I applied the Olympic brand deck cleaner, which I had bought from Lowe's earlier in the day, with a soft mini-broom tool. It seemed to spread well- it's the consistency of water- and worked quickly. Following the directions, I let it sit for about 10 minutes before scrubbing it off. According to the packaging, you aren't supposed to have to scrub it, but the deck had a serious layer of mildew. Maybe it we had a power washer it would have come up, but I've also heard that can damage the wood. So I stuck to a hand scrubber for that part of the process. Then our awesome neighbor Bert came over with a acid brush that had a longer handle, which was a lifesaver because being down on my hands and knees in that mess was not so fun. The cleaner had bleach in it too, so the smell was pretty strong to be down close to. I did still need to scrub it a little with the hand brush, but that's just because it was so bad.
I am serious when I say it was bad.... when I was scrubbing, I couldn't even see how much of the mildew that I got off until I rinsed the boards, because the green goop that kept foaming up. It was not pretty. The end result though, was so much better. We still need to go over it with a second coat, but at least it's not slippery when you walk on it anymore. The deck was seriously a hazard when it rained!
And before I close, a special shout-out to my mom, who finished the last portion today, and to my husband, who was stuck inside digging a trench in the crawlspace for the washer hookup while I worked out in the fresh fall air. I love them both!
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