How to think when deciding whether to soap or oil your decking/patio?
The most important thing is to decide if you want a glossier dark surface or a matte lighter surface.
Soap always gives a matte, light, and slightly waxed surface, while oil gives a darker result.
Here we have, to show, oiled half the deck and soaped the other half.
A big advantage of soaping is that the surface is easy to keep clean; pollen, dust, and other things do not stick to the deck but come off easily. You can keep the deck clean with a simple sweep.
Scrub with hot water and a superfatted soap like Västerbottenssåpa. When you have scrubbed away all the dirt, everything that has grown, algae, lichens, and so on, you scrub again with cold water and soap.
The more scrubbing, the more the wood is saturated with the excess fat in the soap, and you get that scrubbed floor feeling. This is a method for treating wooden floors that has worked well for several hundred years.
Another advantage is that you get rid of growth - the deck becomes clean and nice.
Above: Close-up of soaped deck.
Above: Close-up of the same deck (other half) that has not been soap-scrubbed but only oiled.
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Questions and answers
1. Does the deck become glossy from soap?
Answer: No, soap always gives a matte result
2. When did people discover that you can soap wood?
Answer: Scrubbed floors are a well-known concept, and this method has been used for several hundred years.
3. What is easier to keep clean, soaped or oiled?
Answer: Soaped is easier to keep clean.
Order Soap for Deck, Garden and Outdoors HERE.
Explore Västerbottenssåpa's entire range HERE.