Firestyle Magazine Issue 1 - Autumn 2015 | Page 44

HOME & GARDEN It’s with great pleasure that I have been asked to write the regular article on ‘Home & Garden feature in Firestyle. The first subject I am covering is protecting your fencing and decking. When’s a good time to maintain your fencing and decking? With all wooden materials like fence panels or slats that permanently exposed to the elements, it’s wise to do so at least once or even twice a year if possible. When treating your decking planks, preparation is the key, the more time your spend on preparing the surfaces. Not only will they last longer but will look better too. Start with your Jet power washer, spray clean all the dirt and moss that may of grown and clung to the surface, making sure that you clean between all the grooves were the dirt often get trapped. You could even apply a fungal cleaner with a hard yard brush, to help clear the surface. Then make sure you rinse the area off again with your Jet washer. Leave the surface to dry off as much as possible, mask up around all the walling areas were you don’t want the stain / varnish or treatment to go. To get the best results when spraying any surface is to use a Wagner Paint sprayer, which are very easy to use, and you don’t have to of had any experience to be able to use Wagner sprayers. They are world leaders in developing paint spray technology. 44 Once you have filled up the canister with your treatment and your ready to spray, hold the unit around 4 inches ‘100mm’ away from the surface and start spraying. It’s very important to keep the unit moving at all times. It maybe wise for anyone who is using a sprayer for the first time to try it out and a old piece of cardboard could be used to the speed and flow of the paint. There is a paint flow control dial on the unit to reduce and increase the paint flow.