If you use DECK BRIGHTENER, you are using a form of bleach! If you use anything with OXALIC ACID, you are using a form of bleach. If you use a sodium hydroxic and strong hydrogen peroxide mix, you're using bleach. It's not just a gallon of Clorox that has bleach.

Here's what I've learned from furniture finishers and this should apply to wood decks.

Bonding arrangements between atoms and oxidative bleaches (oxygen and chlorine base) work by disrupting a bond in which the molecules no longer produce color. OTHER BLEACHES, LIKE OXALIC ACID, are called 'reducing bleaches' & convert the colored compount to a colorless one.

Which means, BLEACHES DO NOT 'REMOVE' the color of a substance, they simply change it a to be colorless.

Sodium hydroxide opens the cellular structure of the wood (and dries it out). Add that with hydrogen peroxide and you get SODIUM HYDROPEROXIDE. It lighten and removes the natural color The downside, it destroys wood fibers. Furniture manufacturers at one time used this method to make furniture look like it was all made with the same type of wood (color was uniform). Sodium hydroxide is the first step in pulping wood, making the surface rough and dry, obviously not a good idea to use on a deck.

Chlorine bleach, like Clorox, is diluted with water. A much stronger solution is swimming pool bleach (calcium hypochlorite) and is pretty cheap.

Oxylic acid (which we use) removes certain types of stains. It removes discoloration without affecting the natural color of the wood.

Again, using a 'deck brightener' is using a form of bleach..... If you're not using a deck brightener and just using deck wash or just the water from the machine.... that's one thing...

The poll did say BLEACH and not just Clorox, didn't it? Let's re-do the poll, hon.

Linda