How to stain timber deck after removal of previous paint?

[Kevin65]

Hi Folks

In process of removing paint from hardwood timber back decking.

Currently using Poly Paint Stripper to remove old paint.

Marathon job, photo attached.

Just looking at some guidance on the staining process please.

I am assuming that after all paint has been removed, I will be sanding the deck.

Hoping I can get away with one lot of sanding, any help with recommendations would be appreciated.

Then will stain, again, looking at some hints, one coat recommended or two?

Then a coating of some sort of protection, clear coat?

So far taken about 25hrs to remove one third of the paint from deck, over a period of 7 days, in between work and this task

2 Days of Paint Stripping

[MitchellMc · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the Workshop community @Kevin65. Many thanks for your question, I'd be happy to assist.

Have you done a test section on the deck to see how sanding the painted area turns out? The reason I ask this is the main benefit of using a paint stripper is efficiency. It sounds like it is being a laborious task and I'd question whether it would be easier to sand back instead. You'll need to hire a sander to finish off after using the stripper, so perhaps it would be worth seeing what finish could be achieved by just sanding?

The number of staining coats will depend on what colour you are looking for and if you are trying to hide imperfections in the timber. In regards to protection, I'd be sticking with oiling instead of hard clear coating. Oiling you do every year which is a task, yet any type of hard clear coat product may deteriorate and you'll find yourself sanding again in a few years time. I'm sure you don't want to go through removing another product similar to the paint again.

Here's a helpful step-by-step D.I.Y tutorial which you may like to take a look at. How to sand a timber deck 

If you have any further questions or need advice, please let me know.

Mitchell

[Kevin65]

Hi Mitchell

Originally was going to sand the deck.

Tested a small section with cordless sander, seemed a lot of effort for little results, also all the nail heads seemed to keep grabbing the sandpaper.

After attempting to knock in the nails, to try and make it all flush, thinking if the nails were flush with the timber, the sanding, would be easy to remove the paint.

After trying a couple of nails, gave up with this option, due to too many nails and thinking that this would cause a lot of sandpaper to be used, due to possible tearing by the nails?

So thought the next option was to use paint stripper, remove all the paint, then use a cordless sander, to finish off preparation.

[Jason]

Hi @Kevin65,

I concur with Mitchell and would highly recommend you hire a floor sander for this task. Yes, you will have to punch down every nail first but once you have done that you will complete the sanding task very quickly and get a consistent finish. A cordless sander would be very slow and I would recommend you just use that for the edges. You might be interested in my own deck renewal project I shared a few years back in which I hired a floor sander.  

Please let us know if you need further assistance.

Jason