Special
Outdoor floors: care and maintenance
LITTLE TROUBLE, GREAT REWARD TREATMENT AND CARE PRODUCTS ALSO BENEFIT OTHER ACTIVITIES After a hot summer with the inevitable parties, a terrace has had to withstand lots of activities. To prepare that terrace for the autumn, and certainly for the winter, it’s best to apply the appropriate treatment and care products. Indeed, that’s the only way to keep it looking nice and healthy and help it through the winter in ideal conditions. One of the main reasons for this treatment is that you need to ‘feed’ the wood. And so, the first question is: How do parquet floor fitters set about doing something like that?
How to feed Obviously, it is quite impossible to seal or protect outdoor wooden floors with a stain. For instance, with a stain, you need an angle of at least 5° to facilitate drainage because a stain cannot withstand puddles of water. Furthermore, don’t forget that lots of wood sorts used for outdoor floors cannot be stained permanently and that a stain cannot even withstand light traffic. Those are the reasons why you have to use a different protective system and return to the so called saturation impregnation. As the name itself suggests, saturating a piece of wood comprises filling it to saturate all the wood fibres to leave only a small trace of the saturation product on the surface. This very simple operation, which requires very few means, protects wood from distortion, prevents the development of blue fungi, and protects wood from ageing through exposure to ultraviolet light.
Treatment and maintenance products Basically, impregnation provides effective and decorative protection for a limited period. It is resistant to UV light, weathering, and in some cases high traffic. Since, basically, there is no protective film on the surface, you need to renew the saturation regularly. The frequency of maintenance thereby depends on the exposure, volume of traffic, and the chosen wood sort. Generally speaking, it is advisable to apply a maintenance coat within the first two to three years of the initial impregnation, preferably late in the summer or otherwise late in the spring. This frequency diminishes over time so that the priority is to avoid multiplying the annual coats to eliminate the risk of excess overlaps forming a layer on the surface. Note also the following: If it is necessary to apply a maintenance coat after a party, this means either that the party was excessively busy and noisy or that the previous impregnation was of inadequate quality.
Developments Just as with virtually all other products, manufacturers strive constantly to improve the available products. There have been several developments in the field of maintenance products for outdoor wooden floors. We have seen that saturators for terraces and horizontal
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outdoor wood structures are increasing in quality all the time and, therefore, they are also becoming more durable. Nowadays, that same durability is one of the major concerns of users, whether they are private or professional clients, so manufacturers are following this development eagerly. For instance, we note that some products have now earned a performance certificate. That is the case, for instance, with the ‘Terrace Oil’ from Blanchon, which bears the CTB Finitions Bois (Wood Finish) label. It should also be noted that at present waterbased saturation products have the upper hand.
Benefits for floor fitters Obviously, makers of these products haven’t forgotten the parquet floor fitters, since they, too, need to benefit from them. For instance, it is clear that the considerable progress made possible by water-based saturation products (and therefore the impregnation made possible ‘from the most recently applied fastening system’) enables parquet floor fitters to provide a viable ‘ready to offer’ service, which has a positive impact on the rest of their activities.
An overview Blanchon Blanchon offers a complete range of products for preparation, finish, and maintenance. Here’s a list: - Blanchon Dégriseur Bois (wood anti-ageing): Renews aged wood without causing discolouration. Easily restores wood which is affected by unprotected exposure outdoors. - Blanchon Saturateur Bois (wood saturator) is ideal for all outdoor wooden surfaces. Highly durable on greasy exotic wood sorts and European wood sorts which are hard, soft, or with resin. Quick and easy maintenance. Natural ‘oiled wood’ look with a nice warm shade. - Blanchon Saturateur Bois Environnement (ecological wood saturator): Comes from the ‘Ligne Qualité Environnement’ (Environmental Quality Line®). Is odourless and dries quickly. The terrace can be treated and used again in less than half a day. - Blanchon Nettoyant Terrasses (terrace cleaner): For all sorts of wooden terraces, even wood with resin. Degreases, cleans, and leaves surfaces immaculate. Quick and easy to use.
