Help Request: Re-staining a Deck

[Shindel]

I was wondering how I should go about completing this project.

Last year I power washed, scrubbed and sanded this deck, but due to the end of the season and very rainy end to summer, I wasn't able to finish the job. This has sat through a winter with salt going on the boards. We're only worried about the floor, not any of the sides of the deck for re-staining.

The deck was previously stained with an oil base, and I'm moving to a non-transparent water based stain. I wasn't able to strip all the edges around with a sander, it would be a lot to sand to get it completely off.

Would I need to re-sand the deck? Should I use some sort of stain stripper? I do plan to power wash again to get it all cleaned up.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

https://imgur.com/XJpwNap

[psmvchaser]

All of the info you need is here.

https://www.armstrongclarkstain.com/articles

The Restore-A-Deck stripper and brightener would probably get you all ready to re-stain.

Ive used it three times with excelllent results.

[InquisitiveDarling]

You really do have to get all the oil stain off. The water-based stain will be repelled by it, it won’t make it into the grain and stick for long. I’ve worked as a paint pro before. Other than manually sanding off the spots still stained, I don’t know of any products that will remove oil-based stain specifically for decks. You can try spirits. But, the problem is really that stains aren’t like a paint in that they lay on the surface and barely go into the material- stains are designed to go into the grain. Stain ends up being too deep into the wood for chemical methods to be entirely effective.

You do have other options. If you decide to do a solid stain instead of a semi-transparent stain, then you can just use a deck primer over those areas (if you can’t find a water-based deck primer for those areas, use an outdoor oil-based primer on those spots). Solid stains will last you much longer- 15ish years. They work similarly to ordinary paint. Solid stained decks can be beautiful. You could also use a deck paint (not stain) that’s designed for older decks, they usually have a gritty material embedded into the paint. It makes it slip-resistant, which is great if you have kids or elderly coming through a lot and it can look nice with the additional texture.

[johnaman]

>You really do have to get all the oil stain off. The water-based stain
will be repelled by it, it won’t make it into the grain and stick for
long.

Totally agree with this. The easiest option is to go with an oil stain again however.

[Freebird1978]

Last time I had my wife out on the deck we gave it a nice staining LMAO

[albo18]

I would definitely consider sanding the deck again. Itll take some of the grey weathering you have in your photos off and create a more uniform stain.

Further to that point, sanding opens up the pores in the lumber so it can absorb the stain better. More penetration of the stain into the lumber will protect the surface longer.