Friday Afternoon Club: All Decked Out

Last week’s rainy weather reminded us that we here in Kitsapland (aka the Pacific Northwest) can’t take any drop of sunshine that comes our way for granted. After a few “partly sunny” days this week, we can expect more “partly sunny” weather on Saturday – wah hoo! – followed by “mostly cloudy” on Sunday. So much for the weekend.

Ah, but Monday is supposed to be “mostly sunny.” All year long our decks sit unoccupied, neglected, why bother? But every now and then in summer, it’s finally time to get outdoors and … scrape, strip and refinish our decks so that we can get ready for next winter’s rains.

Kitsap Sun opinion editor Jim Campbell has been bragging on his Trex (composite) deck. Unlike wood it doesn’t rot or require scraping. Just one problem, it gets kind of yucky, and stays that way. But, eureka! Campbell has found a product that works on that moldy build-up. Here’s what he had to say:

“The stuff is called Corte-Clean.
Here’s the Web site: corteclean.com
It includes plenty of info and a contact phone number.

I misplaced the notes from when I talked to the guy, but here’s a synopsis: His name is Tom, and he’s a good interview. They’re in California. He and his partner had a deck-cleaning business, and had trouble cleaning mold & stuff off composite decks, like Trex. They know a couple of chemists, who started coming up with cleaning concoctions, which Tom & partner tried in their business.
They came up with a keeper, and Tom started using it. Then some customers asked to buy some of the stuff, and things snowballed from there.
He also said it had bothered him that while composite decking is a “green” product using recycled materials, the chemicals for cleaning it usually are about the worst stuff out there. But his product, he said, is environmentally friendly — but we didn’t really go into that.”

My note: who cares? – it cleans the gunk off, so you’ll have more time to actually sip a glass of Chardonnay as the sun sets.

Campbell continues: “They’re a very small company, and Tom, as co-owner, willingly spent all the time I needed answering my questions. He even gave me his cell phone number, in case I got into deck-cleaning issues when they were closed on a weekend or after hours.”

My note: when else do we clean our decks???

Campbell continues: “I had to order mine online, but when I talked to him (3 weeks ago?) he said they’d just signed up Lumbermen’s as a distributor. Nobody else in our area handles Corte-Clean, and when I called Lumbermen’s a couple weeks ago, the guy on Bainbridge didn’t know anything about it, so it probably hadn’t trickled into distribution yet.
I’d tried some other supposedly-specially-designed-for-composite-deck cleaning stuff last year, but it didn’t do a very good job. Corte-Clean worked as advertised, really good, and I’m a devoted fan of the stuff.”

My note: So now we know that if Campbell ever retires from the Kitsap Sun, he can get a job as spokesperson for Corte-Clean.

Question of the Week: What do you plan to do on your deck this weekend?