An Australian outdoor living journal
Est. in the spirit of 1984, Burleigh Heads
Maintenance and restoration
Australian decks live harder than the catalogues admit. UV, leaf tannin, coastal salt and summer storms will find every missed coat and every trapped joint. These pieces are a practical calendar for keeping timber and composite looking like they belong to the house.
Care/
After a wet summer the deck is a record of drip lines, shade and the tree you would not cut. Tannin, mildew and the green film of algae are different problems that like the same conditions. Clean them as chemistry and biology. Then dry the bay they came from.
Care/
Most decks are not ruined by weather. They are ruined by the wrong wash — too much pressure, the wrong pH, a bleach that the composite never asked for. Cleaning is maintenance. It is also a way of not sanding a problem you could have lifted with a broom.
Care/
A wobble is information. So is a soft joist, a rusted connector and a quote that pretends new boards will save a tired frame. The honest job is to read the structure, price both paths, and know when a staged replacement is still a replacement.
Care/
Australian decks do not share a single year. A wet-season verandah in the tropics and a frost-bitten alpine platform need different months for washing, oiling and looking underneath. The calendar is the habit. The climate is the editor.
Care/
Grey hardwood is not always a failure. It is often just a deck that has met the sun. Restoration is a sequence — assess, strip or sand, repair, oil — and a judgement about when the boards have already done their time.