Thread: Deck scrubbing machine ?

Hi all

I am currently attempting to restore a 9 year old tallow wood deck (untreated) and am having some success following jimj's advice from other postings...sanded, cleaned with sodium percarbonate, oxalic acid etc

The intention is to use Spa and Deck to finish with but I think I can get a better result and wanted to inquire about the scrubbing machines that can be used and have another go over it.

Any advice welcomed !

thanks

Richard

Hi Gunny I've got a Karcher with T Racer attachment really meant for hard patios, tiles, concrete but will do wooden decks. Does a fabulous job on these. YOu can use it on timber. There's a place in Preston you can buy the attachment for $99. It saves a lot of overspray. Good luck.

BTW my Karcher and many others can use recycled (grey) water. You just put one end of a hose in a bucket and connect the other end to the machine. A Karcher brochure at Bunnings or maybe the Karcher website will tell you which models can do this.
ANd you don't need to worry about buying the special Karcher hose to use this feature.

Mlebman, what is the place in Preston?

I have a merbau deck with cabot's "merbau" Oil which I've found is like a very light paint and over the years has left a layer of colour hiding the real wood. Will the T racer remove that?

http://www.bigbrandbargains.com.au/about_us.php

Here's the link to the Karcher outlet in Preston... Chifley drive just south of Bell St. Helluva nice bloke in the sales area.

With Merbau I sanded the ones I was refinishing last week. It had very small splashes of paint on it from when the house (not the deck) was last painted. These bled through 2 coats of Sceneys Old Fashioned oil.

So it seems with Merbau what's below the surface somehow needs to be removed as well. A Karcher and T Racer will clean timber but it's not miraculous. It is miraculous on tiled balconies with mould for example or even concrete that gots dirty with age.

Good luck
John

MelbMan, I was really after something with brushes and I have now seen some more threads from jimj saying theres a machine available from Bunnings, a Rotowash,which I will investigate...

thanks for the reply

Dear Gunny,

To the best of my knowledge no one makes a scrubbing machine specifically for timber. I own a machine made by Rotowash made in Austria. It is a great machine for scrubbing but expensive to buy. They make three width 30cm-40cm 50cm. I own a 40 cm which is comfortable to carry from job to truck,up and down stairs etc. I live on the Sunshine Coast SE Qld and the Bunnings here have several 30cm machines to hire. One of the commercial hire companies now have one after one of the ownerlooked at mine one day in the back of my truck. It is designed for tiles and can be used inside or outside. There are a pair of brushes about 100mm in diameter. The brushes have a revolving actionwith a round drum between them. The brushes revolve in opposite directions to each other and flick the dirt and oil on the surface onto the revolving drum. As the drum revolves with the dirt on the outside a scraper scrapes the dirt which falls into a plastic hoding container. I realise by now this probably reads totally confusing but it does work brilliantly. The brushes can be run with the grain or across the grain and does not scratch. Because you can go across the grain and it will get into the valley of cupped boards. After I have left the sodium percabonate for 10-20 minutes to soak I then may use a pressure cleaner first the repeat again and scrub. I have a hose with a sprayer in my left hand and operate the Rotowash with my right. The trick is to keep the deck wet in the area the machine is working. I just sanded a spotted gum deck yesterday that was in good condition coated in Sikkens cetol and when I hosed the sanded timber it looked stunning. I put on the Sodium percarbonate and scrubbed. the bucket of oil and dirt that the machine collected was as black as sump oil. It will just allow you to get the deck as clean as you can without a lot of hassle. If you have any tiles at your house or neighbors you can clean them and maybe share the hire costs.

Best of luck

JimJ www.restore-a-deck.com.au

Hi JimJ

thanks for the info, much appreciated. I'm also thinking of hitting it with a floor sander as after many hours of ROS sweat I think it could come up better. Problem is I'm paranoid about punching the dome heads (twisties) in any further on the end joins as they can so easily split and cause more damage. Also do you putty up these end joins in your restoration work ? You must come across this all the time ? Any words of advice ;-)

thanks

Richard

Dear Gunny,

Initially I balked at punching dome headed nails as everyone I spoke with said do not do it but at the same time they couldn't tell me how to either remove old failed coatings (except by using a chemical stripper and high pressure water cleaning) and believe me that is frought with its own problems and issues. Larry McCauley a very valued and honest contributor said on this forum to just punch the nails and that he does it all of the time. This will allow for sanding. I am not sure how many m2 your deck is and I own 2 festool ros but the thought of doing more than 15-20 m2 by hand doesn't sound like my idea of a good time although at the end of the day more than several cold bers would be required. From Larrys advice I punch all the nails either by hand with a 3Lb hammer and a hand held punch or with a special air tool that I have. A lot depends on the nail head size, pine or hardwood joists and the condition and age of the timber and the nails. I use both methods about50% each. I then sand off with a 200mm Lagler hummel belt sander and do all of my trim work around the edges with the 150mm festool ros. I would say that if your timber is not baby bum smooth when you run your finger ACROSS the grain the it would benefit from a good sanding. I find depending on the many variables of the timber that I average around a 10% splitting. The more prone ares to split are at the butt joins. You need to exercise a little more caution there and not be that heavy handed. Each deck I punch has its own characterisics. Larrys advice was some of the best information I have gained from reading this forum. After punching, sanding and cleaning when you lay down the coating product it will flow into the hole and offer some protection. I would say that the best fixing seems to be a type 17 countersunk sstainless steel screw. Considering the cost of the deck and the hassles involved in building this type of fixing pays off down the line regading maintenance and structural integrity. Hope I have been some help. And sorry I really enjoy restoring decks but as far as filling the holes with a filler I don't like it that much!

JimJ www.restore-a-deck.com.au

JimJ

its a nearly 10 y/o 45m2 tallow wood deck thats been neglected since construction, 1/3 under cover, and that third is like new after a ROS sand. I am suprisingly encouraged by the results achieved so far given it has never had any product protection. I've replaced half a dozen boards (rot, splits etc) on the exposed areas. Looking at it and feeling across the grain as you suggested it needs another sand so I'm inclined to go over it again with a floor sander - but I'm a tad concerned about further damage to the deck (I have used the flloor sanders previously internally on a DIY job) and I know the grunt they have....

I have should have taken some pics of the black deck to remind me its was worth the effort !

Thankyou for sharing your knowledge as someone that does it or a living. Thats what make this forum great - there doesn't doesn't seem to be any hesitancy for those in the know to share !