Calling those with decking.....

[HeadFairy]

do you use something to prevent green slime growing on the decking every winter and does it work? Mine is covered in the stuff and I've been scrubbing for hours, something I'd like to avoid in future. The wood is pressure treated to stop it rotting but it doesn't stop the dreaded green slime. We can't use a pressure washer as we have no water supply up there (it's on a roof garden).

bump because i want to know too

We don't seem to get green slime.
Is it to do with drainage?
We have lived here for 4.5 years and have treated/stained it twice and pressure washed it once.

It isn't the greatest built deck in the world littlerach, we inherited it when we bought and now I'm sick of getting callouses on my hands scrubbing the damn stuff off. It doesn't drain massively well, the water tends to run back to the house (not great, has caused terrible damp on one wall) but it does drain, water isn't sitting in puddles on it, but I guess the crummy summer we had didn't help.

Don't know if it prevents it but soda crystals in hot water and a hard brush gets rid of it for a while.

Sounds like a terrible deck! Mebbe it is cheaper to get rid of it and replace with paving that makes rain run away from the house, then to damproof your house!
If it doesn't get much sun, and is damp a lot, it will be slimy and slippy and a pain.

Sorry to be so negative!

You can try killing the algae with Jeyes fluid diluted down and applied with a soft indoor brush. Leave it on and reapply if needed.
There are all sorts of products in B&Q, Wickes etc to paint on to your decking to prevent it coming back.

Nicefleece... sadly that's not an option. It cost £7000 to put in (it's a huge deck - 20'x20', but that did include iron railings around the side too)

Thanks for that Gentleotter, I'll have a look when I'm in B&Q... I took a bucket of hot water and bleach to it and used a lot of elbow grease and it has all come off now pretty much. What I'd like to do is stop it returning so I'm sure B&Q will have something we can paint on the wood to protect it and stop slime growth.

This stuff may help and is not too expensive

That's great gentleotter... looks like I'm going to have to spend an afternoon on my hands and knees again (ooh, sorry that sounds so rude ) At least it's lovely and sunny here

i use jeyes or just watered down bleach works a treat