Eddy wrote:
Stuart Noble wrote:
The rings should change colour naturally if left uncovered. The only
bleach worth talking about is the 2 part peroxide stuff, which isn't
cheap, and may well reduce the life of the wood. Oxalic acid is
recommended for decking but it seems like a lot of money for what it
is. I've never had much luck with it

Thanks, Stuart. Have googled a bit and found warnings against using
chlorine bleach, but that oxygen bleach is the thing to use, followed
by several coats of "synthetic epoxy resin water repellent". Will
have to have a look round BnQ and/or Focus to see if these products
are available. This could be good, the only problem in my case is
that the previous owner threw salt around when it snowed and all the
screws have turned rusty and the rust has impregnated the
immediately-surrounding wood. I doubt if the oxygen bleach will
remove this as well. Instead it seems to me it will show these rust
circles up.

My previous thought was to use an ebony wood preservative, as black
hides a multitude of sins, but various sites suggest that the
film/paint is no end of trouble.

As I said, I've used normal bleach no problem. I asked a on USA based
woodwork group "how do you clean your decks" & got half a dozen replies
saying 'bleach'.

I've never heard of "synthetic epoxy resin water repellent". (surely epoxy
resin must be synthetic?).

I'd steer clear of anything that forms a coating on the surface, hard to
maintain & generally looks awful.

I'd suggest;

Clean it with a pressure wasure or bleach or decking cleaner (in that
order).

Treat it with Ronseal decking oil, you can get pine or cedar flavour.

Don't expect perfection, its a deck :-)


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257