A SHORT OUTLINE OF DECK MAINTENANCE AFTER YOUR DECK HAS BEEN RESTORED  

This Page is A 15 To 20 Minute Read. It’s A Guide to Deck Maintenance Using the Equisol 365 Oil-Based Coating System.

There is also a general guide for the maintenance of Water-Based Coating Systems if you have a water-based coating that needs maintenance.

When you do need to do an Equisol Deck Maintenance Job now or in the future, this page is here to guide you. 

If you're looking for more information to help you decide what coating system to use on your deck, it would be worth a read before you coat your new deck.

Firstly, A Bit About Maintaining Water-Based Coatings, as these are Entirely Different from using the Equisol Deck Coating and Maintenance System which is Oil-Based. 

Water-Based Deck Coatings are Like Semi-Transparent Paint. They Create a Plastic-Like Barrier Between the Decking Wood and the Atmosphere. Water-Based Deck Coating Products are made to be Semi-Transparent so you can initially see most of the timber grain but that becomes obscured after many coats.

Over time the Water-Based Coatings Break Down and Cracks Form in the coating. It may start to Flake Off in Bits or bubble and discolour. It’s Best to Recoat Water-Based (or any coating system) Before the coating has broken down too much.

After Several Maintenance Coats have gone down in exposed positions, water-based coatings will usually have discoloured or failed in some way, and they can look pretty bad. When this happens, You Can’t see the grain anymore, and you Can’t Make It Look Good by Just Recoating.  

To make it look good again all those previous coats need to be removed. 

More about WATER-BASED COATING REMOVAL Later but it’s not an easy job and it is expensive to get back to the wood if your OLD COATING IS WATER-BASED (or another type of Film-Forming Deck Coating Product). 

DECK MAINTENANCE - IF YOU USED THE EQUISOL OIL COATING SYSTEM

Firstly, the Recommended Time Between Equisol Maintenance Will Depend On:

1 – The Recommended Time Between Equisol Deck Maintenance Depends On: HOW LONG IT HAS BEEN SINCE THE ORIGINAL EQUISOL RESTORATION.

Maintenance will be harder if it’s been a long time since the original restoration or since the last maintenance work was done. REGARDLESS OF YOUR CHOSEN SYSTEM, Deck Maintenance should be Generally Done About Yearly, or more often for Decks in Exposed Positions, and less often for Covered or Less Exposed deck areas, It will also vary depending on the actual weather conditions experienced since the previous maintenance work.

2 – The Recommended Time Between Equisol Deck Maintenance Also Depends On: HOW WEATHER-EXPOSED Your Deck Is, by POSITION.

Decks (or parts of decks) that have no roof or decks positioned where they get more weather exposure will age faster. 

3 – The Recommended Time Between Equisol Deck Maintenance Also Depends On: THE CONDITION OF THE DECKING TIMBER PRIOR TO THE EQUISOL RESTORATION.

Decking that is more weathered due to age or a lack of maintenance for extended periods will have Very Open Weathered Grain, This allows More Water and Sun Access to The Wood, SO THESE BADLY WEATHERED DECKS WILL NEED TO BE MAINTAINED MORE OFTEN to keep them protected for the long term.

4 – The Recommended Time Between Equisol Deck Maintenance Also Depends On: IF THE DECK HAS BEEN  EXPOSED TO EXTREME WEATHER CONDITIONS OR EVENTS SINCE THE RESTORATION. 

If this is the case such as Extended Rain Periods and/or Very Heavy Rainfall or Flooding, the deck coating Won't last as well as it otherwise would have, and it should be maintained sooner.

5 – The Recommended Time Between Equisol Deck Maintenance Also Depends On: OTHER CARE FACTORS LIKE FURNITURE WITH MISSING LEG BASES OR THINGS LEFT LYING ON THE DECK FOR EXTENDED PERIODS OR POTS WITHOUT WHEELS OR WITHOUT TRAYS, LEFT ON THE DECK. 

Awareness of, and Protective Action in Response to Care Factors like the above, will make a difference to the time between maintenance work.

YOUR FIRST FEW EQUISOL REGULAR MAINTENANCE JOBS 

If it hasn’t been too long since the restoration (It’s Best To Do the Maintenance Whilst the Original Tinted Coat is Still Reasonably Even Looking or about yearly), if this is the case, your deck most likely just needs a Top-Up Coat of EQUISOL in the same colour tint as was used in the restoration. 

 

It should first have a Light Clean with EQUISOL PRIME using a soft broom to apply the diluted cleaner, then just a good wash off and drying time, before applying a coat of Tinted Equisol, straight over the existing coated surface. 

This should be your regular maintenance for as long as the existing surface remains fairly even looking, do the maintenance when you notice the coating first starting to lose complete coverage or otherwise about yearly depending on the wear factors covered in the numbered points above.

If you leave Maintenance a Bit Too Long and parts of the deck have lost small patches of coating and colour, you should lightly sand and pre-coat the bare patches with Tinted Equisol first, allow drying time, then coat over everything.

WHAT IF I LEFT THE MAINTENANCE MUCH TOO LONG AND HAVE LARGE GREY BARE PATCHES OF WOOD ?

If the maintenance was left so long that the existing coating lost even coverage And the timber surface has sizable patches of exposed greyed wood, you can still coat the grey parts, and the greyed decking will still be protected, but the overall colour and look of the deck will vary between the weathered parts and the parts that didn’t lose their coating, so the visual result won’t be as good if you don’t sand the deck. 

If you don’t have the time or money to do a proper Deck Maintenance Job at this point, you should still put down a coat of Equisol to protect the decking timber in the meantime.

If the maintenance was left too long and you want to get your deck looking good again, you can have it sanded with a deck brush sander or use a powerful random orbital sander over the entire deck before using the Equisol Cleaning System Described Below and doing 2 coats of Tinted Equisol Oil as Described Below.

Either way, it’s a much easier job if you have used the Equisol System, Because You Won’t Have To Remove Layers of Water-Based Coating, which wouldn’t normally come off just by sanding alone and would be expensive and difficult to remove, even if you DIY.

So once the deck is sanded and you have the natural timber colour back, you would brush in diluted Equisol Prime over the whole deck with a soft broom, hose it off, leave it to dry. Do the same with diluted Equisol Vitalise, then (after drying), do a light coat of tinted Equisol, followed by another light coat of tinted Equisol. 

When applying Equisol, never paint the coating on thickly, always coat lightly and always leave adequate drying time between coats, if the weather is bad, don’t coat it, instead wait for better weather and never do a second coat in rainy weather.