Best trade paint for decking

Justcoll

Having seen a lot of people recommend buying trade paint in another thread, I’d really appreciate recommendations for the best trade decking paint. We’d rather pay a little more and spend more time on it if it makes a real difference in terms of durability. Every ‘ordinary’ paint we’ve used has quickly deteriorated. We go for black or charcoal colour. Also any tips on preparation products. TIA

SaverRate

Interested in this too. Ive even tried fence paint and that doesnt last either. 

43722

I read advice somewhere not to use paint on decking. Use stain or oil.

subjecttocontract

Any 'paint' of any kind that applies a thin coating to the surface of decking is going to wear quite quickly because of foot traffic wearing the surface away. An oil or stain applied that soaks into the wood will obviously last longer. But in my experience wooden decking needs regular treatment. The alternative is to let it weather naturally or not to use wood at all but a composite material that doesn't need to be regularly refinished.

ThisIsWeird

Hi Justcoll.

As said above, if the timber is bare, or can be easily made so, and if it's in decent condition, then I think the best finish is 'oil'. This is because it soaks in and won't peel. It should therefore only need a perfunctory cleaning down  - say a quick pressure-wash, not too close - and applying more oil every couple of years or so. And oil is easily to apply - brush on liberally and allow to soak in.

However, if the timber already has a surface coating, then oil ain't going to work.

Ok, I've done this job last year on decking in fairly worn and rough condition. It was designed to 'rescue' it and hopefully give it another good decade of use, and I think it will. It was a hell of a lot of work, tho'!

The worst, by far, was removing all the remotely loose existing coating, which typically was flaking in parts and well stuck in others - ain't that just the way... I spent a couple of hellish days on this, probably going OTT, and using a screwdriver down the ridges, and a wire brush on the rest.

Since rot had affected some parts which needed replacing, I then (pressure garden) sprayed Everbuild Lumberjack wood preserver over it all, an easy task, and around £80 for 25 litres.

There were a few soft patches, so I brushed Ronseal wood hardener on these.

I then took a gamble... It isn't designed for this, but I just couldn't see it going wrong, so I now brushed Everbuild 406 Stabiliser on to all the timber, including the balustrade and posts. I reckoned this would soak in well, and provide a good primer for the finish coat, even tho' it doesn't need it. I can report that this worked an absolute treat, and it made the finish a lot easier to apply - I can make a direct comparison because I found one balustrade rail that I'd missed, and it was like brushing onto chalk in comparison.

For the finish, I used Ronseal Ultimate Deck Restoring paint. This is a dream to use, will adhere to almost anything (including bare wood), and can be applied liberally to fill cracks and dents and scars. 

This was during the hot spell last year, which I think helped as I could guarantee the timber and all the prep was bone dry. The finish (although I fancied the charcoal, which would have gone well with the house's beige stonework) was English oak - a chocolate brown - since we had to keep it low key, and looks really good, absolutely transformative. It's only been a year, but the decking has been used a lot, has two swing-benches on it along with heavy tables and a canopy. It takes a lot to scratch or chip it, and touch-ups are a doddle.

Soooo, I can recommend Ronseal Decking paint. The decking needs to be well cleaned - eg pressure-washing - and everything else is optional, of course. But if you want it to last, I think the preservative is important. Wett it all, but concentrate on board ends, screw heads, and fire it down the gaps where the joists run to soak them too - these as the rot- forming areas.

Choose a week of warm dry weather - make sure it's bone dry.

Justcoll

Hi Thisisweird,

Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a detailed reply. This is so helpful and my OH is going to follow your advice. 

ThisIsWeird

Justcoll said:

Hi Thisisweird,

Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a detailed reply. This is so helpful and my OH is going to follow your advice. 

You are welcome.

If you want the deck to last a good number of years, then I'd suggest the Everbuild Lumberjack preservative step is pretty important. Everything else is far more optional.

It likely comes down to the condition of your current decking. If you can see the beginnings of rot or gaps around the screw heads, for example, then soak them!

Then you'll have the choice of Ronseal (there are other good options too) 'restore' paint, which I presume is thicker so's it fills gas and cracks, or just their 'standard' deck paint which I presume is for decking in good order. 

You will find the usual mixed reviews, some folk finding that it peels off in places after only a few months. I can say, with near 100% certainty, that these folks did not prepare their decking properly first, or possibly the decking had too much oil in it, or perhaps it was applied to damp timber.

The Everbuild 'stabiliser' step is not something I am going to 'recommend', for the simple reason that 'timber' is not one of the surfaces it is designed for - it's for concrete, masonry, render and suchlike, which is in poor dusty and chalky condition. But since it clearly soaks in well, dries to knit the soft surface together, and leaves a finish perfect for painting, then it seemed pretty clear to me that it should also work on wood! And it sure made applying that first coat much easier. (Subsequent coats are much easier anyway). But that has to be your call :-)

Remove all loose existing coatings. Get the surface clean - pressure-wash it to within an inch of its life. Make sure it is bone dry. Enjoy.

greensalad

I recently did our new bare wood deck in V33 "High Performance" UV Resistant decking stain. Went for "clear" to keep the natural coat of the wood.

Went on so easy with a decking pad. One coat all over and it was dry by the morning. Looks lovely and kept the original colour of the deck just with a bit of depth.