THE PROJECT

We moved into our home last year, and although fell in love with the porch and deck...knew that something would eventually need to be done. It's much too big - yes, I said too big - 20 ft by 24 ft finished with some inexpensive lumber and scrap end lattice. The previous owners removed their above ground pool, which had a deck around it, and then finished off the deck to complete what we now call the monster of a project.

Last summer, my husband spent a little time trying to figure out how to secure the railings onto the deck a bit tighter - as the original (or should I say "fixed") construction was damaged and not done with the best of practices. How it passed city inspection is beyond me...but it did. It's three-toned job of finished wood and unfinished wood was hard to look at, and we knew it would take some time to refinish the deck. We set a goal for the next summer, and the time has finally come to dig in.

I really do love the size of this deck, but there is much to be desired about the quality of wood. We started by asking my brother to borrow the power washer. He gave us some instructions, we set aside a week of vacation when the kids would be at daycare and summer program so we didn't have to worry about them underfoot. We planned to take it one step at a time. And, I think we also decided we'd learn a lot from doing it ourselves. We will only do the main large deck this year. Perhaps we'll be able to refinish the screened in porch next summer if we have energy to do it. Much less square footage, but probably just as much work as it's completely enclosed with screens that will need to be cleaned, and furniture that will need to be removed.

A visit to Home Depot, Lowes, and Menards...all of the "experts" told us NOT to use the power washer. Because of our particular project...they said it could damage the wood, embed debris and unwanted particles into the wood, and also may not remove all the stain we wanted to remove with the variety of wood that we were sure we had. The best bet for a quality job that would help the stain we choose to stay on longer and cleaner, and remove the old color stain would be to use a stain stripper. With the desire to use a semi-transparent stain so we could still see the beauty of the wood grain beneath it...we chose a couple of bottles of stain stripper and began to spray it on with a deck sprayer, brush it with a stiff bristled brush, and rinse it off with water. After both my husband and myself sustained chemical burns to our bodies, we decided to try a different route, and perhaps we'd have to settle for using a solid color stain that would cover the imperfections. We then chose a less caustic deck prep solution that could be diluted with water and spent the next few days scrubbing, rinsing, and massaging kinks out of each others' necks and backs. But...the results were well worth all the effort and the negative messages between us.
BEFORE:

DURING:
In preparation for laying down chemicals, we set a tarp out over my hostas - which didn't survive the heat under the tarp by the way...and as I looked under the deck a blue piece of yarn was hanging there. One tug and I realized it was attached to this...which unfortunately had to be moved. The momma robin definitely didn't like us, as she was dive bombing my husband most of the first day of this project.

AFTER:

I couldn't visualize what the deck would look like with a stain on it, especially since we were originally hoping for something somewhat transparent...so we purchased four different color samples. I eventually chose the top one - the russet color - a dark brown.

We were able to purchase a beautiful solid stain from Behr at the Home Depot with a military discount and a paint/stain rebate for the 4th of July sale...and the next few weeks  - whenever it's dry and not too hot - we'll be putting our brushes into brown weatherproof wood stain and hoping our cleaning efforts don't need to be repeated as we move into the weather of a Minnesota summer. More photos to come when it's completely ready to reveal. :)