Is your deck ready for friends, family and barbecues or are there loose boards with nails popping up?

Do a deck check and, if it's the latter, a little TLC will keep it from looking like a wreck. This time of year cleaning and re-sealing is good but don't stop there.

You’ve probably got nails that are slowly working loose, but pounding them back in will only yield temporary results and they’ll just work their way back out again. For a more lasting fix pull the loose nails and do one of two things.

1. Hammer in a new one at a different angle.
2. For a more lasting fix head down to the hardware store for deck screws - that'll solve the problem for good. Get extras too (for stragglers that show up later).

Keep cleaning, re-sealing and re-attaching boards and it’ll stay looking great for many barbeques to come.