Renewing a deck finish?

Depending on how bad it is you could pressure strip the entire deck this will bring all the wood to the orginal color the finish it with either Thompsons or the stain of your choice

-- Potential is limited only by imagination

I just refinished my deck a few weeks ago… my first time doing anything like that.

I used a power washer to get it good and clean, and strip off a bunch of the old finish. I let it dry for a day, did a bit of sanding with a random orbit sander (probably didn’t need to), and put down a new finish of some Thompson’s deck stain that was on sale at Menard’s. It turned out really well. I’m going to give it another light sanding later in the year and another coat of the Thompson’s stuff.

I’m not sure what finish was on the deck before, but the power washer did the work getting off whatever it was.

-- Big John's Woodshed - Farmington, IL

Todd,

I used to restain my deck every other year using a transparent stain. If the wood is in good condition, get a pressure washer and clean it off really well…espescially all the gunk in between the planks. Then swab on the stain using a cheap roller attached to an extention. I always had great results with this.

If the wood it getting old and you want to sand it down, you can apply solid-color stain, which basically goes on like paint. I did this last summer.

-- Entertainment for mere mortal woodworkers. http://www.WoodworkingForMereMortals.com

I usually wait for a cloudy day, apply some TSP to a section and scrub some with a hand held brush. Then I take my time and use the pressure washer. It’s only a 1750 PSI electric so I don’t have to worry about blasting holes in the wood. If you’re going to use Thompson’s, you’ll have to catch it on sale if you can. Even on sale, I think it’s not worth what they charge for it. Doesn’t seem to last long on a deck. I’ve used Olympic from Lowe’s the last couple of times and it does good (and costs a lot less). Good luck.
- JJ