Your deck should be inspected and cleaned once a year to determine if any repairs should be made and to keep your deck in tip-top shape. You can do an initial inspection yourself or hire a professional deck contractor. There are several things you should check for on every part of your deck. Here are some deck inspection and maintenance tips:

• Poke the deck wood with a screwdriver to see if it is soft. If it is, the wood could be rotting.

• Check for tiny saw-dust piles or tunnels in the wood which could indicate wood-eating insects.

• Check for mildew which looks like black slime.

• Tighten all deck fasteners and make sure no nails are popping out of the wood. Hammer in popped deck nails or remove them and buy new deck screws if they have been hammered in one too many times or if they are rusty.

• Check all decking for splinters and sand down any that you find.

• Apply a deck sealant or stain every few years. Buy a deck coating that pleases you aesthetically as well as provides protection against the elements.

• Check the whole deck including railings, decking, beams, joists, posts, and ledgers to make sure they are level. Check for water damage and rot on all these deck parts as well.

• A good deck cleaning agent is a bleach/water solution made with about 2 parts water for every one part bleach. Use oxygen bleach, however, not chlorine bleach. Chlorine bleach can take the color out of wood as well as kill any plants that the bleach comes into contact with. Oxygen bleach may still darken redwood.

A small deck problem can turn into a very large one in a short period of time. Keep your deck well maintained. If you inspect your deck yourself and suspect a problem, contact a deck professional to determine your next course of action.