The end result of your deck restoration greatly depends on the condition of the base we are starting with. If a deck has been stained improperly or not properly maintained prior to our involvement we will do our best, given the pre existing condition
We typically stain a couple hundred decks and fences per year, and have done so for over a decade now. The most challenging things we encounter every year are decks that either have been stained improperly, stained with a cheap product that is peeling off, or decks that simply haven’t been maintained for a number of years. We almost always can bring these decks back to their former glory, however the expectations need to be set in order to keep our clients happy with the end result.
Once a solid stain (opaque) is applied to the deck it is essentially a lifelong commitment. The problem is that we often find clients have coatings that either were improperly applied to begin with , or faulty products like exterior house paint or Deck Over and Deck Restore products, which I have written an entire separate article about here.
So how do we handle these situations? We do offer deck stripping services that use a chemical stripper and pressure washing to remove old stain, however this only works for semi transparent and transparent finishes. The best we can do is wash the deck, sand the deck, and properly apply a quality solid stain. The cleaning is just that, using detergent and moderate water pressure to remove mildew, dirt, debris from the surface. The next step is sanding, which is actually a bit more than that. We run a large floor buffer with varying grits of sandpaper over the floor to smooth out splinters, dead wood fibers, and flaking/peeling remnants of the old coating. We also use hand held scrapers to ensure any loose, peeling stain is in fact removed by the floor sander. Tops of handrails and corners where the large floor machine can’t fit are hand sanded with our special grinder attachment that uses stiff bristles to remove loose wood fibers and loose stain. The last step is choosing a solid color stain you like, preferably something in the darker/brown family, since more natural, organic looking colors tend to hide imperfections in the wood better than lighter colors.
After all of this the texture may still not be perfect, since we can’t chemically strip off the entire finish in most cases. The sanding, scraping, grinding doesn’t strip off all of the old finish but removes loose, chipping stain and splinters. Essentially we need to do our best to stop the underlying problem, which is the peeling and flaking of the old coating so that it doesn’t continue to happen under our new stain.
My purpose in writing this is to let you know in most cases we can save your deck, while managing the expectations. The next step after the outlined process would be either a full or partial replacement of the deck. If you have an older, weathered deck or a failing finish but don’t currently have replacement in the budget our washing, sanding, and staining package is a great option to get more years out of your deck for a lower cost than replacing it.