Deck Restore Products

[mattm]

Does anyone have any experience with deck restore paint products like Rust-Oleum's Deck & Concrete Restore or Behr's DeckOver? I have an old deck that is starting to look pretty rough and I keep waffling between whether I want to try a deck restore product or just replace the whole thing with a composite deck. I have heard deck restore products can start peeling, but obviously that route would be much, much cheaper than rebuilding the deck with composite boards.

Thoughts?

[Bob W]

Try the restore product first.  Then throw a coat of paint on it every spring.  Make sure it is draining well.

[RH]

Clean and power wash it with the proper products. It'll look like new. Check out YouTube. I do this every 3 years on my cedar deck at a cost if $100.

[mattm]

Thanks for the replies, guys, I was leaning towards trying the restore first. Any preference on brands? I like Behr paint for indoor walls, but the Rust-Oleum deck restore looks a lot thicker than Behr DeckOver. I thought that might be a better deal since my deck is pretty weathered and thought the thicker paint would do a better job covering up the cracks.

[greaper007]

Can you post a pic?   How bad is it really?    Wood rotting and falling apart, or just greyed from the elements?

I had a deck that was just grey from the elements and instead of spending tons of time trying to bring the original wood back I just hit it with a solid stain.   It's basically tougher paint and comes in lots of colors.    I find that I have to retreat mine every 2-3 years, but it's not that big of a job.   

The stain is about half the price of the restore products, and I've heard some negative things about the composite decking.   It's super expensive and heavy, and if you just paint your wood deck every other year or so it will probably last for 20+ years.

[bluecollarmusician]

Behr's premium products are highly rated by Consumer Reports, and I have had great success with them.

The Solid Stains are great- I would only use the Deck Over if the wood is very badly cracked and damaged.... just my 2 cents from a random dude on the internet...

[MsPeacock]

I have had very good results w/ the Behr solid stains. They have held up very well - and made very old fences and decks look like new. Flat surfaces are easy to do - just power wash and then use a roller to cover the surface. They are very well rated by Consumer Reports. Old wood will soak up a ton of stain, so coverage may be somewhat less than the can suggests.

[Greg]

Deck board coatings are not the way to go.  I notice they're no longer carried at my local big orange box store, probably out of business.

If the boards are so bad that pressure washing and staining or sealing will not suffice, then they need replacing for structural reasons.

About Trex and similar composite decking; if you live where they will get a lot of sun, be aware that this kind of material gets very hot due to its density, and may not be comfortable to walk on.  Cedar is very lightweight and much cheaper in my area.  But for low maintenance, composite is preferable.

[Zoot Allures]

I have a deck at my rental property that gets a lot of sun and rain exposure. I had painted it previously, but the paint cracked and peeled in no time. I finally sanded all the paint off and used a TWP product, which is the top-rated stain on a weirdly comprehensive website called DeckStainHelp.com.

Before staining, I used a cleaning/prep product called Restore-A-Deck.

It was a big job, but two years later the stain still looks great. I'll redo it this summer.

[mattm]

Hmm, this has definitely made me reconsider. It's pretty weathered, but I believe it's structurally sound and in no danger of falling apart; maybe stain is the way to go. This project won't be happening until the middle of summer so I'll have plenty of time to look into it.

Thanks guys!

[BAMxi]

Does anyone have any experience with deck restore paint products like Rust-Oleum's Deck & Concrete Restore or Behr's DeckOver? I have an old deck that is starting to look pretty rough and I keep waffling between whether I want to try a deck restore product or just replace the whole thing with a composite deck. I have heard deck restore products can start peeling, but obviously that route would be much, much cheaper than rebuilding the deck with composite boards.

Thoughts?

I used the deck restore products a couple years ago. Did the chocolate brown on my whole deck (all horizontal surfaces, got the matching stain for the spindles). Only issue I had was that I bought the textured roller they recommended, however because of the way my deck railing was built, I couldn't get close enough to the spindles with the roller while going in the same length-wise direction to keep a consistent pattern. And using a brush just for that area would have created a different texture pretty much all around the outside of my deck. So, I ended up just brushing it on the deck with a big paint brush. It went on pretty easily, did 3 coats. Deck looked literally identical a year later to the day we started using it again after everything dried. I can't comment on the status of the deck today, as we sold the house, however it definitely saved me from replacing some cracked/splintering wood that would have otherwise been replaced. It did a nice job of filling in the cracks of some really weathered wood and holding it all together. Not bad for a couple hundred bucks.

I'd say if you want a completely long term, maintenance free solution, go with the composite. If you want something that will add several more years to your deck, go with the restore.

[pipercat]

The deck restore products aren't very well reviewed (based on the research I did over the summer).  My mom used the Behr version on her deck steps, and it looks okay.  It's basically like really thick paint.  She pretty much repaints them every year (although I think she could wait a couple of years). 

I have to second the website deckstainhelp.com
I ended up using Flood brand stain after reading all the information on that site. 

I also learned that I need to wait and let my new wood (rails and balusters) "cure" before painting them.  I stained and repaired at the end of the summer.  I'll be painting them this spring.

[geekette]

We have a composite deck - it is NOT maintenance free like many people think.

We use Corte Clean once or twice a year.  The directions are poor, (small business, and it shows), but the results on our Timbertech deck are quite good.  I can no longer find it locally, but get it mail order.

[ShoulderThingThatGoesUp]

We have Behr DeckOver on our front porch (over a coal room). It looks very good. However any rotten boards should be replaced, not painted.

[gt7152b]

For my old deck that had never been stained I just power washed, let it dry thoroughly, and stained it with a transparent Sherwin Williams stain. Still looks great after 2 years. I've tried the solid stain on a previous deck and didn't like the look of it. I know they are more durable but if I've got real wood I want to see the grain. With power washing you can strip off the old gray surface of the wood and it will look like new but be careful not to cause too much damage by getting the stream too close.