Strange black spotting on a brand new cedar deck? It’s time for a deck maintenance tip!
I’ve been a deck builder for over 25 years and have seen some discoloration around the fasteners occasionally and especially over time. More modern materials , such as composition decking , PVC decking and aluminum decking have had a marked effect on removing the chance of staining but some of us still prefer the look and feel of a more traditional deck , Cedar decking. Stainless steel and coated deck screws have eliminated most of the rest of the probability of staining and so it was with much distress , for me and my clients , when only 2/3’s of the way through installing brand new 5/4×4 tight knot cedar decking on a recent project that , literally over night , ugly black spotting bloomed over the whole deck. Some areas more than others , but the entire surface was spotted to some degree , the deck appeared to be ruined.
I had representatives from the decking screw company Camo Fastener system , and the lumber supplier on the job ASAP. There was much speculation , staining from a bloom of mold spores , either within the cedar or blown in on a breeze , staining from iron , either from particles from the fasteners or maybe from lawn fertilizer. No one was sure. My clients we’re patient , but as was summertime and they really wanted their deck completed and looking like the lovely new deck they expected I was under the gun. I really didn’t want to replace all the new cedar! So the search was on for a product that would clean their deck and leave it as new cedar should look.
The happy ending is that we found a product made by SuperDeck , their deck brightener , that with proper application and scrubbing removed all of the ugly spotting and left a beautiful cedar deck for my happy clients.
More later….
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