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Our deck is 15 years old and is showing noticeable signs of wood splitting and deterioration. I've had it power washed and sealed every few years but have never done any other maintenance. I"m not much of a DIYer but would like to take this on myself. I've heard of thick coating that would fill up the holes. I've also heard i can use wood filler to fill up the holes. Is one any better than the other? Does the thick coating serve also as sealant?
At 15yoa I'll assume you have/are talking about a PT deck. And it is most likely a CCA pressure treated material.
You didn't mention what type of sealer- not that it really matters- nor did you mention what kind of exposure it gets.
Anyway, your decking is basically shot. It's time to consider redecking. You could go back with the newer PT (only kind available) and start a good regiment of maintenance to include a stain/sealer worthy of your hard earned money. Or, consider an alternative material that requires little to no maintenance and will last considerably longer than PT- PVC. Composite is a step up from PT but it can have as many problems, or worse than wood.
I've heard that Restore and similar products end up peeling a year later (sometimes less), and the deck looks even worse. It doesn't evenly peel.
I have a similar problem and will replace the deck boards one by one. I did use wood filler on one, intending to just paint the deck, but a good rain and the wood around the filler is kind of mushy.
So far I only replaced one deck board and Lowe's cut it for me, but then I decided to just go ahead and buy a circular saw. I've never used one before though and it's still in plastic, while my deck continues to look bad.
There is another thread on this somewhere. 2 months ago I checked out the deck restore paint by Behr. I have some wooden steps outside my french doors leading the patio. We want a deck but it isn't in the budget this year. The wood steps are in bad shape cosmetically but still serve their purpose. I went with Rust-oleum instead (it was cheaper). I have to say it has been holding up pretty well, however my goal is that it lasts a year. It is very thick paint like pudding. It dried really fast which surprised me. The guy at Home Depot said that he had more complaints about Behr than Rust-oleum.
We used Behr Deckover about 1.5 years ago on our deck. Followed the preparation and application instructions to a tee (2 full coats with 24 hours drying in between) and had the weather cooperate (warm and dry for several days). It has held up perfectly. No kids, but my wife and I and our little dog use it and we occasionally have friends over using it.
It doesn't have a peel or chip on anything. I can't speak for anyone else but our personally experience was very good. I've seen other people say they did not like it but I can't speak to their preparation and application.
What do you think? Will Behr deckover or a superior product do the trick for this? The county has it as 60 sq ft but i'm guessing that includes the railings cause it's pretty small. Anyone know how much a complete replacement would cost? How about just the floor boards and the railing? What is the avg life for this kind of deck if regularly maintained?
I'm in the dc area and this gets a decent amount of sun.
Wood splitting is a structural issue. You can cover it up with a restore product to fill in the gaps as a short term solution, but it's likely at the end of it's useful life. Take a good look at the supports and determine whether they're in good enough shape to warrant re-decking. If the supports are in good shape, replacing the decking is a relatively easy job requiring nothing more than a few hand tools and materials.
I had a couple of edge boards with dry rot. In that case filling with epoxy resin was enough to avoid replacement as most of the deck was protected from weather. Another deck away from the overhang had much worse weathering that affected the supports. That one was sawed up and taken to the dump.
60 sq ft is small, so you need maybe 12 10x6 boards plus railings. I wouldn't bother restoring that, just rip off the existing deck and replace. DIY can run around $2-3/sq ft for all materials. I found decent quality cedar decking for $1.50/sq ft locally. Marginal quality for $0.75/sq ft. DC area tends to have pressure treated pine, but it's not that much more expensive psf. This is a fairly easy DIY job if you have the proper tools for demolition and installation - nothing major.
I have a deck 35x60 and had this product rolled on two years ago at the cost of nearly 2000.00. Through the first winter we noticed it cracking and peeling now the entire deck is peeling. We contacted the company and they stated they would refund the cost of the product, but no labor. It looks horrible. They have several clas action law suits pending from info on the Internet Take the time to seal your deck you can never go wrong I am still trying to remove the product.
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Rust oleum deck restore
