the wonders of power-washing
I didn’t tell you how Chad spent his first father’s day — power-washing the deck. It was completely his idea, I swear! He had spent a teenage summer assisting a wrestling coach in Columbus, OH power-washing outdoor decks, and was determined to do the same to ours. He rented the machine from Home Depot for about $70, and aside from trickery needed to get the whole thing started, it was pretty easy. You connect the thing to your hose, and then direct the pressure nozzle at the wood. It blasts away dirt and algae that had accumulated through the years. And the results were amazing! Our deck went from dingy ashen grey to a looking like brand new wood. The only thing that slowed him down was running out of water (our outdoor hose doesn’t get as much from our well as the rest of the house). When he was all done, he gave the whole thing a coat of cedar stain. Now all we need is that deck furniture and we’ll be outdoor dining in high style! Wanna know more? Check out this story at This Old House’s site.
June 24th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
I have been a faithful reader of this blog since you started it but I am no longer going to bother I am not interested in endless stories about your husband as you can see from the lack of comments it’s just not that interesting I could go to home depot and read the box.
I am very happy for you and all the blessings you have but I miss when you wrote some Chad free posts
June 24th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
ah, I’m glad to see this post - I needed the encouragement. The house we just bought has a back deck in awful shape. Looks like it hasn’t been washed/re-stained in decades. I’m hopeful now we can get it cleaned up and looking better -
June 24th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
I am so happy to see this! Our yard is a hodgepodge of new and old fencing. This gives me hope!
September 7th, 2008 at 10:49 am
That picture makes me cringe a bit. You really should not use high pressure on a deck. Everything can be done with low pressure and the proper cleaners. There is a DIY site called Restore-A-Deck (dot com) that explains how to actually get the results we get without doing damamge (I do this professionally).