Treating garden timber handrail?

QTPie

We have a full flight of stone steps at the back of our garden - they go up to the school field at the back of the garden (put in by the original owners of the house 30 odd years ago). This steps have a timber handrail which is very green (algae/mildew/whatever) and looks like it would benefit from treating. What is the easiest/best way to do this?

Most of the wood preservers say to "clean of algae/mildew before applying preserver". However because of the nature of the handrail (lots of bits/surfaces, I would imagine that it would be difficult to "scrub".

Are there any preservers that I could just paint on over the algae etc? Any other suggestions?

Thanks

whitewing

I don't know the answer, but our local, independent, handyman shop is very knowledgeable about things like that, so it may be worth asking if there is somewhere similar in your area.

peter_the_piper

We use a karcher washer to clean our decking, any help?

adouglasmhor

Rubber gloves, scrubbing brush, strong solution of washing soda, rinse in clean water, dry with rags or paper, treat.

Fay

I've bought wet and forget from qvc, but it's available elsewhere too. It can be slow to work but I'm finding it does work and on hard to reach or clean places it's useful.

QTPie

Thank you very much for these suggestions

Looking at the handrail (and supports) in detail, the green seems to be a mixture of algae (well green sort of organic stuff) and presumably old wood stain (it is patchy in places, but not physically "flakey" - so I assume stain and not paint?).

Should my approach be "get rid of algae, then restrain"? Do I need to do anything else? Guess that I am stuck with trying to colour match the stain.

The shed is the same except no algae (blotchy colour, no physical flaking). Should I just apply another coat of wood stain. I am assuming it is wood stain... I don't have to sand down the whole shed first do I?