5 Tips To Taking Care Of Your Deck in St. Louis, MO

When you have a deck outside, you may think that the most difficult part comes in the construction of it, but this is far from being the case.

Indeed, there are steps you should take on a regular basis to make sure that your deck remains in good condition.

With that being the case, let us look at and consider five tips to taking care of your deck in St. Louis, MO.

1. Look For Rot

One of the things you should do in terms of taking care of your deck is to look over it once in awhile and make sure that there is no rot to be found.

In doing so, you’re going to be able to spot the possible source of the destruction of your deck before it gets to have a chance to harm your deck.

The best thing that you can do is to remove the rot from your deck if it is small enough, and use a deck filler to take care of it — but what to do if you have rot that has gotten significantly larger?

If it turns out that the rot is big enough, you’re going to need to replace the entire board.

2. Sweep It At Least Once A Week

An important way for you to take care of your deck is to make sure that you sweep it at least once a week — and certainly at least that often during the fall when you will find more leaves falling onto your deck.

The reason that this is such a good idea is that by doing it this often, you avoid having an accumulation of matter on your deck that could possibly harm it if allowed to stay on it too long.

Even something as seemingly innocent as a small collection of leaves can ultimately cause damage your deck as they can get moist and then slowly apply that moisture to your deck over time.

What might seem like an innocent bunch of dead leaves can ultimately wreck your deck if they are not swept away.

3. Replace Rusted Nails

When you have a deck, there are many ways of keeping your various boards secure and held down, one of which is metal nails.

The issue with metal nails is that they can sometimes come loose and even come to be rusted if you are not careful.

If you find any nails that are loose or in any way rusted, you should make sure to remove them and replace them with wood screws.

4. Match Wood Type When Replacing Boards

When you are replacing the boards in your deck, you may be tempted to get just about any sort of board that comes your way, but this is not a good idea.

The better thing for you to do when you are replacing the boards is to make sure that the boards match well with the ones that were already there.

The best thing to do then is of course to do your best to make sure that the stain that you use to stain the new boards matches the stain that had been there.

5. Putty Knife For Debris Removal

Lastly, do you ever find yourself with debris in between the cracks of your deck?

If this is the case, you may think that a simple sweep of the deck with a broom or the like will suffice — but it could be quite a difficult sweep indeed.

Instead, try taking a putty knife — it doesn’t have to to be related to decks in order to clean it, after all — and slide it in between the cracks and you should find it relatively easy to clean them out.

We would love the opportunity to be your go-to exterior painter in St. Louis, MO. Call us at 314-582-5272 to book a FREE estimate, and let us help you enhance the interior of your home so you can focus on other things.

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