If your wooden decking is slippery, blackened, faded, dirty, warped or marred by unsightly gaps, all is not lost. Read on for expert advice about getting timber decking back into tip-top condition for a long, hot, lazy summer of alfresco fun.

Slippery decking timber – How to make things safer

 No surprise there when weather delivers such a mishmash of different conditions peppered with what seems like at least one record-breaking extreme weather event every year.

Blackened decking – How to make your decking beautiful again

Whether you’ve gone for cheap decking or something sturdier and longer-lasting, blackening is a risk, especially after a long, wet winter. When fungus meets wet wood, the tannin in the timber reacts and forms a horrible black stain. It’s a sign you’re heading for rotten decking, something you really need to stop in its tracks before it damages the timber beyond repair

Both posts include sensible recommendations about fighting wood rot and getting rid of the black stuff, namely using, a brilliant industrial-strength fungicidal wash designed to kill fungi, mold, mildew and algae. It also removes the famously nasty black slime and it’s perfect for use on exterior wooden doors, windows, garden sheds and fences as well as garden decks. Low odor and versatile, you can simply overcoat it with both wood preservation products and wood oils once fully dry.

Faded decking – Bring back that glorious natural color and glow

A lot of people love the silvery sheen wood gets when it’s faded and worn. But the color change actually signals and water damage to the surface of the timber and although it’s OK to leave it to fade, your decking will last longer if you treat the UV damage to help bring back the wood’s glorious natural color and sheen. We talk about how to do this in the aforementioned blog posts.

Which products do we recommend for treating faded, silvery garden decking boards? There are now a range of decking restorers specially designed to restore your decking’s lovely natural look and color. They do this with a compound called Oxalic acid that reverses the chemical damage done to the wood by sun and water.