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whitelacey1

Painting deck

Whitelacey
9 years ago

For reasons known only to her, the former owner of my home painted the deck a bright blue. It is peeling now and needs painting and the blue has got to go. How do I go about this? Power wash to get the loose paint off? Sand it?

I would love to stain it. Is this a possibility with the paint already there?

Thanks for your help,
Linda

Comments (19)

  • arcy_gw
    9 years ago

    When we still had wooden maintenance nightmare decks we used an opaque stain. It doesn't peel it slowly faded off. Unless you intend to strip every inch of the paint, the staining boat has sailed. Get some white paint and be prepared to repeat every three years.

  • sameboat
    9 years ago

    Or, as in my case, every two years. Yuk. I don't know what the previous homeowners were thinking. Once freshly painted it looks great for one season and that's it. It's a huge deck so no chance of our scraping it completely free of paint or we'd have done it.

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    9 years ago

    You might ask in the painting forum as this is more of a technical question....you might get some other answers there.

  • PRO
    BeverlyFLADeziner
    9 years ago

    Last summer I purchased this painted glider for my backyard. The previous owner had tried to pressure wash off the peeling paint. I scraped and sanded off as much as I could and then applied Olympic Solid Base Stain over what remained on the glider. So far, so good. Do I expect perfection, nope, but it's not peeling or blistering like the Adirondack chairs I just painted. Should have stained those with a solid base stain instead of paint.

  • VictoriaElizabeth
    9 years ago

    Not sure what flooring material you're working with, but you could get an estimate to have the porch sanded... we had ours sanded, (it was stained, not painted,) it looked great... up until a whole other nightmare involving stain color.

    PS- Our previous owner painted the underside of our wraparound front-porch's roof BRIGHT orange... to this day it is a mystery to me what they were thinking.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Our front porch before restoration.

  • gsciencechick
    9 years ago

    When I bought my first townhouse, I wanted to get the paint off the small deck and stain it. I pressure washed it and then used citrus stripper to get the rest. It looked fabulous but getting all that extra paint off with the citrius stripper was a huge amount of tedious work. Then I used a semitransparent stain.

    Our current deck was previously painted, so we just keep repainting it. Pressure washing even with a modest pressure washer like we have will remove most of the paint. We redid it last year--pressure wash, prime, and paint, and we need to touch up some spots. It is still a huge job. We used porch and floor paint. We now have a cocoa brown color which shows very little dirt.

    I would also consider those products that are made for decks. Can't think of the names right now. One is Rustoleum I think.

  • lucillle
    9 years ago

    Beverly that glider is gorgeous!! (And so is the little painter's assistant sitting on it :)

    This post was edited by lucille on Tue, May 13, 14 at 17:29

  • tibbrix
    9 years ago

    Don't power wash the paint off. You'll destroy the wood and then have to put all new boards down.

    On the other hand, depending on the size of the deck, it might be worth the money to just take those boards up, trash them, and put new boards down. Pressure-treated 3/4" pine is not very expensive. Once down, don't do anything to it for a year. Then, next year, wash it, then either seal it with clear sealant and let the natural color of the wood stay, or stain it and then seal it, or seal it with tinted sealant.

    When using a power washer on wood, make sure you only use the widest spray and always at an angle.

  • PRO
    Whitelacey
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks everyone!

    Taking up the boards is not an option: everything is blue. Deck floor, rails, steps, lattice as well as shutters, doors, light post, mailbox, garage door.

    I can only rationalize this by thinking she got a really good deal on this color paint!

    Linda

  • tibbrix
    9 years ago

    Ugh.

    I'd bite the bullet and have the whole thing redone professionally and use stain. Paint is so hard to maintain on decks. And I'd curse out the person who painted it the whole time. Like when I had to take all the rotted boards up from my BIG deck and discovered that, whoever built it not only didn't use screws to put them down but used finishing nails to do so! I had to pull every headless nail. I swore and cussed that person out the entire time.

    Some things you really do have to think about the future impact they'll have.

  • ron815
    9 years ago

    I have a deck that's never been painted. Going to put down primer and paint the deck brown. The deck is about 144 sq. ft. with 4 ft. high rails and 4 steps about 5 ft. wide. Any tips on good brand of paint and about no. of gals. One coat. All tips appreciated.

  • tibbrix
    9 years ago

    Cannot recommend NOT painting decks highly enough. Paint is the worst of all options.

    Best is to just let wood weather naturally and every couple of years, wash it and put a coat of clear water repellant on it.

    Next best is to stain.

  • evenshade
    9 years ago

    We used Cabot solid color acrylic deck stain on ours and it really does stand up well to wear and tear. It lasts a good 2-3 years in North Carolina sun. However, the color we chose was chestnut brown (think pumpkin pie...*not* what I was expecting) and I'm determined to change the color this year to something close to the glider shown in the previous post. I learned too late that, unfortunately, once this stuff is on there's no going back to stain without a lot of work/expense.

  • ron815
    9 years ago

    Tibbrix
    Thank you. Could I ask why the problem with paint? I read if you use stain, you have to redo every couple of years. Thanks.

  • tibbrix
    9 years ago

    Paint does not hold up. It peels and chips and becomes a real mess, and the only way to deal with it is to sand it all down. It's just a very high-maintenance deck option. Never use a power washer to blow paint off a deck. You'll destroy the wood. If you use a power washer to wash a deck, use the widest spray to rinse and don't blast the wood. You end up with completely splintered, dried out wood, and then you do have to put all new boards down.

    Weather takes such a toll, not sure why most people don't just let the wood weather naturally and use only waterproofing. There is also the polymer decking. Maintenance free, other than washing now and then. Not as good looking as wood, IMO, but holds up a lot better and comes in color choices. If I were building a deck, I'd probably go with that because of the lack of maintenance it requires.

  • kswl2
    9 years ago

    Ron, it's a mystery to me why there is so much animosity towards painted decks on this and other home forums. I can understand staining a premium wood deck (redwood, ipe, etc), but pressure treated pine is an unattractive wood and as it ages it just gets worse looking. Our posts are pressure treated pine. The deck boards, rails and stairs are clear pine, kiln dried and planed on all four sides. We painted the new deck addition as soon as it was finished and we do a maintenance coat every year. It looks fresh, never "aged" and the colors complement our brick and trim.

    We started with Sherwin Williams deck paint but it was surprisingly poor quality. I think the current stuff is Olympic. The vertical members are painted in a custom khaki from Porter paint, a satin finish with extra mildewcide added in at the store.

    It's not a maintenance nightmare, it is simply maintenance. If kept up it looks much better than PTP, IMO.

    First year the new deck was khaki. Second year:

    We left the bedroom and grill decks in the khaki color:

  • ron815
    9 years ago

    I thank all those who responded to my post. Will consider each one.
    Ron

    This post was edited by ron815 on Mon, Jun 16, 14 at 21:25

  • aloha2009
    9 years ago

    We wanted our deck to blend with the house colors, so 3 years ago we powerwashed the deck and used a solid white stain on the rails and solid tan stain on the base. Love the look! Last summer, we stained the underside which really brightened the area up (we have a patio under the deck).

    It's on the agenda to get a new coat, but we noticed the neighbor who stained theirs with a wood tone the same year we did, just redid theirs. These decks just have maintenance issues.

  • dretutz
    9 years ago

    Maybe the PO was my friend. When she painted her deck, she ordered the color. The painter saw it and said, "I think a mistake." She looked and said, "No, that is what I like." He said, "Muy azul?" I never cross that deck without thinking: "Muy azul, verdad."