Archive for September 7, 2015
Treating Deck Rails
by John Weckerle
As the days grow shorter and things cool off – it’s time to start thinking about winterizing. After all, there are only fifteen Fridays left before Christmas (and we’re sure we made your day by pointing that out). After a couple of hours of vigorous weed-whacking (more on that in a later article) yesterday, we elected to treat the deck rails in preparation for the cold weather. Having done so, we thought we would share the recipe for the stain/sealer we used, given to us by Patrick Neis of Ironwood Construction. It’s easy to make: simply mix 1 quart of mineral spirits, 1 quart of boiled linseed oil (Patrick notes that it’s important that it’s boiled linseed oil, otherwise the preparation will not dry and will remain tacky), and 1/4 cup of transmission fluid (which Patrick says deters boring insects in addition to adding a little color). We used this in Spring this year, and it held out very well over the summer. On fine-sanded redwood, it brought out the red tints in the wood very nicely without the red being overpowering and without over-darkening the wood. On some unsanded, rougher posts, we’ve found that it did darken and redden the wood more noticeably, although the effect is quite pleasant. On very thirsty, grayed-out wood, the reddening is not particularly noticeable.
