Our pressure washing pros at Pickup Power Washing LLC often give professional tips and advice to help our customers with their exterior maintenance. With the right schedule of deck cleaning and maintenance, homeowners in Ewing, NJ, can make sure their deck stays in good condition.

Replacing a deck can cost quite a bit, so doing what you can to make sure it lasts as long as possible make sense. While it may take a little more effort to keep up with the deck cleaning and maintenance tasks below, you'll find that it's well worth it in the long run.

Regular Weekly Deck Cleaning and Maintenance

Regular weekly cleaning and maintenance are just as essential for your deck as for the rest of your landscape. Just as you wouldn't want to let the leaves and debris accumulate and decay the surface of your rooftop, you don't want to allow it sit on the deck for too long, or else it will start to rot the wood.

Make sure to do the following at least once a week:

• Blow or sweep the debris off the deck.
• Check potted plants to make sure they're not overflowing and staining the surface.
• Trim back any overhanging trees or shrubbery as necessary.

Monthly Deck Maintenance

Keeping the deck surfaces clean starts with weekly maintenance, but there are also some tasks you'll want to take care of every month:

• Tighten or secure railings and any hardware.
• Inspect the deck for loose boards or other safety issues and repair as necessary.
• Inspect the waterproof seal or paint to make sure it hasn't worn off.

Seasonal Deck Cleaning

Residents in Ewing will need to do a little more seasonal deck cleaning and maintenance than those in southern states because of our winter climate. While others may only need to worry about deck cleaning a couple of times per year, we need to take care of it at least once during all four seasons.

• Winter - Use a plastic shovel (not metal) to remove snow. Treat the ice to keep the surface from getting slippery.
• Spring - Pressure wash the deck to remove surface grime as well as the salt or sand used for de-icing during the winter.
• Summer - Use a garden hose several times during the summer to prevent the buildup of surface grime.
• Late Fall - Pressure wash the deck again to prepare it for winter.

Treating and Preventing Deck Mold and Algae

Deck mold and algae can overtake a wooden deck very quickly if the regular maintenance hasn't been taken care of during the year. To treat and prevent deck mold and algae, you can hire a deck cleaning professional to apply an algaecide treatment. Cheaper products and those available to homeowners don't last as long. The commercial-grade products they use should kill the mold at the roots and prevent it from coming back for up to a year.