Our deck boards are starting to splinter. Is there anything we can do to prevent this?
Question:The boards are a teak wood. The spliters are very fine, and painful. Our granddaughter gets them in her hands and legs all the time. We don't allow her to go barefoot over the deck. Is their a shellack or something we can paint over the boards to seal them and prevent splinters? We would love to keep the deck. Hope someone can advise me.
Answers:
Putting anything on top of a wax based preservative like Thompsons will not stick and create a huge problem. Wax bases preservative last a year and don't protect very well.
The reason people buy expensive teak is that it is virtually maintenance free so try to avoid staining if if you can. Sanding will reduce the splinters but you then need to look to the cause. Something is making teak do this not just the weather in my opinion. If the structure is settling or things are shifting around, something is striking or roughing the surface, I don't know for sure by my guess there is some cause. If you can't find or fix the cause, then a solid pigmented stain, which will last maybe five years and be applied to slow weather damage.
I would suggest lightly sanding away the loose splinters, and using some Thompson's water seal for starters. Then apply a polyurethane sealant. Allow it to dry at least a day before walking on it.
The damage is done. Sand whole deck and get a solid stain it will fill the voids and smooth out deck some. Olympic or thompsons
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