Caring for Your Apitong Deck, Part 3: Regular Maintenance Tips

Welcome to the third and final installment of our ongoing blog series, Caring for Your Apitong Deck. As you'll recall, our first two installments covered environmental dangers to your deck and picking the right finish for your deck, respectively. This week we'll take a look at five regular maintenance tips you can follow to keep your trailer flooring functional and look good. Enjoy!

1. Clean!
This is an important but often overlooked step in regular trailer flooring maintenance. You may not think that cleaning your truck or trailer flooring is important - it's a work truck, after all! You're not trying to win any beauty contests! - but the reality is that dirt, dust, mold, and mildew can cause unnecessary wear and rot on even the toughest decks. Sweeping and washing on occasion can really help extend the life of your trailer flooring.

2. Fix popped nails.
They're not only bad for the boards, they're hazardous to you and your work crew as well. Look out for popped nails whenever you're loading, unloading, or cleaning, and replace them when you find them.

3. Replace busted boards.
The great thing about hardwood trailer flooring is that when a board warps, rots, or breaks, most of the time you can replace it without having to tear out and replace the entire bed. If you are a fairly competent DIYer, removing and replacing a board or two in your trailer flooring shouldn't be a problem.

4. Refinish.
If your trailer flooring is still structurally stable but is looking a little worse-for-wear, it might be time to refinish it. This may seem like a purely aesthetic maintenance step, and it mostly is. However, even the best hardwood finish loses its protective qualities over time. Refinishing regularly will help protect the wood from the elements and extend the life of your trailer flooring.

5. Replace.
Hardwood trailer flooring is a natural material, and despite your best maintenance attempts, it will degenerate over time. If the majority of your boards are warped, bent, and busted, it's probably a good idea to replace the entire deck. Call the professionals at TrailerDecking today to discuss your options when replacing your entire deck.

We hope you've enjoyed reading this blog series as much as we've enjoyed presenting it to you! Stay tuned to the TrailerDecking blog for more helpful trailer flooring tips and information!