New Deck issue.

[poseidon8888]

I am new to decking. I had someone to build my deck and I am not too happy with it. The trademen did not help me wash it and stain the deck. Therefore I will have to do it myself.

I am not sure if it is usual that the Merbau wood have black stains in various places. The wood seems like it has been exposed to sun and water for quite some time where water marks are left behind when water I poured on it. Also he has done a messy job with some liquid nail left on the top of the surface.

Should I wash it with deck wash and see if I could remove the black spot and the liqiud nail? If it doesn't come out, should I sand it before applying the decking oil?

Hope to hear from you.

[Waldo]

G'day poseidon8888,

You'll never get the black stains out - that comes about by having left a metal object on merbau.

Yep, I'd sand the deck down, but you'll need to leave the deck for about 3 months before applying the oil so that the tanins in the merbau can leach out. To help the tannins leach out, on a weekly basis I hose down the deck (it's under a pergola) and scrub with a hard bristled broom.

Definitely get the lickie nails off, that the easy bit.

Hope I've been of help to you.

[timdavis@activ8]

Slow down.
New Merbau decking should not require sanding, nor does it need to be left for months. Leave it exposed and it will lose it's lovely red colour. This time of year I regularly finish decking new and old. Don't buy proprietry deck wash, too expensive. Wash and scrub with oxalic acid, this will remove tannins and most likely the black stains, scape off the liquid nails and lightly sand the spot. You can coat with a good quality decking oil, not deck stain, as soon as merbau has dried. Deck oil requires regular maintenance coats (every 6-12 months). If left too long repeat oxalic acid treatment, colour will return to near good as new, and re-oil.

[poseidon8888]

Thanks guys will try it out. What decking oil would you recommend?

Cheers.

[timdavis@activ8]

I use Feast Watson's deck oil (Natural colour). Bit more expensive than others, but good stuff. Alternately Sikkens Cetol HLS, more expensive again, also good. Haven't been back to see old jobs done with Sikkens, but in my business no news is good news re. completed work. Very easy to apply both products but keep it off nearby paintwork, it's very thin and flies off brushes in every direction if you handle a paintbrush the way I do. On painted surfaces it's bright orange: nice.

[timdavis@activ8]

Afterthought; wash entire deck with oxalic acid, not just stains.

[zathras]

I accidentally left some iron on my deck before it was finished, leaving a nice black mark after it got wet.

I tried some RAINEX rust remover on the stain (phosphoric acid), and it worked a treat
A little bit of a sand and it was hard to distinguish where the nasty mark was, especially once it got wet - ala oiled.

Mind you, I got onto it pretty quickly, YMMV

Worth a try...

[Faust]

Hi
We have black stains on our Merbau deck because metal cutting and grinding was done on our new deck!

What bothers me more is that almost every nail (into steel frame joists) resulted in a visible crack of considerable length. The deck builder did not pre-drill and insisted that this is the standard way of nailing timber onto a metal frame deck!?

I have a new deck with cracks all over. I think that Merbau should not be nailed, especially not into a metal frame joist.

Any advice is appreciated.

thanks

Faust

I am new to decking. I had someone to build my deck and I am not too happy with it. The trademen did not help me wash it and stain the deck. Therefore I will have to do it myself.

I am not sure if it is usual that the Merbau wood have black stains in various places. The wood seems like it has been exposed to sun and water for quite some time where water marks are left behind when water I poured on it. Also he has done a messy job with some liquid nail left on the top of the surface.

Should I wash it with deck wash and see if I could remove the black spot and the liqiud nail? If it doesn't come out, should I sand it before applying the decking oil?

Hope to hear from you.

[silentC]

OneSteel stipulate that decking should not be screwed to steel joists because the screw thread provides a path for moisture to enter. They recommend a hardened steel nail with a twist pattern.

Pre-drilling would prevent splitting but it would make the job take much longer (and cost you a lot more). It would have to be hand-nailed. I nailed all of mine except a small 2x2 area down with a coil-nailer using the nails recommended by OneSteel. I got the occasional split but 99.9% of the nails went in without splitting.

Not much you can do now though, unless you want to take them to court over it. It would have to be pulled up and replaced to fix it.

[Faust]

Hi & thanks
So, you hand-nailed the Merbau and it did not crack everyewhere ? That would mean that the progressive penetration of the nail into the timber with each hammer hit avoids the cracking. If so, then using a nail-gun is certainly not on - right ?

thanks

Faust

OneSteel stipulate that decking should not be screwed to steel joists because the screw thread provides a path for moisture to enter. They recommend a hardened steel nail with a twist pattern.

Pre-drilling would prevent splitting but it would make the job take much longer (and cost you a lot more). It would have to be hand-nailed. I nailed all of mine except a small 2x2 area down with a coil-nailer using the nails recommended by OneSteel. I got the occasional split but 99.9% of the nails went in without splitting.

Not much you can do now though, unless you want to take them to court over it. It would have to be pulled up and replaced to fix it.

[poseidon8888]

Finally I manage to get my lazy ass up to oil the my deck. I use Cabot Natural Merbau decking oil. I have applied the first coat last Sat and another coating the following day.

Some of the wood looks really nice but some has heaps of wood grain sticking out. There are a few pieces of wood where it looks like its molding. Seems like its not absorbing the oil / is it that is absorb too much.

Therefore, should I give it another coating? How many coats should I apply on my deck?

Cheers.

[silentC]

Hi & thanks
So, you hand-nailed the Merbau and it did not crack everyewhere ? That would mean that the progressive penetration of the nail into the timber with each hammer hit avoids the cracking. If so, then using a nail-gun is certainly not on - right ?

thanks

Faust

Sorry, no. I used a coil nailer (nail gun) on all of my decks except for one small one. The coil nailer I used was a Duo Fast and I used Duo Fast C25/32 Dacronised Hardened Steel twist nails.