After years of applying and reapplying Cabots to our wonderful fir deck, I finally bit the bullet, sanded everything down, and applied Sikkens Cetol DEK: the primer or base coat, and then a year later a finish coat. The results were beautiful (more like a furniture finish than a deck) and--even here in the Northeast--incredibly durable.

I applied another finish coat every other year as needed, and it's been great. After a couple of years, it almost developed a patina.

At the moment, it's overdue for another finish coat, which ordinarily would be fine. But we were cleaning something (I can't even remember what) this winter on the deck using baking soda, and some of it sat on the deck overnight. Incredibly, it "ate" right through the Sikkens, leaving several almost-bare-wood spots. Some of them are 10" x 4".

I've been trying to figure out what to do. The best I can coem up with is:

1. Sand the patches.
2. Coat them with Sikkens base coat
3. Give the rest its finish coat.
4. In 6 months or a year, give everything another finish coat.

Does anyone have any suggestions? It seems inveitable that these "patches" are going to stand out, at least for a year or two, but I can live with that.

One reason why I ask is because I've read that Sikkens can be very hard to remove. But in the areas where I need to sand, it's pretty much all gone anyway.

Thanks for any thoughts/similar experiences.

Touching up film-forming finishes is hard to do. It will most likely look uneven when done. At this point it would not hurt to try since the alternative is to strip or sand done the entire floor.

BTW did you write the book "Don't Make me Think"? I just started reading it