Deck 101

For the past week, I've been working on our somewhat weathered deck in an attempt to give it a facelift. As with any do-it-yourself project, it has proved to take much longer than expected. Since there was a layer of dark mold/mildew-looking stuff on the wood, I tried spraying it down with deck wash. It worked, but took several applications to erradicate the stains. After running out of deck wash, I turned to bleach. Not only was the bleach exponentially cheaper, it cleaned the wood with just one application! After painting the stain on myself (oops) as well as the decking, I tried removing it from my arm with a Mr. Clean magic eraser. It worked all right, taking off a layer of my epidermis as well as the stain! So if you're staining your deck, take heed:

• Use bleach to clean and prep the surface
• Do NOT use a magic eraser on your skin. You will be cursed with a rash and others will think you are diseased!