I wanted to show what I've been up to. I've been doing my best to finish stripping, cleaning, scrubbing and staining our back deck for well over a month now. It was built in 2006 and has never been prepped, cleaned, stained or sealed since. There was so much mildew on it that cleaner wouldn't cut it.
I was told to just pressure wash it. A buddy who does high dollar woodwork said to just do that, that yeah it would strip the heck out of the wood, but it saved time. Since I've always half assed hard work, I decided to scrub it by hand/brush and get it back to what it should have been.
Have been waiting for TWO WEEKS for 2 days back to back without rain so I can do the floor boards!!!
Day 1 was a STRUGGLE and my brushes/tools were terrible!
Day 2 with a good grip handled bristle brush and 2nd, harder surface deck brush
Day 3 when I realized using a putty knife to slip and slide the mildew off cut scrubbing down in swampy areas
Day 4 and the muscles are getting used to the punishment
Enlisting some cheap labor (amazes me how willing they are to bust their butts and smile). Click this pic to make big and SEE the piles of mildew loaded up on her shirtf from just the top of 1 rail
Staining the rails with semi-transparent Behr in Cedar finish. Just me and one 4" brush b/c rollers suck and I don't like the pump spray idea at all. Doesn't show at all how incredibly new my formerly P.O.S. deck now looks.
To all those who have tried to restore their decks this way, props! I now will condescend to those who use a pressure washer. "insert smug emoticon here"
I was told to just pressure wash it. A buddy who does high dollar woodwork said to just do that, that yeah it would strip the heck out of the wood, but it saved time. Since I've always half assed hard work, I decided to scrub it by hand/brush and get it back to what it should have been.
Have been waiting for TWO WEEKS for 2 days back to back without rain so I can do the floor boards!!!
Day 1 was a STRUGGLE and my brushes/tools were terrible!
Day 2 with a good grip handled bristle brush and 2nd, harder surface deck brush
Day 3 when I realized using a putty knife to slip and slide the mildew off cut scrubbing down in swampy areas
Day 4 and the muscles are getting used to the punishment
Enlisting some cheap labor (amazes me how willing they are to bust their butts and smile). Click this pic to make big and SEE the piles of mildew loaded up on her shirtf from just the top of 1 rail
Staining the rails with semi-transparent Behr in Cedar finish. Just me and one 4" brush b/c rollers suck and I don't like the pump spray idea at all. Doesn't show at all how incredibly new my formerly P.O.S. deck now looks.
To all those who have tried to restore their decks this way, props! I now will condescend to those who use a pressure washer. "insert smug emoticon here"