[burnt03]

Here's a picture of our cedar deck as it sits today. Looks like it had some semi-transparent pink (yes, pink) stain before they painted/stained over it with a solid brown. It's all starting to peel now and needs re-doing.

Looking for instructions on what to do. At this point, the plan is:

1) sand the deck surface down
2) use behr no. 63 wood prep to clean the surface (pretty gray and weathered underneath the stain).
3) stain w/ a semi-transparent, probably lighter than current solid stain


This sound ok? Do I need to sand it or can I use a pressure washer and some sort of chemical stripper? What's the easiest thing to use to sand it down? Belt sander for the flats, power palm sander for the rest?

 

[jsheridan]

What are the deck dimensions?
Handrails and ballusters?

 

[cibula11]

Before sanding, I would pressure wash. My guess is most, if not all of that will come up. It might be messy, but easier than sanding since screws and nails can get in the way of that. Make sure you use a full cover stain. It looks like the deck is grayed pretty well.

 

[burnt03]

What are the deck dimensions?
Handrails and ballusters?

Surface of deck is about 470 sq ft. Handrails are aluminum/glass. Have stairs off the deck that I'll need to do as well, just 2x4's/1x3's.

 

[housepaintingny]

If your going to use a semi-solid / semi-transparent you need to strip the deck with a deck stripper first, otherwise that brown will still show through. Your other option at this point is to wash the deck with a per carbonate like Wolmans Deck Brite, sand as needed, and apply a solid stain. I wouldn't use the behr cleaner, as most cleaners it probably contains a high amount of bleach or chlorine which are not good for wood, they have long term negative effects. The grey is not a problem to get out. The grey is dead wood fibers and needs to be removed. Like I said a per carbonate is a great deck cleaner that will clean and open up the pours in the wood to accept new stain. Personally I would strip the deck and start from scratch using Sikkens Semi-Translucent Stain. I've seen and brought back to life decks that looked a lot worse than that. With the proper cleaner and a power washer using low pressure you can take a deck that looks like that and have it looking new in a few hours.

 

[burnt03]

Haven't been going too quickly on this project. Tried a pressure washer, took some stain up but not enough. Tried belt sander, too slow. Rented a drum sander and that took the majority of it off, slowly been using a palm sander to take off the rest.

Just wondering about the cracks as shown in the picture below. Is there any sort of filler I can use that'll accept a semi-transparent stain?

 

[hammerheart14]

Haven't been going too quickly on this project. Tried a pressure washer, took some stain up but not enough. Tried belt sander, too slow. Rented a drum sander and that took the majority of it off, slowly been using a palm sander to take off the rest.

Just wondering about the cracks as shown in the picture below. Is there any sort of filler I can use that'll accept a semi-transparent stain?

In the shape that this deck is in, I would use one coat of a SEMI-SOLID stain, like Cabot's 1400 series. I wouldn't fill the cracks in with anything, it'll just pop out. Just be sure to restain every two to three years with the semi solid, and BE SURE TO SHOVEL THE SNOW OFF THE DECK EVERY TIME AFTER IT SNOWS. WATER IS YOUR DECK'S ENEMY!