Best Way To Ressurrect A Deck

Greg Di

I normally tear decks out and rebuild them, but I've been asked to rehab an existing cedar deck for a customer.

I don't trust what my painter is telling me he wants to do to prep the existing surface because I know he is not an informed authority. Yes, he is a great interior painter, but he not on the "cutting edge" of anything. Believe me. He just wants to hit it with a PW and that's it. I know enough to know that's not correct.

I like to do things the right way regardless of what he says. I'll tell him how I want it done after consulting with you guys.

The cedar had an opaque stain on it that's worn off in some spots down to bare (silvered) cedar, however there is still a fair amount of stain on the surface. It looks like hell. I need all of that stain off so we have a clean slate to restain upon.

What are the best cleaning products and techniques you would recommend that I supply to do this job properly. The deck is 32' x 14' if that matters.

Are there better stains/sealers that we can use that will follow up the cleaning process better than others?

Thanks!

Greg

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tom connelly

Extreme Solutions makes some excellent products for all your deck restoration projects. They are contractor grade products that work well. EaCo Chem also makes good wood care products. Be careful about letting an inexperienced contractor do the job, if he is not used to chemical cleaning, he is used to pressure cleaning. Which means he will be furring and ripping out the wood lignens, and digging into the wood grains. It takes a little practice.

Yes you will have to strip the existing stain off, (using a stripper) then you do a follow up acid wash to neutralize the PH and to brighten the deck. Use low pressure. If you are inexperienced you may have some fuzzing of the wood, once the deck is dry sand the fuzzy places with an orbital sander or a wood buffing system, before you stain. With a proper application and cleaning you shouldn't have this proplem unless you are stripping multiple layers of actual paint or dealing with a rare and unusually strubborn stain. We typically never have to do the sanding step.

I have used both Extreme Solutions and EaCo Chem products with good results. If used properly they will far out perform the standard hardware and paint store deck care products. They will be cheaper and save on labor time. We have done wood restorations for several years now and have tried a number a products, these are the ones that we use with exceptional results. These products were designed to keep as much of the natural oils and sugars in the wood as possible leaving you with a longer lasting deck that looks better (not spotted, bleached, dried, etc, and what have you). Keeping the natural oils in your deck will help in the staining process too. It makes it easier to stain and uses less stain.
We also custom build decks.

Give Russell from Extreme Solutions a call, he is a wood expert who is more than willing to help you out.

Russell: 1-636-288-8512

EaCo Chem: 1-800-313-8505

Gutter Clean & Power Wash
Hickory NC

Greg Di

Thanks Tom. I appreciate the insight. I will give Russell a call.

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woodchuck2

As stated above be careful of the fuzzing, ripping/tearing of the lignens, i am inexperienced at this too but have learned the hardway. I found keeping the pressure down and keeping the nozzle tip in parallel with the grain helps. Take your time at this and you will be amazed at the results. I just did a PT deck that hadnt been touched in 10-12 yrs and is under pine tree's and it turned out like new.

genecarp

Greg, I Did One A Couple Of Years Ago, If You Mean Buisness Have Your Floor Sanding Guy Come In, Make Believe Its An Oak Floor, You Will End Up Some Clean New Cedar.

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Chris G

I agree with the above post, even if he did cap each word. You don't need a drum sander, just a big shaker orbital square one (18" x 18"?).

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tom connelly

Yes, you definately want to go with the natural wood grains, be carefull about stopping in the middle of a wand stroke as you can create scars in the wood that are far from appealing, and often can be difficult to hide. Either go the full length of the board, or utilize an arching motion on your wand passes to prevent these scars.

A green tip with a large orifice 8-12 inches from surface is best. 400-1000 PSI at 4-6 GPM. Low pressure, high water.

We use flat surface cleaners on the flooring, it speeds the job up tremendously, it also gives better looking results without damaging the wood. If you use a flat surface cleaner, and you are not used to it, make sure you keep it moving and be careful for swirls. There are little tricks you will learn as you go.

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Hickory NC

pitterpat

I was just thinking about doing this to a deck but was going to use a drum sander that I rented from Home Depot. I've sanded a deck b/4 because it had paint on it so I was thinking of doing this one that way because the deck boards are very gray. I think I will do this again.

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zukkoor

I would never sand a deck you will create more problems and head ache than you will solve.

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tom connelly

You definately wouldn't want to sand the whole deck. When I speak of sanding I'm referring to spot sanding or buffing to remove fuzzy spots. If you are using a sander do not dig into the wood, use a finer grain paper. Wood buffers are preffered, you can get log home buffers in various sizes. If you have furred the whole deck you simply need to get a professional to do the work for you.

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genecarp

please list the problems that you have had, i will tell you how to avoid them.

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zukkoor

The biggest problem is a waste of time. I agree if you do not know how to powerwash and you get a bunch of fuzzies than you have to use a fine sand paper to get rid of them but there is no reason to want to sand a deck as a first option.

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tom connelly

I thought of a reason - if your charging by the hour.

zukkoor

Hey tom I checked out that website you posted. does that HD-80 cleaner work as good as advertised? especially with the behr solids?

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Mike Finley

I have a friend that is convinced they should sand their deck.

What are the reasons you would give them not to?

tom connelly

It works very well, it takes a little getting used to though. It has a long dwell time, you may have to mist it on several times to keep it active. But you are applying it through a high flow jet-x, which means application is much faster and easier. I also often mix it a little stronger than usually suggested. You may want to play with the ratios.

I'm currently testing EaCo Chems stripper called LCS at a ratio. You are supposed to apply it straight, but that is time consuming and costly, and perhaps a little to caustic, it is a very strong liquid stripper. I think that it may be powerful enough to apply at a 2-1 or a 4-1 ratio; but that is not the recommended application, and no field tests have been done. I'm working with them to try to figure it out, if I do I may put up a post. I'm hoping that with the LCS I may be able to shorten the dwell time, but still use the jet-x.

I have removed Behr solids with HD-80, as well as sikkens, you may still have some grey wood as with almost every Berh strip job, as the oils penetrate way to deep. A light bleaching will remove the grey, it doesn't take a very strong bleach ratio. (thats one of the reasons I don't like Behr stains, but thats another topic)

Extreme Solutions Inc. (ESI) citralic is an excellent brightener.
ESI's EFC-38 is a great cleaner, but you have to be careful as you can get some fuzzing if used wrong.

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Hickory NC

zukkoor

Mainly because it is time consuming and you will have to pressure wash it anyway.

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tom connelly

Sanding the flooring with a drum sander or an orbital floor sander may work well; however, stripping and cleaning the railing with a sander will be far more time consuming than pressure washing.

The advantage to sanding the flooring is that you will remove all of the cupping and crowning of the boards, leaving them flat, which means easier water run off. It is actually not a bad idea, and doesn't take that long. However, to sand the railings would take a tremedous amount of time and energy.

Start with a 36 grit and work your way up to 120 grit.

If the boards are in very bad condition, and you are using a sander use a drum sander with a hard plastic pad, it is much more aggressive and faster and will be less likely to damage the base plate, rather than the orbital floor foam pad sanders. The drum is a little harder to control than the orbital. You would also want to cut off any splinters, deep set any nails, and screw in any screws that may cause damage to your pads, prior to sanding.

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Hickory NC

sealerguy

A dewalt random orbit sander (round hook and loop) is about 65.00, lowes is the only place that sells the good sanding discs at a good price for a large stack. Armed with 40's (for super rough areas), 80's (for medium, these will be your primary discs), and 100's for very smooth/new wood/hardwoods. Allways do a test area and look close for vibration circles and switch grit as needed. Sometimes on a brand spankin new deck, you will have to use folded paper sheets (100 grit), and sand with the grain, that is, if you want to sand at all. I am a big fan of extreme's HD-80, for the thicker sealer removal, but use THESEALERSTORE.COM'S injectable deck stripper on 90% of my jobs, it's easy to use, save's time, and reasonably priced per/job. Here is a link for the stripper. http://www.opwdecks.com/powersolve-i...r-5-gallon.htm

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RayGoerdt

Did one like that last spring, pressure washed with no chemicals, came out fine. I think it had sikkens on it.