How to Restore Your Exterior Wood?

Josh Richards • Nov 18, 2022

How to Restore Your Exterior Wood?

You live in a big house. You have a lot of exterior woodwork, such as a deck, fence, outdoor furniture, and perhaps a boat dock. This outdoor wood is exposed to UV rays, rain, dry weather, wind, and more. That means the wood will slowly lose its life over the period. Or, it may already have shown some weather effects like rotting or cracking. If that is the case with your exterior wood, it is time to think about restoring the wood.

Restoring the outdoor timber can help revive its natural glory and get a new life. So why not do it when it is the right time?

In this post, we give you our seven-step secret to restoring the wood and re-enjoy that old time after so many years of keeping the wood. Let’s begin!

7 Steps to Restoring Exterior Wood
Grab a Dry Brush and Start Restoring

The outdoor wood is exposed to tons of harmful elements. We already know that. These elements impact the wood differently. Some elements would cause rotting others take away the natural appeal. While we highly suggest staining exterior wood, even if it is new, many forget to maintain it and keep it safe in the long run.
The first step (and the easiest one) is to use a dry brush to get rid of algae, mold, and other things that destroy the wood. That’s just the beginning. Don’t think using a dry brush would restore the wood.

Wipe with a Damp Cloth

If you have been careful with the wood, chances are that you only need to wipe the wood with a damp cloth. Don’t think to apply the stain, not until later.

Depending on the side of the wood, wiping it might take some time. But don’t stop until you get a neat clean. We don’t want you to get all dried up. Take breaks or ask a family member to switch duties with you.

We are steadily moving towards more serious work.

Tighten Bolts and Brackets

With time, the fittings to your outdoor wood could become looser. Fix that issue if you can. That isn’t hefty work to do. You can easily do that and forget to hire an expert team.

Repair and Replace the Wood

If the wood has seen many seasons, it may be in bad condition, and the only way to fully restore it to its best glory is to repair the wood or replace it. Replace the entire deck, dock, or fence is rare. However, you may have to do that for some bad planks.

Measure the size of the bad wood, bring new ones from the market, cut according to the size taken, and replace the broken pieces with the new ones.

Sand the Wood with a Light Grade Sandpaper

Most likely, the outdoor wood is the least we care about and is the most to face harmful elements. When you begin restoring the wood, sanding is most probably the thing you will have to do at some time.

So now that you have removed the mold and wiped the wood, it is time to sane it with low-grade sandpaper. We suggest using 80-grit sandpaper.

Sanding will prepare the wood for the subsequent steps. It will smoothen the surface.

Sand with light pressure. Sand along the grains and ensure every part of the wood meets the equal force of the paper.

If using hands-on sandpaper seems tiring, think of using a sanding machine.

Stain the Wood

Not to the most exciting part, at least for us! We are in the wood staining industry and love to restore exterior wood for our valuable clients.
Now that you have cleaned the wood and sanded it for a smooth surface, it is time to apply wood stain. You have various options to choose from. You may select a transparent wood staining product or a solid stain. The choice is yours. However, we suggest reading about choosing the best wood stain to select the product that looks best on the wood.
Stain the wood with accurate tools and the best wood staining product.
Once you have stained the wood, wait for a while - perhaps a day or two - to let the wood dry. Once it is dried, apply a good sealer over the wood. However, sealing the wood isn’t always necessary. Sometimes we may choose a product that contains a combo of wood stain and wood sealer.
If you have any product like that, skip applying a separate coat of wood sealant.

Protect the Wood or Try Maintaining it

Outdoor wood furniture is easy to be protected. But how about the deck, fence, and dock? It is pretty challenging. The other solution is to maintain it regularly.
We have another post on maintaining the exterior wood. Please do read that and keep the wood safe and sound.

Get in Touch

We believe the outdoor wood is meant to look beautiful throughout the year, no matter the weather! Please get in touch with us if you have weathered wood and you want to restore it. We have been in the business for a long and would help you fix the wood in no time.