Thread: Is my new merbau deck damaged?? - HELP!

I have just had a large deck done in blackbutt and have been told not to coat it for a few months. Apparently this allows time for sap or whatever it is to leach out.

I have done quite alot of batu and merabu decks and yours looks pretty normal to me. The rough areas are not from you scrubbing but look more like tearout that has occured during machining from changes in grain in the timber. Look at the grain around the tearout, you can see it changes. I have found that this is part of the nature timbers milled in Indonesia, they do not seem to grade the timber to the level that occurs over here. Some batches have alot more of it than others.

There are different views on when to coat decks. I always oil imediately - the same day it is layed as I find it dries out to much if left for the tannins to leach.

The white spots you mention from the water sitting on the deck occur if the oil is applied to thick and has not completely dried. When oiling do not leave excess oil on the deck. Multiple thin coats allowing it to seep into and penetrate the timber is a better option than flooding it when using decking oil. These generally disappear as the oil dries off totally.

Burnsy is right. I machine a range Aussie hardwoods for decking using a Weinig 7 head moulder and those brown patches you refer to are the result of changing grain pattern. To a certain extent they are unavoidable. Without going into the details of grain around knots and other different grain patterns, suffice to say it is the result of natural timber being planed. The grain is not always uniform and running the same way so some lifting or grain tearout occurs. Even with sharp cutters and slow board feed speed it still occurs. You could sand it down but I wouldn't bother.

Your deck looks great. Sit back and enjoy.

Cheers
Steve

I'm another who agrees with Burnsy.

However, I reckon you probably did raise the nap when you scrubbed it down, which is why you see them now but didn't before.

If it really, really bugs you you can lightly sand down the areas of raised grain and give them a quick coat of oil before re-oiling the whole deck. This'll minimise their visual impact but you won't ever be rid of them entirely. It's just the nature of the wood.

Or, of course, you can just live with 'em.

I had a similar issue to cleaning the deck, so I asked Orica who supply Intergrain - Ultradeck and Reviva (two of the products I used for my new deck). When a new deck is oiled and you need to clean off mud etc, they advise to use Selleys Sugarsoap but only after a 4 week curing from time of oiling.

Stopper is right on this one. even though this is an old thread the info will help those in the future.
You'll notice that all the rough sectinos are following and knot or a change in grain direction. when the finish was appiled and and the too, it would have raised the grain making these sectinos of tear out even more noticable.

Only thing to do its to sand them out, but then you have a funny smooth section that will look diffenet.
It's no trouble at all, unless you slide across your deck with your socks on in the morning...