I've seen some of the deck "rejuvenation" services where they guarantee the deck for 3 up to even 25 years. Aside from having industrial sprayers to clean the wood (3-4000 PSI), what do they do that's different from what you'd do yourself with a sprayer and deck sealer?
Since super high pressure will tear up your deck, so the biggest difference is that their equipment has to be used at a greater distance and covers more area faster, I figure the difference is either that they're exaggerating about the durability of their coating, or the coatings are really, really great. Maybe some sort of plastic sealer?
The prices of these services (in my case, at least) turns out to be about 2-3 times the cost of my tearing up all the old planks and replacing the walking surface of the deck completely But then, (according to them, at least), I'd have to seal that new deck again anyway in about three years.
Is there any value to these services outside of appealing to folks who just don't want to bother with the hassle of replacing planks? Or are they really going to preserve a deck for 10-20 years -- i. e., longer than the life of a new surface?
And for that matter, since, in my case, for example, the cost of the treatment is about the same as pulling up the old surface and replacing it with a manufactured/synthetic material, is it better to just do that -- go to some sort of composite/plastic for the walking surfaces?
Thx!
Mark