7 Things To Remember For Keeping Your Deck in Good Shape in Macomb, MI
When you have a deck — it can be one that is in front of your house, behind your house, or entirely detached and separate from your house — you know that you have something of quality that will last you years and give you ample opportunities to enjoy time on it.
The caveat to this is that you should not just build it (or commission its construction) and then do nothing to make sure it stays solid and well maintained — indeed there are measurable steps you can take to ensure it remains as such.
With this being the case, here are seven things to remember for keeping your deck in good shape in Macomb, MI.
1. Avoid Bird Feeders
When you think about bird feeders, you tend to think about all of the good things that come with it — being able to attract lovely birds to your area and therefore getting to see said birds.
If you like birds this is perfectly understandable but you should also be aware that there are some solid down sides to putting bird feeders on your deck, and the chief one among them is that you’re going to be looking at shortening the life of your deck.
Birds are nice to look at, true, but they also tend to make stains — and these stains can be difficult or impossible to remove and in some cases cause actual damage to the wood.
2. Replace Entire Planks
If there is something that happens to part of your deck — be it from a branch or something else snapping and hitting your deck hard enough to cause damage — you may think it appropriate to replace part of the plank.
This would be a bit of a mistake, as the planks that make up your deck are entire pieces, and to try to replace only part of one plank would give the deck a sort of piecemeal appearance that is not a good look for decks.
The better thing to do instead is to entirely replace a plank and then once it has been attached properly you can stain it.
3. Re-Staining Too Early Is Bad
As the owner of a deck you will need to re-stain your deck from time to time to keep the look up and of course to continue to protect the wood from the elements.
It would be a mistake to attempt to try to stain the deck before it is ready to be re-stained.
Attempting to add stain too early can cause the existing stain to start to peel off of the deck and ultimately cause you to have to get the deck down to bare wood and stain all over again.
4. Look Out For Warped Planks
In the time that you have your deck, it’s entirely possible that one or more of your planks will become warped as a result of exposure to the elements including strong sunlight and the like.
When you do observe that there is a plank that has gone warped, the best thing to do is to replace it entirely and then in time to stain it as needed to match the rest of the deck.
5. Covering Stains Effectively
When you notice that there is a strong stain (not the stain that you applied to the deck but an accident, perhaps) on your deck, the best thing to do is to treat it immediately.
Once you are able to clean the stain to the best of your ability, you are going to want to take a good amount of stain and apply to the stain area, and then wipe off any excess stain that may remain.
This will ensure that you have no visible sign of the former mess.
6. Remove Debris And Messes As Soon As Possible
When you spot any sort of dirt or debris on the surface of your deck, you’re going to want to treat or take care of it as soon as you can.
There are many sorts of debris including even leaves from nearby trees that can cause substantial damage to your deck if you allow it to rest on the deck.
The best thing you can do is to clean up the deck to keep it in good shape.
7. Protect The Deck When You Barbecue
When you have a nice barbecue, you should be careful — there are many things you can do in the course of using a grill that can damage the deck.
If you want to take the best precaution, you should place a sizable mat underneath the grill before you use it — preferably one that is meant to be used with a grill — and in doing so will protect the deck in the long term.
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