Why Shouldn’t You Clean your Wood Deck with Bleach?

When it comes to deck cleaning, you might feel tempted to use chlorine bleach as most of us feel.

Chlorine bleach does an excellent job of killing bacteria and viruses but has proved effective in killing molds on porous surfaces. You should think of it as a sanitizer and use it as a mold disinfectant for bathroom and kitchen countertops, tubs and shower glass, but not on wood decks.

If you want to clean your wood deck the right way, then it is better to use an environmentally friendly and non-toxic wood deck cleaner that is specifically made to clean mold from wood.

Why is chlorine bleach so ineffective for cleaning wood?

The object of removing mold from wood is to kill its roots (called mycelia). The properties of chlorine bleach prevent it from soaking into wood-based building materials to get at its deeply embedded roots. Mold and mildew is a vegetative growth, and not a type of dirt to be cleaned.

Moreover, bleach itself is 99% water and water is one of the main contributors to the growth of harmful bacteria and mold. When you apply chlorine bleach then it just stays on the outside surface, whereas mold has enzyme roots growing inside the porous construction materials—however, the water content penetrates and actually feeds the mold.

This is the reason why a few days later you notice darker, more concentrated mold growing on the bleached area.

The Side-Effects of Bleach on Wood Decks

• It destroys the lignin fibers that hold wood together: On wood, the chlorine kills algae, moss, and mildew. But it breaks down the complex organic polymers (or lignin) that hold the wood together, causing excessive damage to otherwise healthy wood. Chlorine is dangerous, environmentally unsound and likely to cause damage to your surrounding greenery and will poison ponds and lakes as well.

• It removes the natural color of the wood: Bleach literally bleaches the wood, resulting in a lightening of wood's natural coloration. This bleaching effect may provide initially pleasing results, but over a period of several months, the wood begins to take on a lighter appearance.

• It's highly corrosive:  The corrosive effects of chlorine bleach on wood decks are cumulative and are more numerous than you might imagine. The natural pH of wood is just slightly acidic, and bleach is a basic solution. As a result, the use of bleach on wood shifts the pH from wood's natural, near-neutral pH to a basic pH that will damage the cellular structure.

Not only does chlorine bleach break down wood fibers and alter the color, but it also corrodes metal fasteners, including the screws and nails holding your deck together.

The Ultimate Bleach Alternative

You may find oxygen bleach as a better alternative to chlorine bleach, but it still has properties of bleach. A professional and bleach-free wood deck cleaner is an ideal option to clean your deck effectively and safely. 

The Resist Mist™ wood deck cleaner will clean your IPE, Pine or any wooden deck, remove biological growth stains, help protect your deck from mildew, algae, mold, and most stains for years with an incredibly simple application.

To know how to apply the cleaner, visit the website or you can talk to us directly online. You can order the products online. For further information about queries, you can get in touch with us by calling us at 267-614-5284