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 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.

The latest offspring in the row is ‘Blanchon Huile Terrasse Bardage’ (oil for terraces and furnishing). This is a translucent and highly durable oil for outdoors. It is designed for terraces (horizontal structures), gates, wall cladding, privacy screens, and fences (vertical woodwork). The unique formula (high resistance to UV and reinforced pearl effect) provides effective and long-term protection for all wood sorts and reduces the frequency of maintenance.

Bona

A wooden terrace is constantly exposed to sun rays, heavy rain, snow, and extreme temperatures throughout the year. For freshening up wooden terrace floors, Bona has the Decking System, which consists of two complementary processes: 1. Deep and thorough cleaning with Bona Power Scrubber: a compact scrubbing and drying machine fitted with two contrarotating cylinder brushes (red or orange colour). With the appropriate product, this machine cleans deep down into the wood fibres.

The related products are Bona Deep Clean Solution, with a special formula for the deep cleaning of wooden floors or Bona Conditioner, with a special formula solely for use for outdoor wooden floors to remove dirt, grease, mould, stains, algae, and scale. 2. Protective coat: after thorough cleaning and drying, you can apply

Bona Decking Oil (including UV protection), a concentrated mix of vegetable oils. This oil protects the wood from splits and warps, whilst it brings out the natural wood grain better. It is available in four colours: neutral, mahogany, teak, and grey.

Chimiver

LIOS SUNDECK WOOD OIL LIOS Sundeck Wood Oil is an outdoor wood impregnator particularly recommended for the treatment of outdoor wooden floors (swimming pool edges, verandas, walkways), window and door frames, fences and canopies made of wood. It contains natural and synthetic oils, with the addition of UV ray absorbers and special anti-ageing ingredients against the wood decay. It doesn't crack. Also available in LIGHT version, which doesn't alterate the natural colour of wood, particularly indicated for the treatment of south-american species (i.e. IPÈ Lapacho, Tobaco etc.) and other similar types of outdoor woods painted in autoclave (usually green colour). LIOS SUNDECK SOAP LIOS Sundeck Soap is a nourishing cleaner used to clean outdoor wooden floors. Used regularly, keeps a natural wood appearance, avoiding wood decay caused by adverse weather conditions. It efficiently removes dirt, traces of chlorine, salt etc.

Osmo

To meet the specific needs of several softwoods and fine wood species, Osmo Decking-Oil was developed. It smoothens the wood surface and makes it water and dirt repellent. The oil is applied thinly and evenly with the wood grain; Osmo Decking Brush with a width of 150 mm is suitable for such applications. Resinous and oily hardwoods must weather off before the initial treatment, and then two coats are carried out on the raw wood. For renovations, one coat is sufficient, and spot repairs are possible for small damages. To clean decking regularly, Osmo offers Decking Cleaner. Depending on the amount of contamination, one litre of the concentrate cleans 30 – 100 m². Polymer composite surfaces are optimally cleaned with the Polymer Composite Cleaner from Osmo.

Pallmann

To prepare outdoor floors for the cold season we recommend to clean the wooden surface thoroughly with a brush and a cleaner, e.g. PALLMANN Turbo Scrubber in combination with PALLMANN Wood Refresher. Afterwards the wooden surface is ready to be oiled with a suitable oil, e.g. PALLMANN Outdoor Oil (available in four different colours) in combination with PALLMANN Endgrain Protector. After the treatment with the oil the surface must be still open without a diffusion barrier, it should be UV-stable (e.g. through pigments) and the wood must be durable and fit for all weather conditions. To clean the outdoor surface, after parties or other stresses, we recommend using the PALLMANN Wood Refresher or Outdoor Oil - it perfectly restores the natural color of the wood floor. Speaking of floor and terrace fitters: Diving deeper into the renovation of outdoor floors could be a worthwhile additional business for them.

Tover

What could be better to protect wooden terraces, walkways and decking and garden furniture? A natural oil or a water-based impregnation agent? With Tover you can finally choose your favourite finishing product! Oil4sun, easy to apply natural oil, very strong against severe climatic conditions and mold, main reasons of wood degradation, it penetrates deeply into the pores, nourishes the wood and provides a homogeneous aspect to the whole surface. Or maybe Pro-Deck, water-based treatment, extremely innovative for outdoor wood; it is simple to apply, to renew, extra-strong against water, freeze, UV rays and guarantees a uniform surface finish. Moreover, it really lasts longer than an oil. And as maintenance products Tover offers a complete line with a neutral soap for washing wood, Deteroil, the Grey Free degreying agent and a product that deeply degreases before renewing the wood protection Re-wood. Sustainable and efficient solutions.

Suitable for children's toys Safe for humans, animals & plants Tested acc. DIN EN 71.3; resistant to saliva and perspiration (when dry)