Woman makes 'number one mistake' to avoid when painting your decking

There are loads of ways to make your garden decking look good for the - but there's one particular trend a woman is warning others to steer clear of. If you love spending time in your during the sunny months, you'll obviously want your outdoor area to look top-notch.

From popping in some colourful garden furniture to stringing up fairy lights, there are heaps of things you can do to jazz it up. But if you're thinking about painting your decking to give it a chic look - think again. Caz, who often posts videos on , recently shared a cautionary tale with her 16.5k followers, after making "the number one mistake a couple of years back".

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She opted to coat her wooden decking in dark grey paint - and now she's stuck having to redo it annually because it keeps peeling away.

In her video, Caz is seen blasting the paint off with a pressure washer, while pleading: "Please, please, please, please, please, if you're thinking of doing it this year and you've never done it before and you've got fresh deck, don't do it.

"Take my advice, please don't do it. I'm stuck with it now because once you painted, you've buggered your decking, quite frankly."

The content creator then showed the decking, now a discoloured and stained mess, lamenting: "You can see here I stripped back as much as I'm gonna get back."

Caz revealed she's stuck in an endless cycle of redoing the paint to prevent it from looking terrible. She confessed: "Now I'm gonna have to do this year, on year, on year."

The content creator also branded the mess as "ridiculous," and repeated her earlier warning strongly advising: "So if you're thinking of painting your decking, don't do it, just don't do it."

Caz's viral video sparked a flurry of comments, with one user suggesting: "Stain it instead of using paint," prompting her response: "Yes, that's exactly what we should have done in the beginning."

Another advised: "Bang some composite down," but Caz noted: "Would love to but it's so expensive and it's a big space."

However, Caz wasn't alone in experiencing this decking debacle, with others sharing similar woes like "Mine is exactly the same... every year..." and "I made the same mistake... total nightmare."

Top tips from state that if you've got "newly laid decking, we recommend leaving it to naturally for about six months before being stained or oiled," explaining further: "This helps to make sure that any existing treatment has eroded, allowing the new paint or stain to properly sink in and to stick to the deck".