And, it needs restaining and-or resealing.

So, back to work to spruce up that deck, because Mr. and Mrs. America, especially Mrs., wants an outdoor floor surface to be antiseptically clean with no maintenance.

It's an American dream turned into a nightmare. Fact: There is no way you can keep an outdoor floor clean without daily treatment. First, you have to clean your dirty deck. And use bleach with the wash if there is black mold or green algae on the deck. Or, pressure wash. Then seal or stain. It's quite a spring project for Mr. America, who just wants to relax.

The nightmare started when pressure-treated wood was developed. Yes, there were decks before (let's call it)P-T wood, but they did not last long and were painted (before stains came along), and the paint peeled, another nightmare.

P-T was supposed to be the be-all and end-all. No more maintenance. Let the wood weather to a nice gray color and it will last for 50 to 100 years.

Guess again. P-T wood, installed full of water, shrank when it dried out, and the split, spalled (chunks coming right off the top surfaces), and splintered.

So, deck sealers were developed to prevent the splits, spalls, and splinters. Trouble is, the sealers lasted only a year or so, requiring reapplication each year, or every two years at the very most. So much for low or no maintenance.

And, if you have checked a paint or lumber store recently, you will see many, many sealers on the market, all with claims that they are better than the others. All are proprietary, meaning the formula is secret, and you have no idea what is in those cans.

You can be pretty safe in assuming that the products are similar.

So, you continue with the sealing, as the company suggests. Year after year.

This is the price that Mr. and Mrs. America pay for a deck they can eat off.

There is some hope remaining for the deck owner who says pooh to all that. He can apply a semitransparent stain, which will, or should, last longer than the sealer, maybe up to three years.

Another solution is to install Trex or PVC (vinyl) floor boards in place of what is there now. Vinyl is vinyl, as we all know, and it might be a pretty good choice. Trex is a combination of ground plastic bottles and ground wood. It, like vinyl, resists chipping, splintering, and splitting, and does not have to be sealed or stained, although it can be.

And, there are other kinds of wood that can be used, such as mahogany (looks great, weathers to a real silver color), fir, and cedar. But choosing any of these woods will not get you off the hook of regular sealing and staining.

Have sealer, will travel

John Princiotta of Boxborough has been a painter for 15 years, and got a little tired of the miseries of painting outdoors, and the perpetual, it seemed, peeling problem that so many houses have.

He noticed that there are decks everywhere (millions in the United States) so why not come to everyone's rescue and just do decks: clean, seal,and-or stain, and let Mr. America relax, for a fee?

And that is what he does in summer. In winter he does indoor painting. "But I do not paint decks," he said. He said he does 500 decks a year, and would like to do more. He charges $400 for a medium-sized deck (10 by 20 feet); subsequent treatments, per year, are $250. He will travel: "I cover the Eastern third of Massachusetts," he said.

Princiotta cleans with bleach and water for mold, also uses acids and wood brighteners such as DeckWash.

As for the type of wood, Princiotta says cedar and fir do better in sunlight. "I do not recommend pressure treated for flooring because it splits," although it is acceptable for the framing. He recommends cedar or mahogany for deck floors. To keep the mahogany dark, he uses Moore's semitransparent stain. Even mahogany or cedar will split if left untreated in the sun.

"I personally like a fir floor sealed or stained. And rails and spindles of cedar," he said.

While he will apply a semitransparent stain, he feels that for deck floors, even such a stain is not much good for more than one year, disputing the claim that a stain can last up to three years.

Sometimes, however, a repeat treatment in one year may not be necessary. "I test the old finish for beading up. If water beads up on the old finish, there is no treatment needed," he said. Until perhaps next year. But no paint.

Anyone interested in having a deck done can call Princiotta at 978-266-1341.

Princiotta plans to franchise his business, authorizing other painters and dealers to do projects. "First the state, then the country," he says.

He will call the company Global Deck Cleaning and Staining.

Meanwhile, if you get tired of cleaning the deck or paying for treatments, you can build a masonry patio and repeat, "I will not wash my patio" 500 times.

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