On 28 Sep, 11:27, terry wrote:
Not sure but oxalic acid is what is in the leaves of beet plants and
one is advised not to eat too many (or any?) of the leaves; the roots
yes. Which I cook and pickle.
Doesn't sound very toxic to me?
But why bother with all this 'chemicals' business anyway. All
chemicals eventually get into ground water and thus possibly into our
drinking water supplies.
There seems to be a predilection by some about having an artificial
'wood' colour? If that is a concern stain or paint the whole deck from
the word go?
Our deck is around 20+ years old and starting to need the odd bit of
attention; e.g. a couple of boards were starting to deteriorate where
water and melting snow drip off edge of roof onto them, but nothing
major and as temporary fix turned over a couple of boards. A couple of
years ago a neighbour persuaded me to pressure wash our PT wood deck
(he and his wife are clean/neat freaks!). That it seems to me merely
disturbed the surface grain of the boards. I will not do it again.
What's wrong with a natural greying of the wood? Cedar especailly
greys beautifully; otherwise why use cedar? Use something cheaper?
We do get tree sap and leaves and insects from semi overhanging trees
on ours but that's part of being just one or two steps conveniently
out of doors!
Maybe if we want something shiny/colourful we could use plastic? Or
painted concrete ............ ???????????????

-- An opinion.

And a fine opinion it is.

On the other hand, when I (far from a neat freak) look at my 20 YO PT
deck, I don't see something that is aesthetically pleasing anymore. It
looks old and I'd like to make look somewhat new again. Now, my cedar
fence, which has also turned grey over the years, does look nice and I
wouldn't consider trying to clean that. As you said "otherwise why use
cedar?" But my deck is PT, looks crappy to me (the only one who really
matters when it comes to how my deck looks) and I'd like to clean it
up a bit.

An opinion.