Best way to achieve a weathered grey look for a merbau timber deck

[hzhzhz]

Hi,

I have a small north facing merbau deck that has been cleaned and oiled (with Clear CuteK CD50 Extreme) pic below.

It's in Melbourne, about 5 years old, not sure what it has been treated with before, but I suspect not much.

I would like to achieve a natural looking weathered grey colour.

Before oiling it I tested a patch with Feast and Watson's 'weathered grey' oil stain and it looked very bright and painted-on, and with a blue tinge to it.

I thought about knocking back the amount of tint and trying again, but was concerned the dark brown under colour would would create a bad combo.

Perhaps this the tint would look better over time, but I wasn't confident, so I just clear oiled it, as the deck was starting to split in places. Now it's quite a bit darker and very brown- which I'd ideally like to avoid.

Cutek information said the timber would naturally turn grey in 3-4 months with the oil in it- but I'm skeptical, it's dark brown now, with half of it in pretty constant shade, and merbau being slow to grey. 

Maybe there is another way to approach this?
There's also more visible white patches after oiling...

Kinda wishing I didn't touch it...

Thank you for any help!

 

[EricL]

Hello @hzhzhz 

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's sensational to have you join us and thanks for sharing your question about your deck.

I believe that the cleaning of the surface was not enough to remove the dead fibres of the decking panel and therefore did not produce the ideal results when you used the Feast and Watson's 'weathered grey' oil stain. Because it is 5 years old, I suggest sanding the surface back to timber using a For Hire: Orbital Floor Sander - 24hr. This will open up the timber surface and will allow the oil and stains to be properly absorbed by the decking panel.

Once the deck has been properly sanded, I suggest testing the Feast and Watson's 'weathered grey' oil stain on a small section to see its actual finish.

Here are some handy step-by-step guides:

• How to sand a deck
   
• How to stain a deck
   
• How To Clean a Deck

I also suggest having a look at these amazing deck revamps shared by our Workshop members:

• Deck strip, sand and oil by @DIY_Dan 
   
• How to oil a new deck? by @DIYImpressions 
   
• Do I need to sand this deck before oiling? by @Yak

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric