sanding a deck to repaint... belt or floor sander or something else?

Jayne

Jayne

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i've got 500 sq. ft. of deck to sand and repaint. I rebuilt it a few years ago, but didn't know the difference between the wood grades so now it's a little uneven board-to-board.

How do I sand this?

Belt sander along each board, or will a floor sander deal with the uneven edges? I figured a floor sander would just destroy the edges of the boards, toast the sanding media or just bounce around and be useless, but I have 0 actual experience sanding anything so maybe that's what they're designed for.
 
Unless the board to board unevenness is intolerable, repaint.

You could use a drum style floor sander if you really want the experience, but you’re likely to tear the paper on every nail or screw. It’ll suck.
 
What @GymB said is true. Even if nail & screw heads don't shred the paper, you'll abrade the coating or galvanization off, which will lead to rust.

If the boards are uneven enough to trip you, or if some are so cracked & warped they are intolerable, then those individual boards can be replaced. SInce you're using paint (opaque) rather than sealer or stain (translucent), you don't have to worry much about different appearance - paint hides a lot of sins!

Don't use too concentrated a tip on the sprayer or get too close to the wood. A good pressure washer will fuzzify your wood in no time. Spritz on some cleaner, let it do its thing, then use a medium fan spray tip & stay a good 12" - 16" off the visible surfaces of the wood.

If you replace boards, they may take a month or two to dry sufficiently; the anti-bug goo is steamed in and it takes awhile for the boards to reach equilibrium with the ambient (average) humidity.

If you have access to or can rent a sprayer, it goes much faster and is easier to get in tight spaces.

Clean & paint under the deck if you can - an equal seal on both sides of the boards helps prevent cupping & warping.

It's more tedious & messy than it is intellectually challenging. I mean, really - what could go wrong? ;)
 
Windini said:
If the boards are uneven enough to trip you, or if some are so cracked & warped they are intolerable
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not really, I replaced everything at once and we used deck paint on it right away so other than them drying a bit funny they're 'fine'. They're just not smooth like a hardwood floor which is all I see in the photos of floor sander rentals. Yea, I'm not a carpenter.

Windini said:
Don't use too concentrated a tip on the sprayer or get too close to the wood. A good pressure washer will fuzzify your wood in no time. Spritz on some cleaner, let it do its thing, then use a medium fan spray tip & stay a good 12" - 16" off the visible surfaces of the wood.
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I stole borrowed dad's pressure washer when he moved, has a little honda 160/180 motor on it. Does an amazing job with the wider tips cleaning the siding and concrete.

Windini said:
If you have access to or can rent a sprayer, it goes much faster and is easier to get in tight spaces.
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I stole borrowed dad's little air compressor when he moved, maybe HD has rental sprayers?

Windini said:
Clean & paint under the deck if you can - an equal seal on both sides of the boards helps prevent cupping & warping.
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It's pretty tight under there. If I had been thinking I would have sprayed the boards before I installed, but no wait they were green then so that wouldn't have worked. Meh.
 
Jayne said:
I stole borrowed dad's little air compressor when he moved, maybe HD has rental sprayers?
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Sounds like you're ready to get started!!

You won't need a compressor for a sprayer. Nowadays they're "airless," and have a built in pump. The sprayer has an uptake tube & siphons paint out of the can/bucket. It's pretty straightforward.

Just make sure the rental clerk knows what you're spraying (i.e. latex paint vs. oil-base stain). Different viscosities require different aperatures.

Oh - and that whole fuel-air atomization flame-scary-go-bang thing with oil-base stuff, too.
 
Im following this thread because I have a similar project coming up. I was considering sanding like OP, but it doesn’t sound like it’s needed.

I stained the deck when we moved here about 5 years ago. It never really looked all that great, and now it looks terrible.

Is paint the way to go?
 
When we were getting ready to sell our High Point house, we pressure washed our 20 yo deck. It turned it smooth and restored the yellow color.

My mother then put some sort of deck wash on part of it and bleached it white.

My parents then spent a few days staining the thing with Cabot’s timber oil. Great stuff.
 
Frack N Cylons said:
Im following this thread because I have a similar project coming up. I was considering sanding like OP, but it doesn’t sound like it’s needed.

I stained the deck when we moved here about 5 years ago. It never really looked all that great, and now it looks terrible.

Is paint the way to go?
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If you can't remove the old finish completely, then I'd say yes.

As long as you prep the surface so that the paint will bond to the it, paint hides well.

But a little caution is adviseable here, as far as expectations are concerned: modern paint SUCKS. It doesn't flow as well, dry as well, hide as well, harden/cure as well as older formulations, nor is it as colorfast in direct sunlight. And when it peels, it doesn't flake - it peels like a fruit roll-up! This makes the surface prep even more important; you want to minimize opportunities for it gettin' loose.

I would consider it a 3 to 5 year solution (ha.) for deck boards, a little longer for railings.

The good news is, when it starts to look crummy, you can repaint again & again.

EDIT: that "ha" was for the pun, not the life expectancy of modern paint. :)
 
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Some Suppliers... not big box stores, but specialty lumber shops, will sell kiln dried treated lumber that you can paint right away.
 
I had a friend that used that "deck refinish stuff" I told him not to but he did and it peeled up after a year or two. Even with following the directions "supposedly". I'd heard too many horror stories about the crap coming up. I did some looking on youtube and found these types of disks. I think he used one (or a few) to get it sanded off.

Amazon product ASIN B07MZNJ7Y4
 
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I wouldn't use latex anything on a deck. I would wet down the deck, use a pump up sprayer to apply a Sodium Hydroxide / Sodium Metasilicate (add a butyl booster to remove water based paint/stain) mix, let it dwell 10 to 45 minutes while keeping it wet then rinse with a low pressure. This will strip off everything previously on the deck. You will then neutralize that with Oxalic Acid in a pump sprayer. Once the color of the wood changes rinse thoroughly. Once dry the wood will look brand new. Only use low pressure on wood. After a week or more of dry time use a quality oil based stain. I prefer EXPERT Stain and Seal products.

I operate a power washing business and this would be how I would take care of it. The results are amazing. Only time I ever sand a deck is because a home owner used pressure to clean a deck and it made the wood fuzzy.

Screenshot_20230402_224529_Gallery.jpg
 
noway2 said:
@Cowboy trex?
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That's funny because the real estate agent asked the same question. No that was just an old nasty deck that I had to change 3-5 boards on because they warped. Then I pressure washed good and sanded to get the bad part's broken up. Then got Olympic solid deck stain and I ended up brushing the entire deck to get it down deep into all the cracks.
 
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