Spruce Up For Outdoor Living

Has your deck and everything on it seen better days? Before you fire up the barbecue for your first cookout of the season, follow this advice from CBS This Morning's Bob Vila. This is part 4 of a weeklong series on spring cleaning.

Cleaning The Deck
Pressure-treated lumber can look dingy after lots of weathering. The first step to cleaning this kind of deck is to sweep all the surface dirt and tree droppings off. Then spray on an oxalic acid solution, which is what professional deck cleaners recommend.

Use oxalic acid, not bleach or fungicide. Oxalic acid is actually a naturally occurring acid that won't hurt plants or fish. It's a wood restorative. The acid penetrates the wood and kills microorganisms and restores the wood's pH.

It's still acid, though, so you should really wear eye protection and gloves when you use it. You can spray it on with any garden variety sprayer. Let it sit on one section for about a half hour.

For the next step, you need a high-pressure water rinse to get off all the grime. You can rent a special sprayer from most rent-all centers. The key to using a sprayer to get the acid off the deck is the nozzle. It's specially shaped so you don't scar or scrape the deck as you work.

The wood will be ready to treat with a good sealant in 24 to 48 hours, as long as the weather is good.

Professional deck cleaners are another good way to go. If your deck's already got sealer on it, there's a stripping treatment that may need to be applied before the cleaning treatment, and that costs more.

The Outdoor Grill
First, you want to be sure that last year's gas connection is still safe. Use some dish soap and water and brush it onto the connection. When you turn on the gas, if any bubbles form, you know there's a leak and it's not safe.

The next step is to use a wire brush to get off as much of the baked-on grease and food you can. Sometimes it's easier to do this if the grill's hot. Also, a little trick to make cleaning easier next time is to spray on some nonstick cooking spray.

Cleaning Window Screens
Many people remove screens from windows and doors for the winter and store them. Here's the best way to clean screens before you put them back in place for the summer.

First, give them a quick inspection. They can accumulate some serious grime like flyspecks and street dust. You don't want to put them back in a door or window that way. And you don't want to try to clean them by holding them upright, because you can stretch or even break them if you're not careful.

The best way to clean them is to put down a cloth to keep from scratching the frames, then lay them flat on a hard surface. Hose them down and scrub them with a little all-purpose cleaner. Rinse them, tap off the excess water, and you're god to go.

Lots of supermarkets and home improvement stores are carrying a variety of environmentally-friendly, biodegradable cleaners now that are pretty potent. If it comes concentrated, you can dilute it to the strength you want and use it anywhere around the house.

Cleaning Outdoor Furniture
You can use the same all-purpose cleaner you used on the window screens. Spray and let some of the cleaner sit there for a while so that the grime easily comes off with a scrub brush and a hose.

Restoring Iron Furniture That Is Rusty
Don't let bad cosmetics fool you. All you need to do is take a wire brush and maybe some sandpaper to the rust and old flaky paint. After the old coating is removed, wash down the piece and let it dry. After it dries, treat it with a good metal primer. Then you can pick your favorite color and repaint it. The whole process really goes pretty quickly.

For other segments in this CBS This Morning series, see
the archive.

For more from Bob Vila, visit his Web site, www.bobvila.com.

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