The WOCA Range
1. What WOCA products do you stock?
- Exterior Wood Oil — the main product, in thirteen colours, in 2.5L and 20L.
- Exterior Wood Cleaner 2.5L — for preparing the timber before coating.
- Exterior Wood Primer 2.5L — for bare prepared timber before the oil.
- Exterior Wood Shield 2.5L — protective product used alongside the oil range.
- Exterior Wood Oil Refreshing Soap 2.5L — maintenance for oiled timber, in Natural and White.
- Exterior Wood Oil Tester 25ml — available across the colour range.
2. What colours does the Exterior Wood Oil come in?
Thirteen: Natural, Larch, Bangkirai, Merbau, Teak, Hazelnut, Walnut, Anthracite, Grey, Stone Grey, Thunder Grey, White and Black.
Seven timber tones — Natural, Larch, Bangkirai, Merbau, Teak, Hazelnut and Walnut. Four greys — Grey, Stone Grey, Thunder Grey and Anthracite. Plus White and Black for a deliberate contemporary finish.
Every colour is available in both 2.5L and 20L.
3. Which colour suits Merbau decking?
There is a Merbau colour in the range, and it is the natural starting point if you want to hold the deck close to the tone the timber arrived in.
Natural is the other common choice — it protects with the least colour change, letting the timber's own tone come through.
Worth being clear: every colour reads differently on Merbau than on pine or Rosewood, because it penetrates rather than covering. Buy a 25ml tester and try it on an offcut before committing the whole deck.
4. Should I buy 2.5L or 20L?
The 2.5L suits smaller decks, screens, batten walls, handrails and step treads, and it is the sensible size for a first coat where you are still deciding.
The 20L is the better buy once you are past a small deck, and it removes the risk of running out mid-deck — which is how you end up with a visible join or a slight colour shift between tins.
Send us your deck area and the timber and we will work out what you need.
Testers & Colour Choice
5. What is the 25ml tester for?
Trying the colour on your actual timber before you commit. It is available across the colour range, including the Exterior Wood Cleaner.
Brush it onto an offcut of the boards you are using, let it dry fully, and look at it outdoors in daylight. A colour on a screen, or even on a brochure, tells you very little — a penetrating oil takes its final appearance from the timber underneath it.
6. Can I test more than one colour?
Yes, and it is worth it. Buy two or three testers, brush them side by side on the same offcut, and leave them to dry fully.
The comparison is what makes the decision easy — particularly between the greys, where Grey, Stone Grey, Thunder Grey and Anthracite look far more similar on screen than they do on timber.
Preparation
7. Do I need to clean the timber before oiling?
Yes. This is the step that decides whether the finish lasts.
New boards carry mill residue and handling marks; older timber carries dirt, grey weathered fibre and sometimes mould. Oil over any of that sits on the surface instead of penetrating, and it fails early.
WOCA Exterior Wood Cleaner 2.5L is the product for it. Clean, rinse, and let the timber dry properly before coating.
8. When is the timber dry enough to coat?
Follow the drying time given on the product rather than a rule of thumb, and take the weather into account — a deck that looks dry on the surface after a wash can still be wet in the board.
Coating timber that is still damp is one of the two most common reasons a finish fails early. The other is coating dirty timber.
9. What does the Primer do?
WOCA Exterior Wood Primer 2.5L goes onto prepared bare timber before the oil, to even out how the surface takes the coating.
It earns its place where a deck would otherwise absorb unevenly — mixed or patchy boards, or where you want the most consistent possible final colour. Check the product instructions for whether your job needs it.
10. Do I need to seal the ends and the underside?
Yes, and almost nobody does it.
An unsealed underside and unsealed cut ends take up and release moisture at a different rate to the sealed top face, and that imbalance causes cupping, movement and splitting later. Sealing every face lets the board move evenly.
It matters most on step treads and wide boards. Coat them before they go down — it is a ten minute job then and impossible afterwards.
Applying It
11. When is the best time to apply it?
Out of direct hot sun, and with no rain due. Early morning or late afternoon is usually the window in a Queensland summer.
Applied in full sun, the coating flashes off before it penetrates properly. Rain on a coating that has not cured will ruin it and mean starting again.
12. How do I avoid lap marks and colour variation?
- Coat full boards end to end. Stopping in the middle of a board leaves a mark you cannot remove.
- Stir thoroughly, and keep stirring as you go. Pigment settles, and an unstirred tin gives a colour shift partway across the deck.
- Use the same batch across one deck where you can.
- Work with the light so you can see what you have already covered.
Always follow the application instructions on the product.
13. Can I use it on more than just decking?
Yes. It is an exterior wood oil, so it suits the natural timber around the deck as well — battens and screening, posts, handrails, step treads and cladding.
Coating everything in the same colour is what makes a finished project read as one thing rather than several. Work out the total area across all of it before you buy, rather than ordering for the deck and going back for the screen.
14. Does it work on composite decking?
No. Composite boards do not need oiling and are not designed to take it — upkeep on composite is washing and sweeping.
WOCA is for natural timber. If you have a composite deck with timber posts, handrails or screening around it, those timber elements can still be oiled.
Maintenance
15. How often will I need to recoat?
It comes down to exposure rather than the calendar. A deck in full Queensland sun needs attention considerably more often than a covered alfresco, and the high-traffic paths wear first.
The practical test: when the colour flattens off and water stops beading, it is due.
16. Is recoating a big job?
No, and that is the advantage of a penetrating oil. It wears back gradually and evenly rather than peeling, so a recoat is a clean and another coat — not a sand back or a strip.
That is why it is a much easier product to live with long term than a heavy film-forming finish.
17. What is the Refreshing Soap for?
WOCA Exterior Wood Oil Refreshing Soap 2.5L is for regular cleaning of timber that is already oiled, to freshen the surface between full recoats. It comes in Natural and White.
Match it to the tone of your existing finish. It is maintenance, not a substitute for recoating when the coating has genuinely worn back.
18. What about tannin bleed from new Merbau?
Merbau is tannin-rich, and in the first weeks of weathering rain leaches it out and carries it onto whatever is below — usually pale concrete.
It is normal and temporary, and sealing the timber early reduces it considerably. Coating the deck sooner rather than later is the best defence. If concrete has already stained, a suitable tannin remover will usually lift it.
19. Can Decking Wood QLD help me get the order right?
Yes. Tell us the timber species, whether it is new or being recoated, the total area including any screening or handrails, and how much sun it gets.
We will confirm the colour, the tin size, and which of the cleaner, primer and maintenance products the job actually needs. If you have not settled on a colour, start with testers.
Browse the full Decking Wood QLD range of timber oils, decking, structural timber and hardware.