Restaining Old Wood Decks

If you are like us, you bought a house that has a wood deck. The deck location is great, The deck looks out the yard, and the deck is a great size. One problem- the deck looks like it has been in hand-to-hand combat it looks so bad! You may have rotten boards. The stain on the deck is peeling away or not existent! In dealing with our deck- it was nasty.. it came close with a question we had this week regarding Restaining Old Wood Decks – is it worth it?

What to do with an older deck that has faded or peeling stain can be tricky and confusing. The picture above is the before, during and after the process I underwent to revive our wood deck.

Are you ready to hear our experience and other decks we have seen or helped make look new? Then read on wood deck warrior! Oh- and you can see our video of 7 issues with deck stain and paint.

Power washing decks before staining

Now matter what type of deck you have, face the fact you will be power washing it. If you have trex or other fake wood decking, the surface can oxidize, get dirty, or grow mold, just like a wood deck.

Do you have to power wash decks before staining- YES!

Power washing can have a negative feel. Power washing done right helps keep things looking new. We prefer soft wash. We are looking to rid the surface of dirt, grime, mold, mildew, leaf stains, mud, and loose paint before stain/paint.

If you power wash wrong- you can ruin wood surfaces.

Better to go over the deck with several passes low pressure than to put so much pressure it cuts through the wood like your cutting bread!

If you apply deck stripper to a deck or oxalic acid to a wood deck- you will need to wash these chemicals off the wood surface before applying any stain or paint.

Do I need to sand a deck before staining?

You don’t have too no.

In our case- it was a hard yes..

The wood decking we had was bad. It was al least 15 years since it was last touched. The boards were exposed wood, some paint, some stain, some rotten. It was a mess.

I tried to use an orbital sanded with 100-grit sandpaper. I then used 40 grit sandpaper with some success, but it broke my sander in the process. So not knowing what to do and talking with one of our Sherwin Store Mangers, Scott in Crystal Lake– he told me about a diamond head grinder.

This thing saved me!! Now I’m gonna tell you right now- you better be ready for some work here. You will need:

• a grinder
• knee pads
• long sleeves
• ear protection
• mask/respirator
• eye protection
• a hat to cover your head

You have to really hold on to this thing- it will take a solid layer of paint stain and wood from your deck. This is in no way a finish sanding- it is grinding away old finish and IT WORKS!

Once going this route- your at the end of your rope per say. It was grinding away old deck paint and stain or replacing the deck.

I hope the pics do justice. It may not look it, but the deck looked really good! I could have used a transparent stain if we wanted too.

What type of stain to use on a deck?

So lets defer to my man Scott…

We have used several types of deck stain before. But for our wood deck, as old and sorry as it was, using transparent was not a great fit, especially since I just used a grinder on the wood decking. I wanted to give a solid weather water repelling surface, so we chose deck and dock

We picked this as it is a high build coating designed to protect, resurface and repel water on old damaged wood and concrete. Helps bridge dimensionally unstable cracks on old damaged sound wood surfaces. Helps to smooth rough wood and concrete surfaces. It also was said to be Easy to use, just clean deck or patio surface and apply with a roller (almost)

Applying Stain to wood decks

There are many ways you can apply a stain to a deck. You can use brushes, rollers, and sprayers to apply deck stains. Read the label!

Fo us- since we had so many gap, knots, cracks, and just old dry wood, we decided to brush and roll so we could work the deck stain into as many nooks and crannies as possible.

you can see a before and after close-up here

The deck and dock coating dried fast!

Using a sold wood stain for a deck is not for everyone. It is like painting, but sometimes the circumstances warrant using a product you may not want to use, for something you should use.

How long will deck stain last

The worst thing about deck stain is you are gonna have to keep staining your deck. It is fact. Plan on staining your deck every 3-5 years.

7 Issues about staining decks

As promised.. here is an article we wrote with a video of problems with deck staining

Questions about deck staining

We are working on a FAQ about deck stains- so if you have them- let us know so we can add them to the list!