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serchin4answr
12th April 2008, 05:06 PM
G'day All,

I have recently completed cleaning (hot soapy water, rinse and cabots deck cleaner) and sealing (cabots natural decking oil) my merbau deck (after waiting 4 months). We have completed a garden renovation at a similar time and as a consequence have nice dirty footprints all over the deck. Yesterday some mud got on the deck as well and today when i went to clean it, it hasn't cleaned up at all well. First i tried a rinse and sweep, that just spread the dirt over the whole deck now it all looks awful!!!!?? Further cleaning first with handy andy?? and then hot soapy water and scrubbing brush has cleaned it up only ok and my footprints have just dried into ugly dirty footprints (funnily enough). This seems like alot of trouble just to clean the deck and would be a real pain if we were having to do it every other day to make it look decent.
My questions are:
1. Is there a good method or cleaner that works effectively and efficiently to take away the surface dirt and make the deck look beautiful and clean again (It looks sensational when clean)
2. Is there something in my cleaning and sealing technique that could cause it to retain so much dirt and be so hard to clean?
-Finished cleaning in evening.
-Next evening i put first coat of sealer on with proper applicator. Did everything according to directions although didn't make a huge effort to go back and remove excess oil over the whole deck, just in occasional places where excess was obvious!
-Waited 24 hours before putting second coat on but ran out of oil half way through.
-Waited 15hours then put 3rd coat on (2nd coat for half the deck)
-Waited 36hours before allowing people to walk on it properly

Dusty footprints really stand out but it was only when this mud got on the deck and i tried to rinse and brush it with external broom that it just seemed to spread and leave like muddy water mark all over the deck.

Any thoughts or instructions
Thanks

dazzler
12th April 2008, 05:11 PM
Pressure water cleaner (karcher etc) on a soft setting does good :2tsup:

UteMad
13th April 2008, 12:59 PM
You have to remember its not a polished internal floor ... We finish the deck take a photo but don't think it looks the same in a week... I went back to one we did 2 weeks before and it now covered it bat sh#t.... Its a fact of life they never stay spotless and you will go insane trying to keep it that way.. Its normal to see dirty foot prints on a new oiled deck .. If its gunna drive you nutts clean it with A small amount of napisan and water but bear in mind all these cleaners will be wearing down the oil coating and reducing its life span so you will be oiling more often...If you want perfect maybe clean the deck thoroughly and apply just 1 coat of oil every 6 months as applying 3 coats to a new deck is sometimes excessive and the third coat sits on top and does increase dirt attraction

cheers utemad

springwater
13th April 2008, 01:38 PM
cut out the source of the mud.