Proper Cleaning and Maintenance for a Wooden Patio

Why Is It Important to Clean and Maintain a Wooden Patio?

Wood is a natural material. So a wooden patio creates a particularly natural impression. Wood is warm under foot and always feels pleasant. A wooden patio also forms the perfect transition from the house to the outside and the nature of the garden.

However, as wood is a natural material, it is also at threat from the weather. Ultimately, a wooden patio is subject to all weather influences all year round. It deals with glistening sunlight and high temperatures in the summer as well as rain, snow, and ice in the winter.

If you don’t take care of your wooden patio, it will become grey over time, the surface will become rough and the individual planks could warp.

In order for the wood to keep its natural surface structure looking beautiful for a long time, you should regularly clean and maintain it. In this way, you can keep the natural colour shade and a splinter-free surface.

How often Should You Clean and Maintain a Wooden Patio?

You should clean and carry out maintenance work on a wooden patio about twice a year to keep it looking beautiful for a long time. The best times for this are the spring and the autumn.

Cleaning and Maintaining a Wooden Patio: the First Step

It is important that the wood is completely dry for cleaning and maintenance. Start with the rough preliminary work: sweep away dirt such as leaves, branches, or other plant debris or blow it away more quickly and easily with a leaf blower, for example the ALB 18 LI from Bosch.

If your wooden patio is varnished, strip it or use a sander. This will remove the varnish layer and perfectly prepare the surface for the next treatment. The PSM 18 LI or Advanced Orbit 18 sanders from Bosch do a good job here and make the work much easier.

Clean the Surface of the Wooden Patio

Use a wood cleaning chemical agent for the surface dirt. These contain detergents. Leave it to work on the wood according to the recommended use and then rinse it off with water.

If the dirt is very stubborn work it afterwards with a brush. The compact brush from Bosch  is extremely helpful here. It also removes intensive dirt without a lot of scrubbing.

If the dirt is very deeply ingrained in the wood, you may have to apply the cleaning agent a few times and brush again.

Remove Discolourations from the Wooden Patio

If the wooden patio has gone grey, use a degreyer. This cleaning agent brings back the original, natural colour shade of your wooden patio. The trade products available for this contain bleaching agents. They remove the grey film which appears on wood after some time if it is subjected to weather influences.

If a green film has developed on your wooden patio, use a different cleaning agent. There are also special products for this available in trade shops. Green films are a natural weathering occurrence that can generally be easily removed. You do not usually need to sand the patio.

Cleaning Wooden Patios with a High Pressure Cleaner

Treating a wooden patio with a high pressure cleaner is easy and effective and therefore quickly completed. You just need to make sure when using a high pressure cleaner that the wood will tolerate the treatment. With high-quality equipment, such as the Fontus low pressure cleaner from Bosch, you can set the water pressure and also choose between various types of spray. In this way, you can gently clean the wooden patio without damaging it.

You can also use a high pressure cleaner for patios made from hard wood. And the same also applies for oiled wooden furniture on the patio. Alternatively, you can use the Aquasurf 280 patio cleaner from Bosch for the boards. It glides particularly easily over the wood and simply takes all the dirt with it.

The Proper Care for a Wooden Patio

After cleaning, your wooden patio has earned some protective care. You can buy various agents for treating wooden surfaces in trade shops.

Care emulsions often have a natural oil basis. They penetrate well and particularly deeply into the wood. They thereby provide gentle but intensive care. These care products can be applied to both thermowood as well as pressure-impregnated products. The care emulsion allows the wood to breath again. Residual dampness can therefore easily escape. At the same time, the wood surface is also water and dirt-resistant, meaning the wood is protected.

Care agents with a natural oil basis are harmless to health. So you can also use them indoors or even treat children’s toys with them. The same applies for water-based glazes.

Using Care Agents for Wooden Patios Correctly

Ask a trade shop for advice about which care emulsion is the correct one for your wooden patio. This depends in particular on the type of wood chosen.

Ideally, you should clean and maintain your wooden patio twice a year, as mentioned: In the spring you can make the wood gleam and protect it against the high temperatures expected in the summer, against hail and other extreme conditions. With cleaning and maintenance in the autumn, you will help the wood to weather the winter undamaged.

Apply the care agent evenly over the entire wooden patio. Take care to use the same amount everywhere. Otherwise it will be patchy. You can remove excess oil or emulsion residue with a lint-free cloth or a whitewash brush.

Leave the care agent to soak in and dry for at least eight hours. Take care to follow the instructions for use. Afterwards you can use your wooden patio again as normal. It is then sealed, smooth and protected against weather influences.

Which Wood Is Suitable for Your Wooden Patio?

The sensible your choice of wood for the wooden patio, the less effort you will need to put into maintaining it. You can choose between tropical or native wood here, among other things.

Tropical Wood for a Wooden Patio

Tropical woods such as Bangkirai or teak are classics for patios. They are extremely resistant to decay. They can also resist insect infestation for many years. Their dark colour also creates a sophisticated wooden patio look.

It is essential to make sure when purchasing this wood that it has an FSC seal. This indicates that the wood was not sourced from overexploitation of the rain forest. Only buy certified goods from sustainable forestry here.

The advantage of teak and Bangkirai is that the wood is so robust that, while it may change colour over time, it will not be impaired by weathering. If you don’t mind the greying, you can also avoid maintenance measures here. Then you only need to give the wood a good clean twice a year, as described above.

Native Woods for Wooden Patios

Wood from native forests is cheaper than Bangkirai and teak. Spruces and pines, for example, are good to use on a wooden patio. They are pressure-impregnated for this purpose. If you choose larch or Douglas fir, you can use these untreated. They don’t damage so quickly from wind and weather.

The durability of these woods however is much lower than that of the tropical woods. If native woods should stay looking good on a wooden patio for longer, ash or pine should be saturated in wax. We then refer to “permanent wood”. Alternatively, you can treat the wood with bio-alcohol and then dry it. The alcohol hardens the wood and makes it durable. This wood is then referred to as Kebony wood.

Wood for the patio is also more durable if it is previously heat treated. The result of this process is called thermowood.

Adapt the cleaning and maintenance for the selected wood. Then you can enjoy your beautiful, cared for wooden patio for longer.