Why trallsapa.se exists

I have wooden decks. A lot of wooden decks.

A large one at home, built from heart pine. Another in Siberian larch. A summer house with decking on three sides. A fishing cabin. Wood everywhere – exposed to sun, rain, snow, salt air, pollen, pine needles and the slow wear of time.

And when I commit to something, I do it properly. I have never been the type to buy something halfway decent. Either I wait until I can afford the best, or I leave it entirely.

Back in 2003, when the first deck at the summer house needed maintenance, the answer seemed obvious. Oil. That was simply what you did. I tested most of what the market offered – often expensive, often marketed as the best available. The result was usually the same. Beautiful at first, then patchy, dry, slippery or worn. The following year, the same routine again.

I also explored modern silicate-based wood treatments. Technically interesting, promising on paper, but never fully convincing in practice.

It was only when I tried soap treatment that something changed. The wood behaved differently. The surface became smooth rather than glossy. The aging more even. Maintenance simpler. It felt, quite literally, right.

Why soap works – and why it outperforms other methods – is explained in depth elsewhere on this site. Here, it is enough to say that soap treatment for outdoor wood in Nordic climates is simply superior.

As always, I did not stop there. I began testing different products sold as deck soap. The differences were greater than I had expected. Some performed reasonably well. Others barely worked at all. So I did what I always do. I went back to the chemistry.

Deck soap is fundamentally simple. An oil reacts with alkali and water to form a soap that both cleans and reconditions. The process itself is clean and environmentally responsible. But the oil used makes an enormous difference.

The most common base oils on the market are tall oil, rapeseed oil and linseed oil. After studying fatty acid composition, penetration into wood, long-term surface behavior and aging characteristics, the conclusion became clear. Linseed oil performs best. Period.

At the same time, I noticed how interest in deck soap was growing in Sweden. More and more people were moving away from annual oiling toward regular soaping. Yet the market was dominated by a few large players. A closer look revealed that several relied on inexpensive base oils, sometimes compensated with added fatty acids. Others promoted recycled oils, which in practice often meant rapeseed oil with a symbolic recycled component.

This could be done better.

We decided to develop a deck soap without shortcuts. Linseed oil as the base. Manufactured in Sweden. As far as possible using Swedish raw materials and local production, with full control over the content. The plastic bottle is the clearest exception – produced in Europe from recycled PET, a reasonable choice within a functioning recycling system.

Once the foundation was set, the next question followed naturally. How do you improve something that already works well?

The strength of soap lies in its ability to build up the wood over time. The surface becomes more beautiful with each treatment. But could we help the wood resist moisture and dirt even better, without sealing it or altering its character?

We explored several options. Silicates were one. Popular, but with uncertainties regarding long-term effects and exposure. It did not feel right.

The answer appeared in a completely different context – while waxing a car with carnauba wax. A hard, natural wax from palm leaves, known for durability and water repellency. The initial tests were promising. But something felt off. The raw material came from far away.

Then it became obvious.

Beeswax.

Local. Proven. Natural. We replaced carnauba with beeswax and began serious testing. The results exceeded expectations. A surface that resisted water and dirt more effectively, without losing the soft, living character of the wood. Wood that aged with dignity.

At that moment, the product was complete.

A linseed oil–based deck soap enriched with beeswax. Manufactured in Sweden. No unnecessary additives. Better than what was available on the market – both in function and in content. And thanks to a simple e-commerce structure and a small organization, competitively priced despite higher production costs.

We are only a few people behind this. No marketing departments. No fluff. Just a genuine interest in wood, materials and long-term results.

Trallsapa.se exists because we wanted a better deck soap ourselves. We hope more deck owners discover the same thing: that the best results begin with what’s inside the bottle – and that wood, much like people, thrives on careful and consistent care over time.

When the product was finally ready, we realized the work was not finished. All the knowledge, testing and lessons learned needed a home. That is why trallsapa.se also became a knowledge platform filled with guides, explanations and practical advice.

The site is meant to grow over time as we continue to test and learn – whether you want to understand the method in depth or simply achieve better results on your own deck.

If you would like to follow our journey and experience the result yourself, you can begin here: KLARA linseed oil deck soap with beeswax.

/ Anders, founder of trallsapa.se