[misterawesome]

I am looking for guidance on a deck cleaning question: Is it essential to use deck stripper before re-staining, and does that stripper need to be affiliated with the brand of stain?

For context: I live in a small condo building in Chicago and over the past 5 years multiple companies have stained the deck. Based on my eye test, it does not appear that stain #1 was removed before stain #2 was applied (nor were they they same stain). The deck appears to have been simply power washed (not stripped) - but I may be wrong. Further context: the deck is probably 15 years old, and has been treated w semi-transparent stain.

Typically, we would continue to hire the pros to do this work. Unfortunately, due to condo budget restraints, that is simply not an option right now. But our horizontal surfaces are in desperate need of resurfacing. Any knowledge you can share would be greatly appreciated.

 

[dj3]

If you are thinking of doing it yourself, look into Restore (@ HD), you can't damaged the deck anymore than what has been already done.

 

[stadry]

OMG - restore ? seriously ? is it back ? thought the class action suit would've killed it off

 

[stick\shift]

Newer wood looks good with semi-transparent stains. As the wood ages, there comes a time to switch to solid body stains. Personally, I've never used a stripper on a deck, I just clean it and stain it.

The Restore stuff? No way.

 

[mark sr]

I don't normally use a stripper as part of deck prep but there are times when it might be needed. Any of the deck stains that have a specific recoat window need to have that stain stripped IF it hasn't weathered enough where it won't reject the next coat of stain.


Add me to the group that won't use or recommend any of those restore type deck coatings!

 

[rmoore853]

Deck cleaner or a wood deck stain is used in cleaning a deck. Before staining, both can clean the wood thoroughly. Take into consideration first the condition of your wood surface before deciding the need to strip or clean it before applying a deck stain.

 

[SPS-1]

I use a sodium carbonate cleaner before staining. They call it a cleaner, not stripper, but really, it removes most of the old stain. Then a brightener to restore the proper PH to the wood. A couple of times I got lazy and just washed the deck and then re-stained, but then next time I made sure I did a proper cleaner/stripper.