How to REALLY get your deck ready for a new stain

I have two decks, one which I saved by sanding 1/4" off the top with a drum sander I rented (took me 2 days, another that is only two years old. Both are thus nice and flat. Both need new stains.

The big caveat here is that because of these are constructed with hidden fasteners and thus do not have any nails. I imagine most of you have nails in your decks. I'm sorry about that. Those of you that don't and have flat decks can read on.

I've always suspected pressure washing is a racket. First of all, what are the two enemies of decks? Sun and water. So why are we forcing water at high pressure into a deck? Add to that toxic or semi-toxic chemicals that can harm plants (and probably you) in a place that is typically called a "yard" and thus full of plants. Finally, pressure washing can raise the fibers in wood, leading to furring and uneven surfaces. Arrrgh… it was enough for me to avoid touching my decks for too long. I thought about renting a floor sander but those units are very heavy and so wide that even a little unevenness is more likely and will derail you.

This morning I figured it out… An Oreck Orbital multifunctional floor machine. I'd never heard of them before but they just made sense to me. So I called up Oreck to see if I this would work. They said yes, sanding decks was an accepted application. REALLY? On the way back from work I picked one up. About $400 for the machine plus a whole bunch of pads and accessories brought the price to $600, but now I have a machine with a 10 year warranty as well as a lot of accessories so that I can dry clean my rug, polish my wood and tile floor, and scrub away debris the kids leave on my floors. Hey, that's not bad. I expect that the total cost of ownership after this initial investment will be very small, on the order of $50 a year to maintain my floors and redo my deck every year.

In one hour I sanded off 150 square feet of dying stain. I don't think the Oreck struggled at all. I certainly didn't. It's quiet too! It would be crazy to use hearing protection with it, unlike the pressure washer. I used up two $6 pads, but I think I could have gotten away with one (I attribute it to a small learning curve) Timewise, it was easily comparable to, if not better than the amount of time it took me to cover that same area with the pressure washer counting applying toxin and cleaning it. I'll add that hauling the Oreck to the deck and adding a sanding pad took a lot less time than hooking up the pressure washer to the hose, mixing solution, etc. When I pressure washed the deck, the pressure washed area looked a bit brighter, but it was disheartening to me. My house has a lot of beautiful natural wood, including cedar. I wanted my deck to have a clear stain, but I knew that the discoloration remaining after I used the Wolman Deck Cleaner would have looked bad underneath the stain. I thought that maybe I should have accepted the $1,500 bid from a painter to redo my deck, but I knew that would have to be done once a year and I can't afford that. Now I am confident that in a few days the deck will look exactly as it did when new and from here on in I will be able to get the same results.

If I get the rest of the deck done tomorrow morning and it isn't going to rain, I can stain right away. I wouldn't be able to do that with a pressure washed deck, right? Moreover, if I do this every year, my deck should remain nice and smooth in perpetuity. Stain is extremely thin, so I don't see how sanding can be bad for the deck.

Moreover, apparently there is a pad I can use with the Oreck that is designed to clean the dirt off decks in the spring. When I tried that this year with the pressure washer, I sprayed off some of the stain, but not enough of the dirt.

Anyway, there isn't enough information about how to properly clean decks out there. If your deck has hidden fasteners, spend the $400 and get an Oreck. Just forget about pressure washing, it's one of those bad ideas from the 90s like the Flobee. It's dark out, but I'll try to take photos tomorrow.

I sound like an infomercial and this is my first post, so think whatever you want, but I wonder what it is in the world of deck refinishing that makes people miss the #1 easiest, best, and most obvious way to refinish a deck.

Oh and for what it's worth although the 1 800 Oreck folks knew about deck sanding, the store I bought it at looked at me like I was nuts. So even they don't get it!!!

Ok, over and out, I just want to get my success out there.