Timber Decking & Accessories

[spritsail 604]

My experience using Linseed oil on mahogany  and teak has not been good,. It leaves a greasy film, but maybe diluting it with a white spirit might help.

 

i am presently cleaning up  all my wood work  - deckings etc and am planning to use oxalic powder diluted in a bucket of water.

 

An article on wood cleaning and preservatives might be interesting.

 

wood preserving.pdf

[jojogumabew 12]

Hi guys. We're finishing our deck in Batangas. Maybe I can share what we are doing, but no idea how long this will last.

 

We're using boysen xyladecor for external wood treatment. It's about P1k per gallon vs P2.5-3k for the imported stuff. It's an oil based finish. On our windows which are fully exposed to typhoons, the coating has gotten partially stripped after only one season (4 months) and needs another coat. This side gets absolutely, completely hammered with horizontal driving rain. The rest of our external wood over the same period has minimal wear.

 

Anyway, what I've learned reading tons of stuff:

 

1) Linseed - bad because hard to dry and turns black because mold likes to eat it.

2) Sunlight will turn wood grey, also converted to mold food. Mold will grow if remains wet.

3) Polyurethane finishes are hard, not flexible, will look good for a time. But will develop micro cracks where water will seep in and get trapped and mold will grow.

4) To refinish polyurethane you need to sand it back to the wood

5) All oil finishes eventually degrade over 1-2 years and will need refinishing. There is a study by a boating magazine and basically the difference between the best and worst was 6-12 months.

6) A finish needs several components - anti mold, some pigment to reflect the sunlight/these are mostly metal oxide pigments, some coating to retard water 

7) No clear finish will work because the wood will still be turned grey by the sunlight

8) Alternatives - some copper arsenic solution, supposedly toxic, but there may be new kinds; painting the wood w used motor oil. Not sure how well the motor oil thing works.

9) Xyladecor - ici formula, not sure if boysen licensed it. But had problems in Uk in some locations because too toxic.

 

What my foreman is doing (he's built decks that look good after 20 years):

1) Cement under the deck so underneath has a chance to dry. If it's soil it will rot quickly as it will continuously exude moisture. I read that gravel is ok also.

2) Galvanized screws. Screw hole on top is covered with epoxy clear. He says water won't penetrate

3) No wood to wood or wood to cement contact. Basically we cut a good quality china pvc pipe and made spacers.

 

What we failed to do:

1) Wooden joists are bolted to cement supports using steel angle bars that are brushed and epoxy painted. We should have had these galvanized. I only found this out service after we were 99% done.

 

Anyway, wood deck by pool is really nice. Hope it lasts. My friend's deck made of treated pine failed in less than 2 years.

 

Thanks

[SkyMan 23,472]

8) Alternatives - some copper arsenic solution, supposedly toxic, but there may be new kinds;

Arsenic is poisonous, no getting around it. 

 

 

good quality china.....

Huh? Edited November 11, 2013 by SkyMan

[jojogumabew 12]

 

Arsenic is poisonous, no getting around it. 

 

Supposedly there is now copper azoate.... Have not seen it here. Probably toxic also. Am planning to have chickens in our yard so trying to avoid toxic chems.

 

Huh?

 

I know on most China stuff. However, there is a german water pipe co (available here), they make 3 grades. Two are made in germany (polymutan and ecosan) and one in China (wexan). We used ecosan for our pipes, maybe 30% premium on normal local/china. We used wexan for the spacers, maybe 15% more than local/regular china.

 

By the way, first time we went to china, I bought milk from 7Eleven and thought it was particularly tasty. No wonder, it was spiked with melamine.

 

[SkyMan 23,472]

 

 

However, there is a german water pipe co (available here), they make 3 grades. Two are made in germany (polymutan and ecosan) and one in China (wexan).

Ok, so made in China to German specs.  That's much better. 

 

 

On topic:  Might have been a good idea to treat the decking before installing it?

[jojogumabew 12]

On topic:  Might have been a good idea to treat the decking before installing it?

 

Yup, I need to add that to the list of shoulda's.

 

I did think about it but we were rushing to finish the deck (my kid invited his friends over for the weekend), and I only supervise once a week, and I didn't want to overwhelm our foreman who was working off a 6 page punchlist of problems. I think someone can squeeze underneath and paint.

[SkyMan 23,472]

I wasn't concerned with the underneath but the in between.

[shanelec 3]

some Pictures of my Deck I have finished ,, In progress and finished product 

[broden 57,115]

lookin good man