck was at the end of last summer. Your supposed to do it every six months but now you have a no reasonable excuse to not take it on.

Wouldn’t wanna have the moms thinking their offspring were slobs.

Easy Peasy

Face it. This is not the toughest thing in the world to do. That’s why you went composite in the first place. Forget about renting a power washer. No need for any really expensive cleaners. All you’re going to require are a wide, medium strength bristle brush. That and a garden hose, a mop, along with your choice of earth-friendly cleaner. Nothing else. As we said before, most manufacturers recommend doing this twice a year.

By taking care of this for Mother’s Day, that’s all, folks. Next time you’ll be doing this should be around Thanksgiving.

Step-By-Step

Cleaning Hardwoods

What do you say we get down to business? Simply follow these steps and you should be done in about an hour. Maybe less. Get some help. That could cut your work time down to a half-hour. Enlist the assistance of the kids. Once they stop whining (and you’ve promised to take them out to ice cream after the job is done) take these steps. Incidentally, if you’re a really smart parent, take on the role of supervisor while you enjoy a soda, pointing and gently speaking-out directions:

  • The surface will need to be swept-off. Leaves, branches, every bit of nature’s clutter which has fallen from the skies. Pay special attention to clear-out the spaces between the boards. That will ensure that when you start spritzing, water won’t puddle-up.
  • Any furniture, plants, the grill, whatever; take it off the surface and place it someplace away from the composite deck.
  • Mix-up the “green” cleaning product into the water. If there are no directions of how much to use, combine enough so that if feels a little soapy. Not so slick that you could slide across it. Merely enough to let the concoction to its work.
  • Begin in sections. Rinse the portion first with plan ol’ H2O. Then mop it with the cleaner mix. Spray it off with the garden hose. Don’t let the suds dry.
  • Continue to do this until the whole surface has been cleaned.
  • Go back. Re-wet the deck and gently scrub it with a soft to medium bristled brush.
  • Repeat the cleaning process by sections.
  • Rinse the whole deck completely with clean water.
  • Before you bring all of the deck furniture and accessories back to the surface, take your kids for ice cream, allowing the deck to totally dry before resetting the decor.

Now that you finished this easy project, it’s time to bear-down on the tough stuff. Like wrapping mother’s gifts and praying that when she opens them up she doesn’t say, “Oh, dear. I already have one of these. Good Luck!

Original Source: http://timbertownaustin.com/home-improvement/spring-cleaning-your-composite-deck

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