Deck refinishing disaster. Currently in progress.

[MayDay]

We have a 12x24 foot deck with railings on all sides and a staircase down.  It is about 10 years old with a brown stain.  The stain is worn off in the high traffic areas, so eye thought we would refinish it and put a clear stain on.

We got supplies at Home Depot:  Behr stripper, Behr cleaner, stiff brushes, applicators, and Behr finish.  250$ for everything. 

H and I worked on it for 3 hours today.  Meanwhile the kids played in yeah street and swam unsupervised (I exaggerate, but we can't continue with both if us working on it and them with no supervision). 

We got one 12 foot railing stripped in that time.  And it looks like crap.  We still need to clean it (maybe that will make it look better?) which is probably another 3 man hours. 

There are another 36' of railing, plus the whole staircase, plus the decking boards.  Plus we have to actually put the finish on!  So like 50 more man hours.  Holy shit.  We thought we would get all the stripping done this weekend.  I read a ton of blogs and how to pages, and they all made it sounds so easy. 

I am ready to quit, and never attempt another DIY project ever again.

[Daleth]

My condolences. Stripper is the worst.

[MayDay]

Plus the stripper ate through the applicators, and my hands are burning (despite wearing gloves).

H is going to Home Depot to beg them to tell us a better way.  We cannot do this.  We are either going to have to hire someone, just paint the damn thing, or burn it to the ground. 

[Daleth]

Plus the stripper ate through the applicators, and my hands are burning (despite wearing gloves).

H is going to Home Depot to beg them to tell us a better way.  We cannot do this.  We are either going to have to hire someone, just paint the damn thing, or burn it to the ground.

Maybe this is a dumb question (I've never refinished a deck), but can you sand it?

[Erica/NWEdible]

Go to the rental place. Rent a power washer. Power wash everything off. Disclaimer: I've never done this. But it sounds better than chemicals to me, and I know pressure washers will take layers off wood.

[MayDay]

We have a pressure washer. All my internet research said if you pressure wash, you will have to sand afterwards. That sounded colossal and impossible (all those spindles!)

However the stripper is basically eating the wood, so we probably have to sand anyway.

H is currently en route to home depot to beg for mercy/figure out what we are doing wrong. I am drinking.

[Erica/NWEdible]

I am drinking.

That's what I do when home improvement goes south. Let me tell you about the time I tried to save money by redoing the grout in the bathroom shower myself. Through a series of unfortunate events, my crappy job redoing grout ended up flooding an entirely different room, water ran down some wood cabinets, destroyed the finish, flooded out the floor, peeled up the linoleum in the laundry room, warped the hardwood in the hallway, and pee'd its way through the can-lights into the living room downstairs. The ceiling drywall only mildly slumped. You can only tell when the sun is just so.

Hell yeah I drank. Cheers to DIY, eh?

[Thegoblinchief]

Stripping deck will also raise the grain and require sanding.

What color are you trying to achieve? That may help us give better advice.

I might try a different stripper, but paint stripping is always awful. The citrus based stripper (can't remember name) seems to get good feed back but it will be spendy to strip that size area.

Sanding could work, but pay real close attention to the deck screws/nails if they are not countersunk. Great way to destroy belts.

[horsepoor]

We just redid the deck and fence on our old place with Restore, which is more of an opaque stain (they also make a textured non-skid product, which is not what we used).  It went on great after a simple pressure washing with our less powerful electric pressure washer (took off the dirt and algae, not the wood).  Lowe's carries Restore, though I think HD has a similar product.  It was pretty easy; I think it took me about 2 6-ish hour days to do the staining once the pressure washing was done (one coat on the fence and two on the deck).

[sleepyguy]

Let it dry out a few days.

Resand everything

vacumm

paint with deck special deck paint.  It will look great, deck paints of come a LONG way and alot of them look FANTASTIC and hold up very well.

I've done like 3-4 the past few years for family and all turn out fantastic.

[monarda]

We had really bad luck with Behr deck stain. Lasted less than one year, was peeling and flaking all over. Looked awful, and we had to strip the newly applied stain off. 

We like Wohlman deck prep products (stripper followed by deck brightener) that we apply by hand and pressure wash off, then sand the deck after it dries.  A lot of people make the mistake of pressure washing with too much pressure. You want stronger pressure than what'd come out of a hose, but not enough to eat the wood.

If the deck stripper has NaOH in it, you definitely need to neutralize afterward (e.g. with deck brightener) Otherwise the wood will look dark and splotchy.

+1 to sleepyguy, I've seen some pretty nice looking painted decks recently. But only recently.

[MayDay]

Update!

H took his second trip to HD.  Employee finally confessed that basically stripping a deck just sucks no matter what you do.  Thanks dude, would have been nice of you to mention that in the first place. 

So for round two, we left the strripper on for a much shorter time, which got maybe 80% of the old finish off.  And are up the wood significantly less, yay!  Still, it took for.ev.er.  H is still wildly optimistic that we will bust this out in a weekend (not sure what the logic is there.....)  I outlined my physical capabilities, which is 2 hours of help per day.  Otherwise I feel so awful that I start falling apart mentally, and the kids run wild in the streets. 

So.  Apparently we are going forward with the stripping.  Against my will.  The HD guy said you can do a solid stain (so basically paint) but you still have to strip or it won't go on right.  I am also going to get a quote to hire someone for comparison purposes. 

We may also experiment with power washing on low, but neither of us have ever power washed before (it is borrowed from my in laws) and I am afraid we will chew up the deck.  I think stripping use flat part will be easy and quick, but all these fucking spindles are hell.

[monarda]

When we stripped our spindles (to get rid of the lousy Behr stain), we took them off and took the railing apart.  Stripped the spindles individually, then put it back together.   A little extra time for assembly and disassembly, but stripping and staining go so MUCH faster.

[big_owl]

Update!

H took his second trip to HD.  Employee finally confessed that basically stripping a deck just sucks no matter what you do.  Thanks dude, would have been nice of you to mention that in the first place. 

So for round two, we left the strripper on for a much shorter time, which got maybe 80% of the old finish off.  And are up the wood significantly less, yay!  Still, it took for.ev.er.  H is still wildly optimistic that we will bust this out in a weekend (not sure what the logic is there.....)  I outlined my physical capabilities, which is 2 hours of help per day.  Otherwise I feel so awful that I start falling apart mentally, and the kids run wild in the streets. 

So.  Apparently we are going forward with the stripping.  Against my will.  The HD guy said you can do a solid stain (so basically paint) but you still have to strip or it won't go on right.  I am also going to get a quote to hire someone for comparison purposes. 

We may also experiment with power washing on low, but neither of us have ever power washed before (it is borrowed from my in laws) and I am afraid we will chew up the deck.  I think stripping use flat part will be easy and quick, but all these fucking spindles are hell.

Two hours of help is the limit of your physical capabilities!?  No wonder you think it's such a difficult task!  Sometimes home improvement jobs are difficult... whether it's building a fence, landscaping, painting, etc...   Sounds like you need to suck it up and just do it.

[jasonw223]

A quick google search will usually work better than talking to anyone at Home Depot (for most things)...  Smaller paint stores are usually the way to go if you want advice, and they are usually priced similar to HD anyway for most paint / stain / etc. products.

Anyhow, I'd suggest power washing everything when you're done fooling around with strippers, then make sure the deck is good and dry, give the horizontal surfaces a quick sand, and toss on another coat of stain.  With stains you'll often get what you pay for as well - I'm personally a fan of Sikkens, both for their solid color and semi-transparent products (Rubbol and SRD). 

The problem with most decks is that the sides and bottom of boards go unfinished, allowing moisture to get into the wood.  It'll then evaporate up through the top and bubble / peel.  Anyhow, good luck!

[ruthiegirl]

Anyhow, I'd suggest power washing everything when you're done fooling around with strippers, then make sure the deck is good and dry, give the horizontal surfaces a quick sand, and toss on another coat of stain.  With stains you'll often get what you pay for as well - I'm personally a fan of Sikkens, both for their solid color and semi-transparent products (Rubbol and SRD). 

This is sound advice.  I have refinished a few decks following the above instructions.  Borrowed a power washer from my neighbor, let everything dry, sanded the flat surfaces and used Sikkens.  It takes a while and is hard work. 

I did one deck by myself -- baby on my back while the older kids played in the backyard.  I would work for an hour or two every afternoon and finished the project in 2 weeks.  It was a bitch and I was exhausted. 

And most DIY it ass-busting hard work.  Often it just sucks, but you do it anyway.

[MayDay]

Who wants an update?

We spent much of last weekend working on it, and I worked on it more this afternoon.  We are about 75% done with the stripping.  The finish should go on much faster than the old one came off (RIGHT?!?!)

We are hoping to finish stripping today or tomorrow.  We have to sand in a few spots but not the whole thing.  Hopefully just a few hours of sanding.  Then a friend is going to help H put the finish on sat or Sunday if we are ready. 

And yes, two hours is my limit.  I just worked in it for 1.5 hours.  It is pretty much continuous scrubbing, and after 1.5 hours of that my arms are jelly and the kids are begging for attention.  Even when we put them in front of the TV last weekend, it was maybe 45 minutes before they were arguing over shows or ended a snack or their sibling did [fill in the blank], etc. 

[DeepEllumStache]

Yikes but glad it's going better... 

When it's done you'll have to post the before and after photos so we can ooh and ahh and give the final product the proper appreciation.

[usmarine1975]

It is simpler to maintain your deck over the years.  Granted you may not have owned it the whole time so you are making up for the lack of maintenance by a previous owner.

Decks do not last and eventually will need replaced.  It's wood on the exterior that takes a beating all year round.  I built many and can't say that I have ever built one that I have liked.  The frame generally can be left in place with deck boards being replaced.  But they still need to be re-treated occasionally.

[MayDay]

We bought the house a year ago. It's a walkout basement so unfortunately a patio wasn't a great option due to the drop off a nd slope. But on the plus side we never get water in the basement :)

If I was building it myself I would put a flat plain old concrete patio. Voila, done for 20 years. I hate decks- too much maintenance, splinters, etc.

[zataks]

A note on pressure washing:

I understand the concern for damaging the wood with a pressure washer but it has been my experience that the vast majority of pressure washers owned in residential settings (as opposed to commercial or industrial) are little more powerful that a focused stream coming from your garden hose.  As opposed to the 3000psi $8k, gas-powered, diesel-burner driven monster we have here at work.  Those are the ones that etch concrete. 

Now, take it with a grain of salt, but if one can pick up the pressure washer single-handedly without too much trouble, you can probably almost use it for a water fight and it should be fine for your deck.  That said, the wood may be fine but it likely also may not do much for assisting the process that a good nozzle for your hose wouldn't.

[Exflyboy]

We have used a pressure washer with good results.. you don't have to get every last square inch of stain off as this will raise the grain.. just get the worst of it off.

BEHR STAIN IS SH*T...ABSOLUTE SH*T...

Got that?.. take it back, don't use it.. I'm a DIY nut job and I can tell you this stuff is worse than useless.

My Wife got a much better paint/stain that has lasted 5 years and still looks great.. The Behr will last a few months at best!

Frank

[monarda]

+1 on the Behr Stain.  SH&T.  Absolute SH#T
We like Cabot.
Rymar is also good stuff.
Some people like Sikkens, too.

[zataks]

Can't speak for Behr stain but I felt the same way about different Behr paints I've tried.  Can NOT recommend.

[MayDay]

Well, your warnings came to late.  We finished it with Behr stain this past weekend.  I hadn't looked at this thread lately, I was busy swimming in my pit of deck-related despair. 

Quick summary of the whole process:

Stripping:  railings and stairs were hell, chemicals flying everywhere burning our skin, etc.  took many weekends.  Tolerance for working on it was only a couple hours at a time as the conditions were bad.  Stripping the horizontal deck surface was quick and easy.

Sanding:  stripping tore up the surface pretty bad so we had to sand the whole thing.  Could be easily worked on an hour or so that a time.  Biggest issue here was that our summer was very rainy and we had a bunch of weekends that we couldn't sand at all.

Stain:  worked as a team with H on a ladder on the outside, me on the deck, to do the railings.  Took a long time but made steady progress and we were able to work on it for full days (while the children lost their minds watching unlimited tv and destroying the house).  Again, the flat deck surface was the largest square footage, but took an hour to do the whole thing.  Stain isn't perfectly smooth, to my eye, but I don't think anyone else would notice. 

On the Behr stain, too late now, so I guess we will just hope for the best.  It has a 6 year warranty on decks. If it lasts that long, I will be happy.  If we ever have to redo this deck again (not planning to as we hope to move within the next year) we will be slapping a coat of opaque deck paint on it to get five more years of life.  That would get us to 20 years and we would probably need a new deck at that point. 

Moral of the story:  if you have a deck with a ton of railings and spindle, burn it down and build a patio.