Anyone done this before? It has been so long that I can't even remember how I did it last time.

4/29/2012 4:14:46 PM

Can of Stain + Brush

4/29/2012 5:05:35 PM

Anyhow. I am looking at Cabot semi-solid stain, as the deck has already been stained a couple times in the past with $10/gallon cheap shit and I don't feel like doing this again for a while. Anyone used this or Olympic in the past? Or do most of you not live in houses with decks?

4/29/2012 8:34:47 PM

clearly condescension will only increase your chances of obtaining help.

4/29/2012 8:56:43 PM

OK then those who live in trailers need not reply. Hows that?

4/29/2012 9:07:17 PM

Is there something in particular you're not sure what to do? Staining a deck is pretty straightforward. They even have directions on the can

4/29/2012 9:09:18 PM

Use some TWP

4/29/2012 9:31:49 PM

I've seen plenty of trailers with decks.

You'll want to use a deck wash first though (to bleach it clean). you may even prefer this look more.

Also, applying the stain is very meticulous job. Uneven coats are going to be much more obvious with stain than paint. You'll want to be very careful not to let the strokes overlap of you can help it.

4/29/2012 9:41:56 PM

I pressure wash the deck, using chemicals to pull out any grey and bring back the wood. I then just fill a 10$ pump sprayer full of stain and go to town on the deck. The sprayer gets it fine enough to do an even coating. You do waste more this way, and you have to be careful with your overspray, but its not slow.

4/29/2012 10:16:07 PM

make sure you wash/scrub or presser wash the deck and then let it dry for a day. The next day you can stain it. It's going to get pretty hot this week, maybe wait til it cools down the week after next?

4/29/2012 11:33:46 PM

I just roll the deck boards using an extension and a normal paint roller, then I brush the upgrights/spindles. Works ok for me.

4/30/2012 9:37:55 AM

I've only done it once, but I pressure washed the deck well, let it dry for a couple days, and then applied it with this thing:



Might try the sprayer next time.

4/30/2012 10:56:25 AM

Well the plan was to pressure wash it first to get loose dirt, stuff in between the boards, and anything else off. Then hit it with some cleaner, then let it dry. Then planning on rolling the deck itself and brush painting the railing.

5/1/2012 9:16:37 AM

It turns out that doing this right is a lot more labor intensive than you might think. I started out with the common sense tasks of clearing everything off the deck and sweeping all the leaves and whatnot off of it. Then with a pick scraped out any shit packed in between the boards, and sweep again. Then I used my pressure washer to apply some deck cleaner and wash it off, paying attention to the nooks and crannies where algae, cobwebs, dirt, etc had collected over the years. Then it was time to strip.

During the cleaning phase, some of the old stain had already started coming off in a bunch of places, including most of what was on the stairs. Basically enough came off to really piss you off if all you were doing was cleaning, but if you were already planning on redoing the stain, what came off was beneficial. The railings held up really well, with really only easy to get to areas losing any of the old stain, which I think will be perfect. The only real problem at this point was the main floor area held up much better than I had hoped. So I bought a gallon of deck stripper at Lowes. Jomax brand. You put it on and wait a while and then hose it off. I rolled it on, and even went through the extra step of putting up plastic to protect the siding, a huge pain in the ass, but I didn't know how strong the stripper would be and I did not want to be repainting the house too. Anyhow, followed the directions to a tee, applied it to the deck flooring only. First problem was rinsing it off with the hose alone did not cut it, to get results I had to pressure wash again. Even then, it only worked worth a shit on the high traffic areas of the deck. Also pressure washing pretty much obliterated the 9ft high plastic I had put up to protect the siding, but the stripper was so weak no harm was done from the residue.

Plan B- I decided the Jomax was totally worthless, did not work as advertised, and that I needed a stronger stripper. Bought a gallon of Kleen Strip (a thicker more caustic paint stripper) and put it on, again with a roller, as thick as I could, let it sit until I started seeing what I thought were positive results. No. This shit did even less stripping than the Jomax, and was much harder to rinse off even with the pressure washer. I will say that since it was thicker, that I went back and reapplied it to a couple of problem areas and then hit it with a 3M heavy duty paint stripping pad, which cut through it nicely but this is not a practical technique for an entire deck.

So here we are, time for plan C. Apparently the existing stain on my deck was some really super shit, although I have no idea what it was or how long it had been on there. Appears to be two layers though, which caused problems with lifting and now, problems stripping it. At this point the deck floor is probably 40% bare wood (which looks really nice BTW) and I am thinking on the remaining stain I will hit it with some agressive sandpaper before applying stripper. This should give the stripper a little more bite and let it do its job better.

Once I finally get the stain off, I plan on hitting everything with a wood brightener and once everything dries I will start sanding. And praying that the weather stays nice long enough for me to get some stain on everything. Still planning on spraying the railings but will probably brush the floor instead of rolling it on.

5/28/2012 2:48:22 PM

Just tear it down and build a new deck for all that hassle. Stain it any color you want.

5/28/2012 3:03:32 PM

Believe me, I will NEVER go through all this bullshit again. I could have built this deck twice over in the amount of time I have spent messing with this.

5/28/2012 6:07:33 PM

Any experience with deck cleaner then Flood brand stain? Supposedly you can stain after rinsing off the cleaner.

5/29/2012 7:01:04 AM

Staining a deck takes time, but it's worth the effort to protect the wood and investment in the original deck. I've always preferred to stain my deck on hot days so that the stain will pentrate deeply in the dry wood. Obviously this results in harder work in the heat and more stain usage, but I feel like the wood is protected better.

As for the type of stain, stay away from shit like Thompsons unless you want to do it every year. Get a opaque or semi-opaque stain that will actually protect the wood from the sun and give your deck a nice color. Usually the most expensive stuff is not necessarily the best according to Consumer Reports. They ranked Behr stains highly, but that was a few years back. I've used both Behr and Olympic and saw better results from Behr.

I found that a brush is better than a sprayer when working on boards as you get more even coverage. If you are staining lattice work (like under the deck), definitely get a sprayer. Nothing will drive you more bat shit crazy than trying to hit every little crevice of some lattice.



[Edited on May 29, 2012 at 8:13 AM. Reason : g]

5/29/2012 8:11:11 AM

I recommend a regular paint roller with an extended pole. Do small sections at a time and use a paint brush to smooth out and to ensure its applied evenly.

I used some custom stain I got from a Benjamin Moore place, ran about $45 per gallon. It looked good once applied but still only lasted 2-3 years

5/29/2012 9:32:47 AM

Just finished mine. I've got some before after pics I'll post when I can find where I saved them.

I pressure washed, sanded the rails, then used the Olympic cleaner, then Olympic semi-solid stain. Took about a week from beginning to end with dry-out time in between. Brushed the rails and balusters, rolled the deck.

5/29/2012 11:22:27 AM

I too, am in the process of doing this. Also stripping off the many layers of stain applied by the previous owner. Why there is so much stain on it I do not know, I am pretty sure the deck was rebuilt in 2006. It had come completely off in some areas and has a death grip on others. Belt sander seems to be working the best but beware of nails/screws, they will shred a belt.

5/29/2012 1:31:26 PM

note to self: build a patio

5/29/2012 2:04:48 PM

The house my wife and I bought the summer of 2009 has a pretty large deck. It is painted (or solid color stained) a cream color and we'd like to get it back to wood. After further investigation it appears to have been painted (or stained) 3 times. The first was a darker color with a couple payers of a lighter color.

This past weekend we tried an assortment of various chemicals. We tried Jomax after a recommendation. We also tried a Behr product after an employee gave a glowing recommendation. Neither of them barely touched the paint. We also tried one of the more caustic jelly strippers from the paint store. Using it along with a paint scrapper brought up maybe 50% of the paint. It also seems that a second coat doesn't improve the results a bunch.

It appears that we are just going to have to repaint the deck. I am frustrated with the performance of these chemicals.

5/29/2012 2:33:55 PM

If all else fails, sand it.

5/29/2012 3:39:21 PM

^^ I feel your pain. Have you tried wire brushing the stuff before applying the stripper to give it a shortcut to the other layers? Or maybe hitting it with a heat gun then scraping? There might be a video on youtube on using the heat gun technique.

Round three of stripper started early this morning, with jomax again. I planned on keeping it wet as long as it took. Well the sun started hitting the deck around 11:30 and it once that happens it dries almost immediately. SO I recoated and threw a plastic sheet over the area and let it sit all damn day. Fired up the pressure washer around 5 and blasted the last of the stain off. Plastic sheet on top of the stripper keeps it from evaporating and really did the trick. It was regular $3 2mil thick drop cloth shit from the paint aisle at lowes.

Now I just need a karate kid

http://youtu.be/__qOY9hcm64

[Edited on May 29, 2012 at 8:09 PM. Reason : edit]

5/29/2012 8:08:21 PM

Quote :

"It was regular $3 2mil thick drop cloth shit from the paint aisle at lowes."

now just hope that your wife/gf doesn't die soon, or else Boz will throw your ass in jail for LIFE

5/29/2012 10:46:45 PM

How much do people typically charge to do this for you? My deck is in need of restaining and I don't really want to take on this task. I should mention that it's currently a redwood hue but I want to change that.

6/1/2012 10:14:13 AM

might as well keep it a red hue ... shits gonna be hard to change.

a VERY small deck will likely cost you about 350 to clean/stain.

6/1/2012 11:06:43 AM

I had a new deck built last year and am finally getting around to staining it. Anyone have a recommendation on what kind of stain to get? I was looking at Cabot's.

5/25/2016 8:24:24 PM

DeckOver

Although it is more of a paint than a stain. It creates that protective shell look. A little expensive as you need to buy more to spread it because it is so thick.

5/26/2016 8:35:45 AM

I thought the DeckOver product was more for weathered/old decks.

5/26/2016 10:16:32 AM

Can you not just pressure wash the paint off? Fuck messing with paint strippers

5/26/2016 10:32:45 AM

I don't have any stain on it. I need to pick out a stain to apply.

5/26/2016 12:26:44 PM

Ended up using Cabot's Australian Timber Oil. Turned out awesome.

My parents used the same thing on their deck a month ago and I just finally got to see it. Theirs looks really good as well on older wood.

6/6/2016 10:24:03 AM

Stained mine earlier this season. After pressure washing the entire thing I used Olympic Maximum Redwood Naturaltone. Turned out great.

6/6/2016 12:21:48 PM

Yeah I guess the true test will be to see how long it holds up.

6/6/2016 12:36:54 PM

FUCK we are all getting old.

6/21/2016 10:57:30 PM