Everything you look forward to doing in the summer depends on a bit of preparation. It’s easy to look at the window in the middle of January, dreaming about the snow melting in the sun of warmer days, so that you finally get to fire up the grill. Unfortunately, when the snow finally melts into ponds in your backyard, you have several months of snow and frost to clean up after.
Get ready with a handful of advice on how to make it sparkling clean and more inviting than ever - until next season.
Wash it clean
Several months of being left to its own mercy mean that your deck has turned slimy and dirty. It’s not a good foundation for making it look as good as possible, so you better get ready to wash it properly. How you clean it depends on how dirty it is, and a deck that is only a bit slimy will do well with a simple detergent from the shop that’s made for cleaning wood.
Otherwise, you should consider a pressure washer - but this is reserved for decks that you won’t be able to clean with a standard detergent or regular soapy water. The pressure is painful for delicate wood, so steer away from this if your deck is old and prone to damage. Read some electric pressure washer reviews here to make up your mind. Allow it to dry completely after the wash and before you apply anything else to the wood.
Find a stain
Which stain you choose is often tied to what type of wood the deck is. More often than not, it’s made of hardwood which is happy to receive a layer of an oil based or water based stain. The oil based one takes a bit longer to dry than the water based one, but it’s easy to apply it evenly and, most importantly, it’s quite durable. Ask at your local hardware shop if you’re not sure, and remember to let it dry for a few hours to ensure a beautiful deck for the rest of the summer.
Be the grill master
Giving your deck a bit of love is, of course, just the first step to the perfect family BBQ. When everything above is out of the way, you should start to prepare the grill. It’s been all on its own the entire winter and might have developed a bit of rust; get ahold of a proper degreasing detergent and start to scrub it down. You could use vinegar to clean it, by the way, in case you’re worried about any detergents being left behind on the grill.
When it is both cleaned and oiled, you’d want to preheat it before any meat is allowed in. Get some additional inspiration, by the way, with this summer cooking article. Whatever meat you choose to grill, there is a correct way to do it and an incorrect way - make sure you’re playing for the right team by reading up on this detailed article before you even think about heating up that grill.
The same goes for whether the lid of the BBQ should be closed or open; a general rule-of-thumb is that white meat such as chicken and fish prefers an open lid, while tougher cuts will be better when it’s closed.
