While my body is screaming at me for doing so much work over this past long weekend, I did pick up some tips for future years.
Mulch
This year I bought 18 bags of mulch (52L or 2 cubic feet). I had four spare bags now. But I will need to look into whether it’s cheaper to get a load of mulch delivered instead of going for two trips of picking up bags.
Water sealing
I decided to seal the deck again. I first used some Behr All Purpose Deck Cleaner. I have to say that I wasn’t really impressed with it. It first said to dilute it with water at a 1:1 ratio. I did that and I didn’t really see a difference, especially with the green mildew.
I then used it without diluting (as per the instructions) on the entire deck again hoping it would clean up something. Once again, the mildew wasn’t removed. It did seem cleaner but I have a feeling maybe a pressure washer would have been better? I already tried the pressure washer on the first four deck boards and they looked great. At this point in their life cycle (4 years in? Even longer?) the brown is starting to fade anyhow so if I strip some off with the pressure washer, who cares?
I only did the main deck so I still need to tackle the rest at another time. Maybe I’ll just pressure wash that area and see the difference.
For reference, the main deck took a jug to cover.
Take a close look at this photo. This is after cleaning it twice. The boards closest to the house were cleaned with the pressure washer. So…is that black stuff all mold that just didn’t come out? Do I need to use an even harsher chemical? I didn’t want to get into ‘staining’ the deck…maybe I’ll have to?