How cracks in your deck can end up causing massive damage ❗

Notice hairline cracks in your decks floor? Or other horizontal surfaces?..........

    The good news is this is completely normal, its caused by heat and cold cycles that make the wood move . Expansion and Contraction.  After so much of this movement the wood begins to develop cracks . 

   The bad news is this can be detrimental to the health of your deck❗

   These cracks hold water longer than the other areas of your deck, rain and precipitation gets down in them and sits a bit longer than It does on the surface of the wood and in vertical cracks.  

 For 99 percent of the cracks on your deck however the sun ☀️ is able to dry the water out just fine. In a adequate amount of time not to cause MILDEW and Rotting.  

 The Danger lies in a few key areas, let's go over the ways deck cracks can be bad for your decks health.

Mats and Rugs and other things that sit on your Deck-

   So I often see rugs on Decks. Homeowners lay them down in order to protect their decks paint system from foot traffic and their furniture.  

However this is a problem. They hold water❗ It takes the sun☀️ a immense amount of time to completely dry these massive rugs out.  The cracks in the wood under them stay saturated with water and darkness,  the perfect storm for MILDEW and MOLD growth. 

    Once it starts growing in them it starts rotting the wood from the inside out. 

  This is not LIMITED to mats and rugs, and can happen with almost anything you keep in one spot for a extended period of time on your deck.   Grills, Storage Bins, potted plants, and even table and chair sets. 

Anything that water can setup under or pool around an collect can cause this problem. 

For example a table may provide enough shade from the sun for the water in hairline and larger cracks to take to long to dry. Causing mildew and mold- algae Nd subsequently eventually rot.  


   Then you have to take into factor the ........

Fastener Dilemna.....

   Screws and Nails and scrails often get saturated with water that finds it's way into boards from these openings in the wood.

    Once it's there it takes a extended period of time to dry , the water activates corrosion and rust on the FASTNERS. 

   Then s bad thing happens., wood actually contains a small mineral content. This begins to interact with the corrosion of the fasteners and boom, you got a full blown chemical reaction deep within your wood that you cannot see, that's slowly destroying your decks integrity. 

Ever see wood rot around a screw or nail❓

This is what your witnessing. The mineral content in the wood reacted with rust around the fastner. 

Sometimes this gets so severe you can just lift the board up off the deck because all the wood around the FASTNERS is rotted away leaving nothing holding it down. 

Think coated screws help prevent this? They do a bit, however half the coating comes off from friction when you drive it through the board. 


So you can see how just a few hairline cracks in wood and especially on flat horizontal surfaces can cause severe problems. 


    This blog post is about the cause and not the cute, hope it helps..


Anthony Ford