I'm looking for advice today.
My project for the next few weeks is to refinish the railing to our deck. In past years, we've sanded and scraped flaking paint on the railing and repainted over it. Living where it's so wet most of the year, paint doesn't hold up well for us.
So, we're going to sand all of the paint off the horizontal surfaces of the railings and use outdoor stain and seal instead of paint. For me, this means I have to sand off every bit of paint, years and years of layers of paint from the top rail and bottom rail. I'll use a grey solid stain (most coverage for a stain) on horizontal surfaces. The stain will need refreshing every year. However, reapplying stain is a lot easier than sanding/scraping and repainting.
Being vertical so water sheds easily, the balusters and support posts for the railing seem to hold the paint well. So, I'll paint all of the vertical surfaces, instead of stripping and staining those parts. I'll use a black paint on vertical surfaces. I'll need to repaint these parts every 5 years or so.
For this project I bought a disk sander designed for stripping paint. It works pretty well, but this is still an involved process. I've worked 2 days so far and have removed the paint from the majority of about half of the top railing. I should have the majority of the entire top rail done by the end of the weekend. I'll still need to go in with scrapers and sand paper to get the bits that are close to the upright posts where the sander couldn't reach. I'll also need to sand and scrape the bottom rail by hand, as the balusters are too close together for the sander.
My questions -- has anybody here ever refinished a deck railing? Have you stripped outdoor paint from wood surfaces? If so, did you sand it off or use chemicals? Do you have any tips for scraping/sanding paint in tight areas? Have you used any special tools for sanding or scraping? Thank you for any advice you can offer.
The Make Do Homemaker blog just had a post on this about a week ago, might want to check it out.
ReplyDeleteHi Trina,
DeleteThank you! I'll check out that post.
That's a big job you are undertaking, Lili. I don't have any tips except wear a mask when you're sanding and don't forget to take breaks. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteI know. I've broken the job down into smaller blocks that could stand-alone as completed for this year, then picked back up next year, if that's how it all works out. And definitely am wearing a mask. This Covid masks are coming in handy. I'm also wearing goggles and a hair covering everyday. It's a really messy job. Thanks for the encouragement.
My son's deck was painted a black substance which wasn't exactly paint and they (previous owner) used a rubbery black substance around the nails making scraping and sanding almost impossible. It was worn so badly in some places and the vertical slats and corner posts were impossible to get the black "paint" off. Young guy, new home and no money for a completely new deck so he asked mom and dad what he could do. Our solution was to remove each floor piece of wood one by one and we flipped them over as many as possible. Underneath was clean, new, fresh, treated lumber which now became the new top (new walking surface). In some cases the wood was rotted so we purchased new wood for those (maybe 4 total) The corner posts we left black. The railing and balusters were black and really bad and fortunately for us, my brother works in garbage pickup and he needed to clean up a new home construction sight and was able to secure a lot of baluster wood that were the perfect size. We also needed to buy the top boards that balusters secured to and to place a cup of coffee. His deck turned out beautifully and he put sealant on there several times and looks pretty good for non professional parents who did this for him. The price tag was minimal to only a couple hundred bucks vs. thousands for a new deck. It was hard work but we did it several Saturdays and one 4th of July a couple years ago.
ReplyDeleteAlice
Hi Alice,
DeleteYou and your husband deserve the medal for frugal and successful deck renovation! That does sound like a lot of work, but the result sounds amazing. Good job! I love that you flipped the deck flooring over to reveal the good side. That's a great idea.
I recently read somewhere that it is dangerous to sand pressure treated wood, which is what most decks are made of. Our deck is in need of attention. If I remember correctly, the last time we bought (pricey, but worth it to us) environmentally friendly formulas for cleaning and then staining. In the meantime, we've had to replace some of the boards, including the top rail pieces. Sorry I'm not more help.
ReplyDeleteJo
Hi Jo,
DeleteThat's a really important warning about sanding treated lumber. Fortunately for me, our railings are not pressure treated. Our deck flooring is composite. The only pressure treated wood that was used is in the supports and beams under the flooring. If I decide to go with a chemical stripper for any parts, I'll look into environmentally friendly ones, as I assume they'd also be less toxic to me while doing the work. Thank you for the suggestion.