Replies

1. 
   HandySteve | Mar 16, 2006 02:43am | #1

   sounds like trouble to me.

2. 
   HandySteve | Mar 16, 2006 02:50am | #2

   Gallons and gallons of deck stain stripper and hours of scrubbing with a stiff nylon brush.  But lets face it, that never really works.

   So out of frustration you decide to blast the crap out of it with the fancy pressurewasher.   Sure your getting that stain up really well.  Its doing a hell of a job.   But really its eating the pulp right out of all those boards, and your going to left with they ugly ridges of the grain.   Lots of nasty scars from the nozzle getting too close to the wood.

   So, now you got that sick feeling in your gut.   That feeling that you know is telling you....  " im gonna loose my #### on this one"   so you head on down to the local rental center to rent a industrial sander, where you spend another full day or two sanding the hell out of that deck trying to fix what you've already screwed up.   After a couple days of sanding and wiggling around the edges your finally satisfied.  And you've learned something.

   No matter what they say...   Keep that pressure washer away from the deck.

    

   GoodLuck

3. 
   Piffin | Mar 16, 2006 02:55am | #3

   I'd refuse the job myself with those requirements by ex[laining it thusly -

   "Well Sir, In order to remove this stain with a pressure washer, I would have to turn the pressure up high enough to damage the wood, stripping the summer growth wood from between the winter wood. Some of the stain would still show and the texture would be ruined. The new stain over that kind of mess would look horrendous.

   The other option would be to remopve the stain by sanding the deck just like refinmishing an interior floor. this would turn loose some toxic elements into the air and the soil below.

   I have worked with the older CCA PT much of my life and not had bad reaction to it, but that is because I handle it properly. I don't believe you would like a surplus of toxic arsenic dust floating around your property.

   The other consideration here is that refinishing this material is likely to require as much labour as replacing these deck boards.

   So the only solution for this problem, IMO, is to replace the PT with a decent deck material like cedar or IPE`. The PT was never a good deck material to begin with, only used for modest and economy houses, and you look like a more upscale person than that. So let's look at some samples, OK?"

    

    

   Welcome to the
   Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
    where ...
   Excellence is its own reward!

4. 
   IMERC | Mar 16, 2006 03:00am | #4

   soak it in bleach...

   hand scrub...

   TSP by the 5 gallon bucket....

   hand scrub..

   chemical stripper...

   (Recipe for Fornby's or Hope's furniture stripper)

   Equal parts of acetone, methanol (wood alcohol), methylene chloride and tolulene.....

    

   but you are doomed if you use that pressure washer...........

    

   Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming

   WOW!!! What a Ride!

   Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!

5. 
   cdbeardie | Mar 17, 2006 09:29pm | #5

   We refinished a cedar deck last summer, and used a pressure washer. The key, and I do mean KEY, is to set it low, so it's stronger than a garden hose but not strong enough to gouge the wood. My 3 boys and my husband and I all took turns.We still ended up with a few gouges on the railings where my husband was working, because he did not bother to read the great article in Fine Homebuilding on "How to Use a Pressure Washer". This is because, well, because he's a guy. (Normally he's the perfectionist in the family, and does the very best job, but if you don't know what you're doing, you don't know what you're doing!) If you follow this article's directions, you can be successful with a minimum of damage to the wood.

   We also used chemical strippers that are sold for deck stains, and I would buy a gallon of each and just try them out on an inconspicuous area to see which has the best results with your washer. There was one that worked really well for us, but I don't remember which one it was. Plus, it really depends on the product that's on there in the first place.

   Our neighbors had hail damage, and their insurance company paid BIG $$ for a guy to come out and scrub all their stain (cheap-^$& CWF) off with brushes and super-strength chemical strippers, but that's a major project, and your homeowner may not want to pay for that, even if you wanted to do that, which you probably don't. Good luck!

1. 
   Thumbnailer | Mar 20, 2006 06:12pm | #6

   Thank you all. Very good info ( except for the outtake from the 'Poormans James Bond'  - recipe for some sort of homemade explosive devise ) but in the end sense and finances prevail and the guy turned down my proposal. I guess he'd rather look at that old ratty stain than pay more than Boyscout wages to get the work done right. I wished him the best of luck went on down the road.

6. 
   pickings | Mar 20, 2006 08:04pm | #7

   Deck down w/ screws or nails????

   Flip the deck boards over...sand any edges w/ stain  lightly, refinish.

   Or you could put another coat of stain on....guarantee it to last for years, and go home. Within 2 months all the stain will have fallen or worn off....guaranteed!

   
   

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   Edited 3/20/2006 1:06 pm ET by pickings