Restoring a Moldy Wood Deck with Concrobium

I love my wood deck. If you’ve got even a few square feet of wood deck at your home, you know what I’m talking about. There’s something special about a wood deck. It feels and looks natural and somehow blends with the environment in a way many other surfaces are hard-pressed to match.

But wooden decks can get pretty nasty. They tend to hold water both in the wood and under the deck. They’ve got a naturally rough surface with cracks and indents everywhere. And, if your deck is uncovered like mine is, they get all of the elements from rain to sun to pollen and who knows what else! All of this can add-up to a maintenance nightmare that can quickly get out of control.

That’s what happened to my deck. It got out of control. The primary problem (more than I even realized) was mold. MOLD – by the truckload it seemed once I started looking.

I’ll be honest. My deck was messed-up. It had some framing issues arising from nails that rusted through, it had some pretty good sized holes in it from rot, and it was just covered in moldy growth of all kinds. Since this mold growth happened slowly over time, I really didn’t quite get the severity of it. But I knew It was bad. and I had resigned myself to replacing the entire deck.

Concrobium House and Deck Wash

Lucky for me, I was contacted by the folks who make the Concrobium brand of mold control, cleaning, and prevention products. They said their product could help; not only with the deck but with a whole laundry list of mold issues. I decided to give it a try, so a week or so later a big delivery of Concrobium showed up.

A few hours after that, Jacob and I were out there working on that deck. We started with the Concrobium House and Deck Wash product.

I have to say… I was shocked. I’m not sure what shocked me more, the fact that my deck was way way nastier than I realized, or the astounding results I was seeing from the Concrobium.

Within a few hours, almost 1000 square feet of wood decking had been cleaned. To be honest the right word is “restored”. The pictures and video tell the story. You can see what I mean.

What I thought was a 100% replacement project turned out to be much less intense. Jacob and I went to the store and spent, wait for it, $15.00 on wood! What? Naaawwww. But it’s true. We replaced like three boards on a deck I thought was ruined. And it looks and feels great.

 Why I Chose Concrobium

Concrobium vs. Bleach — Safe for Landscaping

Here’s the main reason I chose Concrobium. (before I knew how crazy well it worked) Our deck is surrounded by dense tropical landscaping, some of it hanging a foot or two over the edge of the deck. There is really no way I can clean this deck and not get some of the cleaning product on the plants or their roots! It’s just not possible.

That completely rules out anything remotely harsh. Bleach, which is the traditional go-to for mold, would have killed Kim’s flowers… not an option. Concrobium House and Deck Wash is safe for plants and landscaping. I proved this fact in my case by getting it all over everything without even a spot on a leaf as a result.

Concrobium vs. Pressure Washing — Gentle on The Surface

Another option I could have gone with was a pressure washer with plain water. That wouldn’t have hurt the landscaping, and it might have gotten at least the surface clean. But pressure washing had a few drawbacks.

• I don’t have a powerful enough pressure washer… so I would have had to rent one which is a pain and expensive.
• A pressure washer would do as much harm as good… I pressure washed a wood deck like this once and it did serious damage to the wood itself in a number of places, leaving the surface uneven where it removed softer material between the wood grain (maybe I used too much pressure!)
• It’s hard to get an even clean without too much pressure… that’s the problem. Light pressure no damage but streaks and lines; heavy pressure no lines but damaged wood.
• A pressure washer doesn’t remove mold stains, the Concrobium process does, see below regarding the Concrobium Mold Stain Eraser

The Concrobium Deck Cleaning Process

It was really pretty straightforward. You can see it clearly in the video.

Step One – Broom Clean the Surface

Step Two – Concrobium House & Deck Wash

The House and Deck Wash comes in a mixing dispenser you connect to your garden hose. It has two settings, “mix” and “h2o”.

You spray it on with the Mix setting and let it sit awhile. If you’re looking at a light mold situation (like I might have if I keep my deck properly maintained) then you really don’t need to scrub. I did a test area with no scrubbing and the Concrobium alone made a huge difference. But when the surface is as bad as mine was, you’ll want to give it a little scrub (while it’s still wet) with a scrub brush for optimum results.

After you’ve scrubbed what you want to scrub and you’ve let the Concrobium work for about 5 minutes, you switch the sprayer to the “H2O” setting and rinse it down with straight water. I can’t tell you how convenient it is having the rinse and apply options without needing to unhook the hose.

Rinse it down and let it dry.  I learned to work in small enough sections that I could scrub it before it dried. I did about 50 – 100 sf at a time.

Step Three – Concrobium Mold Stain Eraser

On my house, the difference was so dramatic after the House & Deck Wash that I wondered if I even needed to use the Mold Stain Eraser. In comparison to what I had the deck was brand new! But I really wanted to test out this concept of “Stain Erasing”.

The Concrobium Mold Stain Eraser comes in a powder and you mix it up with water, let it sit about ten minutes, then spray it on using a simple pump sprayer. That’s it… you just leave it on.

After I applied it I went about my business and the next day I took a look. The deck was noticeably brighter and fresher looking still. This on top of an improvement that I really wasn’t sure could be made any better. I’m eager to try the Concrobium Mold Stain Eraser on other surfaces soon.

The End Result Still Has Me Smiling!

This project saved me at least $1000.00 worth of new wood and days of hard work. The deck looks fantastic again.

The biggest difference wasn’t the look though. It was the feel. We had forgotten how nice it felt to walk around barefoot on the deck, going in and out of the house without worrying what was being tracked behind. This Concrobium project restored the deck back to that place of being a seemless integration between our indoor and outdoor living space.

If you have a wood deck or any other outdoor surface that is moldy and nasty… you should give this a try.

~ Tim

Here’s the video:

Jacob and I have just started a brand new YouTube Channel for RemodelingGuy… we’re going to be adding lots of creative and inspiring remodeling and DIY videos. You should subscribe!

Disclosure: This project was sponsored and we have received consideration in the form of product and/or compensation for the production of the post and video content. However, our positive or negative review and the opinions expressed here are based on real experience and results.