Preparing decking for coat.

Bendy_House

Hi all.

Just spent a delightful day scraping and wire-brushing mil's old decking. It's in a bit of a state, and has had various parts replaced due to rot (with plenty soft bits still remaining), and it had been coated with the worst possible reddish-orangy-brown non-colour stuff a few years back, half of which has peeled off. 

After scraping/chiselling/screwdrivering/wire brushing the whole area, my plan is to soak it in Everbuild Lumberjack to try and stop any further rot, and then it'll have to be a 'restorer' type decking paint as the decking finish is so poor, and some well-stuck bits of the old stuff will undoubtedly remain; it all has to be obliterated by a thick coat of summat.

First Q - does anyone have any experience of decking 'rescue' paints? Ronseal make one - to mixed reviews - as do 'Trade Paints' (on Amazon), and the other one I've found is 'Firmtread' anti-slip decking paint. The first two are thicker, and clearly do a good 'job' of covering and obliterating old surfaces, but both are also seemingly a bit plagued with flaking and peeling for some (quite a few) folk, according to their reviews. The Firmtread stuff is apparently thinner, but also less prone to peeling. (Just seen more reviews on this stuff - similar experiences of peeling, and also it's seemingly oil-based, so smelly and awkward to apply... :-(  )

As with all these things, individual preparation can vary, and I'm pretty sure that this will have had a bearing on some of these user's experiences - eg, applying when the timber has too much moisture in it, or too much old decking oil content, stuff like that. So, any experience of these? Any recommendations?

My other Q is about another stage in preparation; I was toying with using a stabilising/surface sealer after the preservative, so that it would soak right in to the timber and provide a well-adhered surface for the finish coating. My go-to product here is Everbuild 406, and I have used this before - to good effect - on materials such as MDF. Yes, it's generally intended for masonry-type surfaces, but the theory is the same - it soaks in, binds and seals, and leaves an ideal surface for paint. Why should timber be any different...?! Interestingly, one advice/review site actually recommended using a sealer on decking prior to paint, and mentioned EB 406.

Thoughts?

My concern with these decking rescue paints is their thickness - ie there will be no surface penetration, but it'll rely only on that surface contact for adhesion. Pretty sure they don't even suggest a thinned initial coat as a mist/primer, so it leaves me a bit uneasy.

Nuts? :-) Cheers.

Bendy_House

This is the comment regarding EB 406 (and I was entertaining using it myself before I came across this):

https://www.deckinghero.com/maintenance/painting

How To Prepare Your Deck Before Painting

If your boards are brand new they probably won’t need any prep beforehand.

However, for used surfaces, you will have two options on preparing the surface so that it is receptive to your product –

1. ‘Priming’ the surface using a stabilising solution such as Everbuild. When applied these solutions ‘sink’ into the surface, leaving a stable base for subsequent decoration. Generally this would only work with timber decking and not composite or PVC boards.
2. Sanding the surface to reveal a brand new surface on which to apply the paint. This can prove to be quite labour-intensive depending on the tools you have at your disposal. Usually the surface should be sanded twice and cleaned extensively before applying your new coat.

If your deck has a glossy or lacquered surface, you’ll likely need to sand this off before you can paint over the surface, as these coatings won’t allow the product to ‘stick’.