Mahogany is a great wood for outdoor decks, be it Cambara mahogany from South America or Meranti mahogany from Indonesia or the Philippines. It has a tight grain, does not splinter easily, is free of knots, and looks great when treated. But it is not perfect. It fades. It loses that rich red-brown color and turns grey.

The criminal here is the sun, specifically, its ultra violet rays. They will bleach the color out of any wood, including mahogany. If you block out those nasty UV rays with a roof or a thick canopy of trees then mahogany will keep that rich color. But you have no such luck. Your backyard mahogany deck is totally exposed to that evil sun. So what do you do? You need to block the UV rays, and that is best done with a pigmented, oil-based, protective coating. The pigments block out the suns rays and also add color.

(Jan 2015) I am thinking here about your deck in normal weather. If you are worried about your deck surviving a northern winter and about that four-letter word, s n o w , see my blog post about Snow Damage to your Deck. But just mentioning snow makes me cold. Lets get back to summer.

Fortunately, treating your deck floor is not difficult; it is project that you can do in an afternoon. Here are some tips. (I specifically address mahogany here, although these tips apply generally to any wood deck. For tips specific to pressure treated decks, see my blog post on Restoring PT.)

1. Why treat your mahogany deck? Treat it because it has faded to grey and you want to restore its original, rich color. Using a quality protective oil will extend its life.

Ready to re-treat

2. When: Treat your deck when you no longer like its color. Test it: if a drop of clear oil (or water) soaks into the wood within a few seconds, then the oil treatment will also soak in. But if the oil or water stays on the surface for five seconds or more, then wait. The oil treatment will not properly soak in, and your deck is not ready.

Maybe ready

3. How often you need to treat your deck is a function of how much direct sun it gets. In full sun, it will need treatment yearly. So treat it when it is new ideally after the first rainstorms wash it but within its first few weeks of life. Thereafter, to maintain its good color, treat it yearly or less frequently if it is shaded.

4. What parts of the deck you treat similarly depends on how directly the sun strikes each. On south facing decks, the sun hits horizontal surfaces directly, so youll need to treat the decks floor, stair treads, and rail tops most frequently. The sun is kinder to vertical surfaces, like rails, risers and deck trim; those youll need to treat only every several years.

Read the original here:
Eight Tips for Maintaining Your Mahogany Deck | Suburban ...

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August 6, 2015 at 1:51 pm by Mr HomeBuilder
Category: Decks