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Over a month ago I posted a list of summer projects I wanted to accomplish. I had a 3 day weekend over Memorial Day weekend and my plan was to strip and stain the deck over the weekend.

But…that was when I thought I would just be able to powerwash the deck, sand a little bit, and then restain. When I became frustrated that we might ruin the deck boards we definitely had decided we were not going to replace, I started digging into how to properly prep a deck to restain. That’s when I found deckstainhelp.com. In such a short amount of time I learned so much about deck prep, stain, old wood vs. new wood, wood pH, etc. I have to give them a huge shout-out because had I not found their website I would have probably ruined my deck and needed to replace the whole thing – one expense we weren’t planning on spending. Instead, Memorial Day weekend was spent demoliting the deck railing.

Anyway, the reason we weren’t planning on replacing the deck boards was because the actual deck flooring was in pretty good shape. However, we moved in three summers ago and had done little deck maintenance. The rich red stain on the floor had mostly worn away. We did plan to replace the deck railing, which had solid brown stain chipping off of it and the entire back portion was falling apart. We also planned to replace part of the steps as they were well worn and no longer level.

I learned that the proper way to prep my deck was to strip (and sand if needed) as well as brighten. My deck had semi-transparent stain and to be honest it was a pain to strip. It took me all day and one small thundershower to strip and brighten. If you want to attempt a project like this here are some deck maintenance facts I learned:

• If applying a different semi-transparent stain to the deck than the original semi-transparent stain, you need to fully strip and brighten the deck first.
• If you apply the same semi-transparent stain as the original stain OR cleaning up/staining a weatherized deck, you can just use a deck cleaner and then brighten.
• Deck stripper has harsher chemicals than the cleaner, but both are caustic and raise the pH of the wood, making the wood appear dark. For this reason, you always need to apply brightener, which neutralizes the pH of the wood, right after using a stripper or cleaner.
• If your deck currently has a solid stain on it and you want to apply a new solid stain, you simply need to clean and brighten first. Solid stain will cover up old solid stain or paint.
• If you have a solid stained deck and want to apply a semi-transparent stain…all I can say is good luck to you! The only way to remove solid stain is to peel and sand away the old stain. Even deck stripper does not work on solid stain.
• If you are installing a new deck or replacing worn deck boards you need to properly let the wood weatherize before staining. Most stain will recommend you weatherize 1-3 months, but depending on what stain you use it could be anywhere from 1-12 months.
• The main reason new wood needs time to weatherize is to become more porous. If the stain cannot soak into the wood, then the stain will dry on the surface, look blotchy, and need to be restained sooner than wood that had time to properly weatherize. It also allows the wood to dry out as well. The exception to this rule is rough-sewn wood, which is already porous and can be stained as soon as the wood is dry.
• New, weatherized wood still needs to be cleaned and brightened before stain can be applied due to oxidation resulting from sun exposure, dirt, and the mill glaze. Mill glaze is the shiny surface new wood has as a result of the milling process and it closes up the wood’s pores.

Now let’s actually get into the decking project. I am so glad I bought this bristle brush that connects to an arm extender. It definitely saved my back while applying the deck stripper. This is the deck stripper and brightener I used. Because my deck was a difficult strip I also bought the booster additive and thickening gel. The stripper and brightener come as powder that you then mix with water. The products can make up to 5 gallons, so if you have a large deck this great! My deck is only ~150 square feet, so I definitely have left over product I can use later. Despite shipping being backed up due to COVID-19 – the whole reason I waited 3 more weeks to start the deck project – the customer service of Restore-a-deck.com was stellar!

When my products arrived I mixed up some deck stripper and added the booster and thickening gel. I then lightly misted the deck (per instructions). I worked from one side of the deck to the other applying the product, scrubbing extra hard on the “tough” spots. You need to let it set for at least 10 minutes and mist the deck to prevent the product from drying out. Fair warning, the stripper creates a ton of suds. I spent more time powerwashing the deck to get rid of the soap suds than I did actually applying product. The product becomes extra slippery on the deck, so definitely be careful when trying to rinse the deck.

After rinsing the stripper off, I let the deck dry to see where I needed to sand off any extra stain. My first application of the stripper wasn’t as aggressive as it should have been, and there were plenty of spots I was going to have to sand. After sanding for a few minutes I realized I honestly just wanted to restrip the deck…so that’s what I did. I made sure to heavily apply and scrub the areas that still contained a bunch of stain…and then proceeded to rinse by powerwashing…again.

This worked fairly well so I then proceeded to the brightening step. The brightener must be applied when the wood is still wet, so I mixed up some brightener and added it to my pump sprayer and got to spraying. The brightener you have to let sit for a little longer, but after a few minutes you should start to see immediate results of the brightening. Then I powerwashed again, and at this step you absolutely have to make sure that there are no soap suds remaining as you clean. This is the longest and most difficult task, because if you don’t remove all of the suds you will have stripper residue left on your deck boards and the stain won’t adhere properly or look good. Then you are stuck repeating the entire process.

For most stains, after properly prepping your deck, you have to wait 24-48 hours before staining your deck. However, restore-a-deck.com makes a stain that can be applied the same day, on damp or dry wood! While they offer both semi-transparent and solid stain colors, I opted for their semi-transparent stain in dark walnut. While my intention was to prep and stain the deck all in one day, as I noted above it took me most of the day and a small thunder shower to strip and brighten the deck. My plan then was to stain the following day, but the day ended up being overcast and I was worried about rain, since I needed 12 hours of perfect rain-free weather for the stain to properly cure.

Instead, I ended up waiting 48 hours before staining and the following day we replaced the stairs instead. We ripped off the stair boards that were warped and rounded, salvaged the stringers, and releveled them before replacing the stairs with new boards.

Finally time to stain the deck! I ended up buying this stain pad with groove tool that screws right into an extension arm. It worked amazingly well and allowed me to cover a large amount of area in a fairly short period of time. This was great since I applied the stain in direct sunlight and the second coat needed to be applied while the 1st coat was still tacky. While I had high hopes for the groove tool, since my deck boards were older the grooves between the deck boards were uneven and I couldn’t always get the groove tool between the grooves. I think the groove tool would be great for new decks or any decks that has consistent deck grooves. The following day I went back and applied what little stain I had left to any grooves that I wasn’t able to get with the groove tool. I have to say that the deck stain I bought appears to be of good quality and I love the super rich color. I actually think it looks better with time. The other thing I loved about the stain was the packaging it came in – a gallon pour-out container rather than a paint can, so it was super easy to pour into a paint tray without making a mess.

The next thing I did was apply stain to the sides of the deck and step stringers. The original railings, the side of the deck, and the stringers were stained in solid stain. I did try and apply some deck stripper to the side of the deck and powerwash it off, but not a lot of stain came off (which was to be expected). I was originally going to sand and apply the semi-transparent stain to those as well, but I got lazy. I opted instead to apply a solid stain over the solid stain that was already there. I only needed to cover a small portion, so I bought a sample can of Behr Premium Solid Stain and Sealer in Padre brown at Home Depot. I wasn’t expecting a great match with my semi-transparent stain, considering different companies and types of stain, but it honestly worked out well!

Lastly, we spent this past weekend assembling the railings for the deck. Originally I wanted to install a cable railing system so I could see more of the backyard, but it was going to be ~$500 more and I was not convinced of any sort of return on investment, so we went with the same style as before. I bought the balusters at Home Depot for under $1 each and we determined the rest of our materials based on the board sizes that could fit in my car and what we needed to install per code. The railing style we installed made it easier, as we really only had to worry about the height of the railing (~36 5/8″) and the spacing of the balusters (~3″). The fancier you get the with the railing, the more codes you’ll potentially encounter.

While this project took a lot longer than anticipated, I’m so happy with how it came out. We could clean and stain the railings at the end of summer this year (they would be properly weatherized), but we’ve ultimately decided to wait until next year as we might need to touch up the deck flooring from the winter.