Wooden gate maintenance

It was recently time again for maintenance on a homeowner's wooden gate. The hot Phoenix sun is especially brutal on wood during the summer and can weather gates and wooden patio furniture rather quickly.

You can see in the 'before' photos the light-colored weathered areas on both the front (above photo) and the back (below). The back of his gate was more weathered because it receives more sun than the front.

I added OxiClean (a household cleaner) to a bucket of hot water, scrubbed down the wood planks and metal frame with a stiff brush, and thoroughly rinsed with a hose. After waiting until the gate was completely dry, I hand-sanded the wood with a sanding block.

One of the active ingredients in OxiClean is sodium percarbonate, an adduct of sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide. People usually associate OxiClean with doing laundry, but it works very well to clean weathered wood.

After sanding, the gate was wiped down with a damp cloth to remove all dust and loose particles. Next, I applied tung oil over the wood and the metal.

I used two coats of tung oil, which dries to a hard finish surface to help protect both the wooden planks and the metal gate frame.

Finished! ... Until next time!