Removing paint from deck, help!

[popper]

Sorry guys not garage related but a lot of know how on here and I need help. I need to remove two layers of paint from the older portion of my deck. Any good suggestions?

Thanks
Popper

 

[DoyleDee]

paint stripper and then powerwash all of it off. I guess what ever method you use- brush- roller.. and then high pressure.

 

[ckk]

I tried to use the Behr stripper and I found it to be absolute garbage! I tried it, let it sit for a few minutes, scrubbed the hell out of it with a coarse brush, then rinsed, repeated, time and time again. It still didn't work. I tried later with a pressure washer and the stripper etc. Still ****!

I then rented a big drum sander and voila, done all in less than an hour with no effort. The sander worked beautifully!

The only downside, according to the kid at home depot, is that when you sand the wood, it closes up the pores and when I re-apply stain/paint, apparently it may not penetrate as well as it should.

 

[Kevin54]

If you use a sander, make sure your nails or screws are below the surface before starting.

 

[Justanoldguy]

After sanding it give it a high pressure water blast.
Then repaint.

 

[N Heat]

Im a powerwashing contractor. I, personally dont mess with trying to remove paint. High pressure is not for wood. I would either sand it, or replace the boards.

 

[jake26]

Last summer, I tried a few products that claimed to remove stain but found sanding to be the best way to clean my cedar deck. I spent a month removing every spindle, railing, dissassembling the bar and sanding the deck. I then coated it with Cobalt Pacific Redwood transparent stain.

I hated the color!! Looks beet red in the sunlight. I was freaking out but my wife likes it so it stayed. Looks lots better now it penetrated more and faded a bit in the last year. Next year I plan on lightly sanding the horizontal areas and give then another coat.

Long story short ... decks ****!!

 

[cowboyjosh]

Paints not a good solution to finish a deck, but you probably already know that. Stripping paint is a real PITA, I'd probably pull the boards and replace the flooring on the deck, otherwise when you sand you'll have to get every little piece of paint off it you want to use say a CABOT type stain on the deck to properly penetrate without showing any paint thru the transparency of the stain. In my experiences once a deck is painted the only way to tidy it up is to repaint.

 

[dreamingmuscle]

Pop the boards up and flip them over. I doubt they painted the bottoms.

Glen
________
website host

 

[cowboy73]

If you could get the boards off and remove the nails, you could run them through a planer and jointer and take just enough off them to remove the paint. My parents have recycled old painted wood this way.

 

[Dennis The Menace]

I've used a heat gun and a putty scraper before on some painted lawn furniture. Worked OK. Don't know about a whole deck, though.

 

[Justanoldguy]

The solution depends entirely what the OP is going to do next with the boards.
He never said.

 

[Need4racin]

high pressure will make the wood fuzzy.

 

[popper]

Thanks for all the ideas. This is a deck that we added onto. Older portion is probably 10 x 20 and was a solid stain originally but most had worn off. Newer portion is 10 x 20 and probably got painted to quick, approx 6 mos. Well the "experts" at Menards said it would be ok to prime the whole thing and then use solid color over the entire surface. Didn't work, newer part was flaking terrible and older part was flaking in large spots. I"m thinking about the drum sander. Rental place told me $40.00 a day plus I think he said just under $4.00 per sheet for paper. Depends on how it cleans up with what I go back with. Would like to just natural or slightly tinted stain. And yes the pressure washer does fuzz up the decking, don't ask me how I know!! If anybody has any more suggestions I'm all ears.

Thanks again
Popper

 

[robertlynk]

Here is a youtube video on a paint stripper that is awesome but expensive . but time is money