To clean exterior wood, use a pressure washer or scrub brush and a detergent solution to repair any damage, remove loose paint, and smooth the surface. Before painting, use a mixture of vinegar and warm water or a trisodium phosphate (TSP) product to saturate the wood with your chosen cleaning solution. A safe option is using a specific wood cleaner such as Net-Trol, which is a strong yet gentle water-based cleaner and brightener that restores greyed surfaces.
For outdoor furniture, use commercial wood brighteners, bleach on dark wood, vinegar to lighten dark wood stain, hydrogen peroxide on dark wood, and other methods. Vacuum up excess dust around the area and use a power washer or hose and a scrubbing brush or broom to sweep off excess product. Properly clean off and raise plants and other items that might have dirt.
To clean and brighten your wood deck before resealing, follow these steps: Sweep the deck, wash away dirt and debris, apply a cleaner, scrub tough areas, brighten the deck, allow the deck to dry completely, inspect the deck, and apply the sealant.
Net-Trol effortlessly removes surface and ground-in dirt, leaving the wood looking bright and vibrant. Clean outdoor wood furniture lightly with a damp cloth and mild soapy solution or warm water. If deeper cleaning is needed, scrub with a soft scrub.
To clean a deck, use a top-quality wood deck cleaner that loosens dirt, removes grayish oxidation, and kills mold, mildew, and algae. Mix Wood and Deck Brightener in warm water according to label directions and apply to the wet wood previously cleaned by Wood and Deck Cleaner.
A two-step cleaning process starts with using an alkaline-based product like DRP’s Cleaner or Restorer, followed by a brightener.
📹 HOW TO: Cleaning a Deck with Oxygen Bleach (NOT Chlorine Bleach!)
A bunch of years ago, I made a promotional video which vaguely illustrated how I clean a deck with oxygen bleach (a.k.a. sodium …
📹 How to Clean, Renew and Seal a Wood Deck in One Day
Here’s a simple way to restore a deck in one day. Visit Ron Hazelton’s website for more home improvement projects: …
I watch hundreds of articles. Literally hundreds. But only of practical content. And make notes. So accurate grading is at hand. And this presentation is most certainly in the top . Only TWO. No bulldusting. No beating around wasting time. To-the-point. Perfectly executed. Very well done. Thank you kindly.
Well done article, short and sweet, complete with notes, mix ratios, before & after samples, clear speaking presentation, and…NO LOUD ROCK’N ROLL MUSIC drowning out the article. I have literally left comments telling other creators to “put down the camera”. You sir, are a true professional. Thank you.
Nate! NATE!!!!! Make longer articles my man!!!! You clearly have knowledge and you want to share maybe you feel like no one wants to watch longer articles well guess what we do. Educate us and bring us along the ride! Maybe put a go pro on your head and give us a POV of an average job. Anyways great job on the articles I am looking to start this my self up in Vermont so thank you for the article and keep making them!
Just started a small pressure washing business of my own. Used to work beside a self made millionaire who started with pressure washing and eventually moved on to epoxy and modified cement overlays. Just want to say that your technique for pressure is flawless. The “flicking” motion does wonders for preventing damage. Do you use your pressure washer to apply the chemical cleaner? Im assuming downstream and if so what chemical are you using? I used to get something called New Again for asphalt shingles and wood, but don’t know what is was made of, can’t find it, and have never used bleach directly on wood. Any tips? Great job. I’ll be looking into oxalic acid as well. The product i mentioned worked phenomenally as well. You might be able to get it. Thanks
I tried out these products & process on my cedar siding on my house. Pressure washing alone only got about 80% of the mildew. After washing with the Sodium percarbonate and Oxalic Acid it cleaned off the remaining crud and left the cedar looking new. Cedar is over 45 years old! Thanks for the article!!
Awesome article. Simple and straightforward. One question: do I really need a power washer in step 5? Meaning can’t I just use a garden hose nozzle on the jet setting to achieve that relatively low pressure? Let’s assume I’m putting out, like, 50psi at the end of the hose. Trying to avoid buying a power washer if possible. Thanks for great articles without all the fluff!
I see that you are located on Cape Cod…I just happen to be checking on ways to clean my deck and you happen to be one of them..Just went through your article and I’m planning on doing this process soon. I currently live in Bourne on the Sagamore side 😀😀 just before the Sagamore bridge…Thanks for your article…😁😁😁😁😁
I put several scrubbers in my Home depot cart but was not sure which head size to buy, came back to your article (bookmarked before for reference) to get an idea of what you used, saw that you used the Quickie 12″ scrub brush and that’s what i am going to buy, you solved my indecison, also thank you for giving the mixing instructions, i want to follow instructions from a pro, you gave very clear step by step instructions
With your chem mix i see you applying it with garden hose and chem pump i assume as opose to a pump sprayer. I have both a chem pump 10 gpm electric 90 psi and a pump sprayer. If you use a chem marine pump do you make the mixture you recomended then run it through proportioner without water just the streight mixter because its premixed. I also have 6 gpm marine pump chem pump and a pump sprayer.
We used dirtex and bleach solutions on siding regularly prepping for paint. We used car wash brushes on painter poles with an assist from a power washer. Rubber gloves were useless because solution ran off the brush, down the pole, over the gloves and down your arm. When you dipped your brush again it ran down your arm and filled up your gloves. “You know your soaking in it”!
Just curious, I had a dock built over a lake about 6 months ago. I don’t want to power wash it because the wood looks like new and I just want to prep it for stain. Any recommendations for a wood brighter that’s safe for lakes and won’t kill fish or aquatic life? I was hoping just to use a deck brightener in a sprayer then brush it and rinse,but not sure what would be safe. Oxygenated bleach? Any suggestions? Thanks in advance
This looks very dramatically effective, but note that these wood decks are untreated, just mildewed and dirty from weather. On the other hand, if you have years and layers of old deck oil, deck stain etc on it, it’s much harder to clean. Pressure washing alone would probably do about 90% of what is shown here. Mildew or algae is just not that hard to remove esp with a pressure washer. Or something like 30 Sec cleaner.
Great article! I did use a product that contained sodium percarbonate. I did dampen the deck prior to application. I used a stiff brush to apply and agitate. I then let it sit. Directions said to let it sit, but it was drying out. I don’t have a power washer, so I defaulted to a hose. I should have said at the beginning, this was a new cedar deck from September 2023. Our carpenter said to seal it in the spring since he felt it needed to dry. After winter it needed a good cleaning. We’ve had nothing but rain and tornados since spring. The hose just didn’t seem to remove the product it looked like a gel or slim residue was left. I tried rescrubbing and hosing it off, a squeegee, nothing seemed to work. This morning it looks blotchy, I’m really at a loss. I may have to contact a pro locally at this point. I can send you a picture if you like. I’m really at a loss. Thank you for this article & your time. 😊
Few questions: 1. Do you just use cold water? I saw someone else say to use heated water. 2. Do you leave the solution sitting at all either before or after scrubbing? 3. Do you use any other treatment to keep the algae/mold etc from growing back? I’m thinking of the ones that kill mold spores (I think the chemical is sodium hypochlorite). Would you recommend or not and if so, at what point in the process would you put that on? Thanks for the helpful article!
I use a similar procedure but use caustic soda followed by oxalic acid. If the deck is not too bad I can get away with an oxi clean mixture instead of the caustic soda beads. Nice job on this instructional article. I always feel the need to remind contractors to never paint a deck. Yet I still see that all the time. Even solid stain fails. Transparent oil stain is the only way IMO.
I have cleaned my deck today using a mix of oxygen bleach, dish soap and warm water probably 3/4 cup of bleach for 1gal of water. soap a scrub brush and scrubbed all the deck pretty intensively and then power washed after 15 + minutes… Well I don’t think the bleach did anything because I pressure washed for almost 2hrs to get rid of the stubborn spots… I hope I didn’t damage the deck too bad since I had to get close to get rid of the dirt. its a 15×14 deck .
My brothers deck has never been maintained and has been thru since 2006 thru winters and rain and ect. The nails have been popping up for so long and the deck railings shake so bad so loose everywhere I believe the deck is going to collapse it can’t take nomore eventually right? When does a deck actually become dangerous to my other family members
You should say, and homeowner terms the names of the chemicals like if it’s so instead of surfactant, you should save those with it because I have no idea what the chemicals were and I have to look them up now to know what you’re talking about and I’m not gonna do that so now I’m going to a different article that helps
Buyer beware! If you pressure wash a deck, you need to let all the water that has been forced into the wood dry out. Otherwise you’ll be sealing the moisture in the wood which will cause the sealer/stain to fail. We let our decks dry at least 1 full day after pressure washing before sealing or staining. So, at a minimum, you would need 3 good days in a row to complete any deck. Or at least 2. You could technically clean it on a rainy day.
One thing I never do when pressure washing and staining a deck is wear my good dress cloths and shoes. Second I use a 3,400 psi commercial pressure washer and a 25° tip and also use a green biodegradable cleaner along with the pressure washing like Krud Kutter or Simple Green. I normally always use Olympic Maximum deck stain and always do my railings first with a brush and then my deck surface with a 3/4 inch nap roller. The brush will help you get the stain in all the tight areas and spread better and the 3/4inch nap roller will hold and spread a lot more stain into those tight areas and cracks better, especially when doing old weathered deck boards. The flat sponge type doesn’t hold and spread much and gets caught up on all the splinters really easy. They may be good for super smooth board applications though.
Ive been a professional painter for 15 years and doing that all in 1 day…good luck with that. Ive done many jobs like that in a day, but like i said, 15 years practice with all the right tools and knowledge. For a DIY’er its a long weekend job, possibly for 2 ppl. Even though he said it i also would NEVER recommend applying stain over damp wood, EVER. Everything i saw is correct, just spread it out a bit. Take your time and do it over a couple dry weekends and you’ll be much happier. P.S. article also didnt make it crystal clear. That was an acrylic stain(waterbase). You do that with oil base and its a 100% failure rate with damp/wet wood.
Unfortunately the easier it looks the worse the result. We’ve pretty much become “the guys” to call for deck staining in our area over the last 3 yrs. and I’ve never done one in one day. I generally pressure wash/clean 3 or 4 decks during a rainy stretch then go back and stain them 2-4 days later. I’d have replaced many of those floor boards, spent a couple hours sanding and we get on our kneepads and brush the stain in. Lapmarks are unacceptable as well as drips from staining the spindles. I make guys sand them out if they drip on the deck.
This is not a day job. Take your time and do it right. Have patience. Here’s how I did it and it was way more simple. 1. Leaf blower to blow off debris and sweep 2. Punch for loose nails 3. Use hose to rinse off light dirt dust 4. Use a hose with just water and murphy’s oil soap/nylon brush to scrub and dry 5. Use 30 second outdoor cleaner with pressure washer let dry 6. Sand/prep where applicable 7. Used Behr Deckover enamel based paint with angle brush to coat in between planks. 8. 2 coats of same paint using a roller with a pole. Came out incredible. Deck looked new. It probably hadn’t been treated/painted in at least 4 years.
Fairly good job, definitely better than what existed. Using the tools, materials, and processes you captured in the article, I would think anyone would be hard-pressed to get that deck all done in one day. Masking off the house siding and addressing the outboard ribbon joists of the deck weren’t discussed and both of those would need to be done. Also, where did the sanding dust go? Did sudden gusts of wind clean that off the surfaces? It is often better not to introduce a timeline into a project like this. A homeowner can accomplish it without a need for speed and the results would be better.
I did mine in a day when I bought my new house. When viewing it before I made the offer, it was so green with mold & mildew, I actually considered the cost of replacing the entire deck into my offer. Then I saw this man’s article & figured why not. The deck cleaner & brightener is a MUST step. It removed all of the green gunk and immediately made a 85% difference. I then used his method of a big brush to go between all the slats, then used the same method he did using the deck sponge attached to a broom handle. It’s a large deck but to do the brightening step & deck surface took about 2 hours combined. The Thomson’s waterproof stain in the color cedar was not cheap. It cost about $50 a can here in Iowa. It went one easy & is the consistency of watered down paint. But when it dries you can still see the wood grain which I like since I’ve always detested “painted” decks. But coming to the handrail & ballasts, ugggg that took a couple more hours & you constantly fight drips that get onto your newly stained deck surface. However I was able to finish this all on a Saturday. Started at 10 a.m. done by 4 p.m. and the transformation was amazing. The old owner even stopped to chat once and said she loved the new deck, so when I told her this was not new but her old deck simply refreshed, she couldn’t believe it. CON TO THIS PRODUCT: If you live in any state that gets a lot of winter snow, you’ll be highly disappointed come spring. I did this my first year at this house in July 2018, but in March of 2019 the deck was completely destroyed again!
Actually pressure washing your deck is the worst thing you can do!! If your trying to preserve and refinish it as in doing so your forcing water into the wood at high pressure and destroying the small wood fibers that hold the wood together. Plus of you don’t wait long enough for the wood to dry and stain or paint it then now your sealing up water in the wood which will make your wood rot and your finish flake and peel in no time! Now the proper steps you want to take is sand the deck down to bare wood starting with 60 to 80 grit depending on how thick the finish is with 80 grit being the finest you want to use and finish with as you want to keep the wood grain open for the stain to penetrate into the grain. Then after your final sanding with 80 grit you want to sweep or blow all the dust off with a leaf blower. Then it’s absolutely a good idea and necessary to do a deck cleaner which will remove any mold algae or mildew and stains on the wood surface which will also make the wood look brand new and accept the stain better. I strongly recommend Olympics deck cleaner available at home Depot as it has detergents in it and brighteners. Let it sit 10 minutes then rinse it off with a garden hose (NOT A POWER WASHER!) After it has dried then you can start by applying your product. If you’re staining look for a good stain and sealer in one such as Olympic Elite and do 1 application, 2 is not necessary for a stain unless it’s solid stain. Elite is a great oil product that will repel water and last a long time with Ultimate beauty and grain clarity.
Perfect example of a click-bait “headline” distorting the project. With any normal dry-times between steps, we figure anyone else would take most of a week–weather permitting–maybe more. Also, pressure-washers can be death on wood decks, ripping the top fibers, depending on the wood species age, condition, etc. Further it’s Essential to wipe off stain after applying–not mentioned–or inevitable pooling will not set up. Especially if you start with trying to get in the cracks. The slop on the top surface has to be wiped immediately. and even then you get slop you have to remove or cover somehow. Finished deck looked like brown paint, anyway. Love Ron, but this was just foolish.
From what I saw its a darn good job! I stained what seamed to be miles of fence. Not one rotten piece of lumber. I’ve stained it 3 times ($120.00 x 3 white spruce). Its beautiful. When I must stain it again- 6 years – it’ll be much better. Im 58. Love my great, tremendous fence with lattice. I love this summer work and I bounce outta bed and do everything in 2 days. David Alberta P.S. My brother’s treated wood needs reconstruction. Not mine! David Alberta
All the steps he did was basically correct. Thompson’s water seal is a Formula that uses wax solution. Somehow it’s able to mix with the water and still work. You can’t do that with other products. Plus who wants to put wax on their deck? It lasts very poorly and you can’t recoat over it with different products. Paints and stains don’t stick to wax if it is still intact. But basically what he did is right. If you used a different product you would have to let it dry thoroughly. I would have charged $1,500 for what I saw. I wouldn’t have used the Thompsons. I would have let it dry thoroughly and used semi-transparent / semi-solid decking stain
Great tips … up til you used Thompson’s stain. Next to Behr has to be the worst stain on the market. Try One Time. 7 year guarantee. Yeah it’s $80 a gallon but so worth it. I power washed a deck 7 years after One Time was applied and it looked brand new still. I was floored and that’s when I started using it. Never go back…
Like seeing your updated articles, Ron. I just did my back deck July 4th weekend & used Thompson’s WaterSeal Semi-Transparent (Honey tan). (Shows the wood grain, makes it look ‘new’ and it was 10% off at Lowes!) I was very surprised at how far the 5 gallon can went! I treated a 10 x 60 deck area and have well over 1/2 the can left! (I did NOT do the rails or stiles… those come later.) After fussing with one of those stain pads to apply it… I started using a garden sprayer to apply the WaterSeal itself & THEN used a deck stain pad to “brush” it into the wood. Less aggravation, the stain pad lasts much longer and the results will be great! You can get a ‘stain mitt’ which you can use to ‘grasp’ the stiles and apply stain that way – quick & easy! After doing the back deck it poured down rain the next day; perusal the water bead up & roll off the new looking deck was great! Don’t wait too long to maintain your deck, folks. It’s easy (and actually fun!) plus greatly extends the useful life of your deck.
The watery paint approach does seem to offer more protection for cedar. My previous deck was allowed to go natural, as I disliked the painted appearance. This was a huge mistake for a 12 year old deck. Within two years of my “letting it become one with the planet”, it actually, quickly did JUST THAT. Since the prior homeowner went to the solid color stain, I should have maintained what already was in play. 8K later with a repaired deck, one year later, having used Themory, a steam modified Scotch Pine product, I will be applying an appropriate product.
Used Thompson Waterseal when we rebuilt our wooden deck. New sanded wood, didn’t last a full year. We live, near the beach in southern CA so no freezing weather, not a lot of rain. Not a product I will ever purchase again. Now I have to remove and reseal with a Cabot product this time. Lesson learned the hard way.
I would LOVE to see this deck after 1 year. Impossible to clean and stain the same day unless you sand it all and use no liquids. This guy has zero idea how to restore wood. Zero. 15% moisture level or under is necessary. Anything above and it never bonds and has a moisture layer that releases the stain in a matter of days or weeks. It may appear to be holding but it will flake and peel by next year.
Nice job! This takes longer than a day. You have to be sure your deck is completely dry. You have to wait 24 hrs. Also to avoid lap marks stain from wet edge. Never bring your paint applicator from a dry spot into an area that has already been stained.If this occurs lap marks will appear when finished.
They always make it look so easy in these articles but getting the old chipping stain of the rails is breezed over. Getting that stuff off all those books and crannies, when it doesn’t want to come off with power washing nor sanding is incredibly difficult and time consuming. Don’t be fooled. One day not realistic.
Hello Ron. You remind me of those TV Commercials where everybody is all dressed up to do house work that is dirty work. Ask anyone who cleans a house. The ladies will tell you for sure use old clothes. Most people prepping a deck would have old work clothes on and you show up as a sales rep. Did the producer of this article inspect your fingernails for cutting and cleaning?
If it was me I wouldn’t have used a power washer or sanded the wood. When you power wash and sand treated would you will remove the chemicals used in the process they use to treat the wood. I would probably use a scrub brush and a hose or maybe the deck wash but the deck wash could strip the chemicals off the wood too. It might look nice when he’s done but the wood might start buckling and rotting. The chemicals also repel insects like wood bees and stripping it off will not protect wood from insects.
How come it’s ok to seal in the damp wood? Isn’t that going to make it rot faster? I thought we needed to wash again after sanding and then let dry for 2 days, in which point it will rain, requiring washing again followed by 2 days of drying and then something comes up so I can’t paint it for a week and then it needs to be washed again… 💢
I’m about to re-stain my deck. It has old stain on it from the previous homeowner. Mine currently looks like his did in this article before he started. Here is my train of thought after perusal a few youtube articles. 1. Knock down any nails. 2. Rent a deck sander and sand the entire deck? It’s not rough but I want my stain to bind good. 3. Pressure wash it. 4. Stain it. I’ll start with the spindles and hand rails then use a wide roller & brushes. What are your thoughts? Im open to change my plan. Thanks
Nice article Ron. Great work. I would also recommend keeping the pressure washer fan/water continuously moving to the end of each board. If you stop your stroke midway through the board it leaves teeth mark lines that can’t be smoothed over. Walk with the gun/wand all the way down the deck. If you have to stop flare out the fan. No stopping on the wood. Cheers.
Ron, excellent tutorial! I have a new redwood deck, but the quality of the wood has a lot to be desired. There are a lot of black marks from the lumber yard which I’m told are usual & there is great color variation between boards. Any recommendations for how to deal with this? I do plan on applying a stain/sealer.
Nice thorough article, word to those in cold areas, sealer makes you deck a skating rink when it freezes so consider adding sand or using paint, not sure why the paint is less slippery than these sealing stains but probably because paint is more porous in some ways. Happy refinishing, I am set to work on ours.
Thanks for the vid. This is the kind of skill and knowledge that should be mandatorily taught in public school. I am both angry and excited about having to do my wood deck. Bcs ever since I bought my house, I’ve gone from knowing zero how to fix electricity, plumbing, hvac, insulation, landscaping, installing, uninstalling, and maintenance to now being referred to as a handywoman. A compliment, sure. A constant reminder that this stuff SHOULD be common sense and a common skill, definitely. Other than electricity, everything was easy and SAFE to do myself, just takes time, yet most people don’t know how to do it. I felt so helpless when my only option was calling a pro and being charged 20x what it should cost. Not disapproving people’s professional trade, but for small jobs, I shouldn’t have to call anyone.