Upkeep Tips From Your Knoxville Contractor For Wooden Decking

The wooden deck is a beautiful addition to any home. But your deck is only as strong and long-lived as the quality of the upkeep that it receives. Starting with quality materials is a great base, as your Knoxville contractor will tell you. If you don't take care of those materials, they will succumb to the elements. Rot can set in during a single bad rain storm through a simple crack in the wood, so you must be prepared.


As your Knoxville contractor, have seen some pretty beat up decks in our day. When you start with a wooden building material, you must remember to take proper care of it. Failure to do so will result in cracking and splintering, creating dangerous situations to walk on or to use for everyday situations. As your Nashville windows and roofing provider, we have to stress that the same maintenance that goes in to other parts of your home must be taken for your wooden decking.


Even if your wood is weather treated, you should take steps to give it extra protection. A solid weather sealant is the best option for your weather abused wooden decking. This should be applied promptly after the deck is constructed, and kept in good condition thereafter. This sealant will protect the wood of your decks against the majority of the weathering that it will encounter.


Once the wood has begun to splinter and crack it is generally too late to try and save it. Home owners try various methods, such as applying thick coats of paint to try to cover the cracks, but the water damage has already begun at this point. The only thing the paint will do is make the decking too hot to walk on in the sun, and visibly hide damage until the board is so weak and rotted from within that it falls apart beneath you.


As your Knoxville contractor, we urge protecting the wooden components of your decking properly from the beginning. Even if you only stain the wood with traditional wood stains, you are still giving it more of a chance against the elements than it would have otherwise. It is this protection that will make your investment last and give your family an area that they can enjoy for years to come.


When your deck has simply had too much stress on it, and needs to be replaced, we suggest doing so as promptly as possible. Once those boards start cracking and rotting, there is little that you can do except replace the porch. For your own family's safety, have the deck or patio fixed as soon as is possible. Letting the wood continue to warp and rot away under your feet is only asking for a disaster. Avoid potential lawsuits and accidents on your property by inspecting the wooden planks of your existing deck or patio today.