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Stripping and staining my deck....for over a month now???

bizutch

bizutch

Delicate CUSTOM flower
Dec 11, 2001
15,928
24
Over your shoulder whispering
I wanted to show what I've been up to. I've been doing my best to finish stripping, cleaning, scrubbing and staining our back deck for well over a month now. It was built in 2006 and has never been prepped, cleaned, stained or sealed since. There was so much mildew on it that cleaner wouldn't cut it.

I was told to just pressure wash it. A buddy who does high dollar woodwork said to just do that, that yeah it would strip the heck out of the wood, but it saved time. Since I've always half assed hard work, I decided to scrub it by hand/brush and get it back to what it should have been.

Have been waiting for TWO WEEKS for 2 days back to back without rain so I can do the floor boards!!! :think:


Day 1 was a STRUGGLE and my brushes/tools were terrible!



Day 2 with a good grip handled bristle brush and 2nd, harder surface deck brush



Day 3 when I realized using a putty knife to slip and slide the mildew off cut scrubbing down in swampy areas



Day 4 and the muscles are getting used to the punishment



Enlisting some cheap labor (amazes me how willing they are to bust their butts and smile). Click this pic to make big and SEE the piles of mildew loaded up on her shirtf from just the top of 1 rail :shocked:


Staining the rails with semi-transparent Behr in Cedar finish. Just me and one 4" brush b/c rollers suck and I don't like the pump spray idea at all. Doesn't show at all how incredibly new my formerly P.O.S. deck now looks.



To all those who have tried to restore their decks this way, props! I now will condescend to those who use a pressure washer. "insert smug emoticon here"
 
-BB-

-BB-

I broke all the rules, but somehow still became mo
Sep 6, 2001
4,254
28
Livin it up in the O.C.
Um... just my opinion but use something other than home depot (behr) stuff otherwise you will be back doing this all again in a few years.
 
CrabJoe StretchPants

CrabJoe StretchPants

Reincarnated Crab Walking Head Spinning Bruce Dick
Nov 30, 2003
14,163
2,484
Groton, MA
My girlfriend's parents were looking into getting their fence powerwashed, primed and stained, and since I was (at the time) laid off, I had plenty of spare time to do it, and extra money in the pocket was pretty good at the time. Granted I had no idea they were looking for a two-tone scheme when I volunteered, which made it take God knows how much longer to finish. However, I must say I'm pretty pleased and proud of the final outcome. Now they're just waiting for some new white vinyl/copper post caps to come in to finish it off.



 
stoney

stoney

Part of the unwashed, middle-American horde
Jul 26, 2006
21,600
7,246
Colorado
Any suggestions from those in non-humid areas for stain? I am planning on pressure washing the existing paint-type stain over the weekend and re- staining it.
 
bizutch

bizutch

Delicate CUSTOM flower
Dec 11, 2001
15,928
24
Over your shoulder whispering
It is still a rain forest here. I spent the early morning mad at myself for not clearing the gutters at the start of summer. Was on the ladder in a "deluge" at 7:30 doing man work.

If it ever dries out for 48 hours in a row here, I'll actually get to stain the floor boards.

But, boy is it tempting to use that new Behr surfacing coat, the Behr Deckover. Anybody use it and know how it turns out? Looks awesome in store, but hard to tell what it does in the real world.
 
dan-o

dan-o

Turbo Monkey
Jun 30, 2004
6,499
2,805
stoney said:
Any suggestions from those in non-humid areas for stain? I am planning on pressure washing the existing paint-type stain over the weekend and re- staining it.
Click to expand...
Do you mean you have a solid-color (non-transparent), film-building stain currently on it?
If so Sikkens Rubol DEK or Flood.
$45/g from paint stores, not big box products (though HD sells a **** version of their products through HD, they are not the same)
 
stoney

stoney

Part of the unwashed, middle-American horde
Jul 26, 2006
21,600
7,246
Colorado
dan-o said:
Do you mean you have a solid-color (non-transparent), film-building stain currently on it?
If so Sikkens Rubol DEK or Flood.
$45/g from paint stores, not big box products (though HD sells a **** version of their products through HD, they are not the same)
Click to expand...
I'll take a picture tonight. It's transparent, in that you can still see the wood grain, but it's a definite color addition to make it red-ish.
 
dan-o

dan-o

Turbo Monkey
Jun 30, 2004
6,499
2,805
In that case Sikkens SRD transparent stain is what you want.
There's multiple stock colors; redish is likely mahogany as the cedar is more orange.
Power wash, lightly sand the surface (80g paper) if you have the means, for prep.
Brush on a few board lengths at a time (stopping at the cuts ends of each board to avoid lap marks mid board), let it soak in, then wipe excess/rejected stain off surface so there's no pooling.

Take picture to the retailer and they can match the color to your deck.
 
stoney

stoney

Part of the unwashed, middle-American horde
Jul 26, 2006
21,600
7,246
Colorado
dan-o said:
In that case Sikkens SRD transparent stain is what you want.
There's multiple stock colors; redish is likely mahogany as the cedar is more orange.
Power wash, lightly sand the surface (80g paper) if you have the means, for prep.
Brush on a few board lengths at a time (stopping at the cuts ends of each board to avoid lap marks mid board), let it soak in, then wipe excess/rejected stain off surface so there's no pooling.

Take picture to the retailer and they can match the color to your deck.
Click to expand...
Am I better off with brush or roller?
 
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