How to Pressure Wash a Wood Deck

How to Pressure Wash a Wood Deck

When it's time to smooth your wood deck in education for refinishing, a chemical deck brightener Check Here applied by hand-scrubbing might not do the activity of deep cleaning, but a stress washing machine will.

A stress washer is a straightforward machine which could easy thoroughly with simplest water. However, it may spoil your deck if it is not used well. This is a device this is powerful enough to etch brick, but in the proper arms, it is able to be mild sufficient to clean siding. If you use it with an excessive amount of jet stress or place the end too near the surface of your deck, you can deeply etch the wood and reason the fibers to splinter. Take a while to end up acquainted with the system earlier than you unharness that cleaning electricity on your deck.

Select a Tip and Pressure Setting

Choose the correct strain setting and spray tip in your application:

Use the bottom viable stress this is nonetheless powerful. Pressure for gentle wood (like cedar or pine) must be at about 500 to 600 pounds in keeping with square inch (psi); tougher woods may tolerate more pressure, however you ought to not go better than 1,200 psi.

Use a fan tip with a 40- to 60-diploma unfold. A rotating tip is likewise appropriate if you use it carefully.

1.           

Test the Pressure Washer Settings

Using a strain washing machine takes a touch practice. Test your pressure and its effectiveness in an not noticeable vicinity, inclusive of a stair tread. If you find it necessary to update a chunk of wood due to the fact you etched it, a stair tread is less difficult to replace than a surface deck board.

Start with the strain at 500 to 600 psi. Increase the stress incrementally till you locate the right putting for proper cleansing.

2.            Power Wash the Deck

Engage the trigger whilst preserving the wand tip a couple of feet away from the deck floor, then lower the wand closer as wished. Try no longer to get closer than 6 inches or you may harm the timber.

Clean the deck with a sweeping movement, and keep away from the tendency to pivot with your arm, in order to result in an inconsistent distance between the spray tip and the deck surface. Try to maintain a constant distance by using transferring your arm laterally backward and forward.

Clean the deck forums from the residence outward. Work with the grain through feathering the spray lengthwise, parallel to the deck forums, and overlapping every area barely. The goal is to acquire even cleaning without a "hot spots" or visible cleaning edges.

Apply a Chemical Stripper/Brightener (Optional)

If the wooden is wrongly darkened or stained with mold, washing with a deck-cleaning answer that consists of sodium hydroxide can assist brighten it. Look for a product designed for brightening deck timber and for use in a stress washer, and make sure your strain washing machine permits for the consumption of cleansing answers.

Mix up the solution as recommended by the manufacturer. Apply the stripper answer in the same manner as while pressure washing with simple water, then rinse by using washing once more with simple water. Stripper/brightener products tend to roughen up the wood fibers, so you will commonly need to sand the deck absolutely earlier than re-staining or sealing the timber.