Deck Stripping: A Visual Guide

If you click on the first image you can see the full size images from the first step of the process to the last.

Deck stripping job as seen when quoting.

Here is a deck on a historic house built in 1761. This is how we saw it on the day we quoted it in early September. You can see a pressure treated deck that has white paint on it. There is also a section of pressure treated deck next to the koi pond that has no finish and finally the cedar decking under the overhang which has a stain that needs to be removed. Because the deck is so close to the fish, extreme care needs to be taken.

Here we have started to strip the paint off of the pressure treated wood. We started this job in November which is usually late for stripping, but we had warm weather.

Here is another section as we continue to strip the deck.

We have now finished using the stripping agents and the deck is now neutralized before continuing.

This is the sanding and buffing stage of restoring this deck. Sanding will take a thin layer of wood away, while buffing the wood will remove the furred wood that the stripping agents cause.

Another view of the sanding and buffing stage of restoring this deck.

You need to know what you are doing when sanding. If you don’t know the proper technique you can burnish the wood.

While sanding I may have to drive the nails or screws in deeper so they don’t catch on the machine.

This is the cedar part of the decking. There was no paint here, but a stain finish had to be removed, then we sanded and buffed it.

A cedar plank had to be replaced because it was rotted. We can do these small repairs while restoring the deck.

The pressure treated wood next to the koi pond did not have paint on it. It was cleaned, sanded and buffed.

Here you can see the part that was stripped with a fresh coat of oil put on it. It will need to sink in. You can still see some white paint on the nail heads and in the deep cracks. Not all the paint can be removed, some will come off as the oil sinks in the wood which loosens what is out of reach of the sanding and buffing machines.

Here is a view of a fresh coat of oil applied to the deck area that had no paint on it.

Here is the cedar under the overhang with a fresh coat of oil on it. You can see the redder tint coming from the red cedar wood.

The complete deck freshly oiled. The oil will need to sink in. The color will change slightly over the next few weeks.

Another view of the complete deck freshly oiled.

Another view of the completed deck freshly oiled. You should not walk on a deck for two days after oiling as you don’t want to track oil into your house. After that time you may put your chairs and table back on the deck.

Another view of the completed deck freshly oiled. You can see how different sections of wood take the oil and color differently. That boxy area was newly constructed and did not have white paint on it. The deck area that’s a step down from the deck that had the paint on it was new construction also and takes the color slightly different. The cedar becomes redder than the others as the wood has a natural red tint that shows through the stain.

Here is the cedar section of deck now complete. You can see the redder color coming through the stain from the naturally red cedar wood.

Here is the deck one day later after the oil has sunk in. The color has settled down.

Another view of the deck one day later after the oil has sunk in.

Here is another view of the deck shown the next day after the oil has sunk in properly.

This is the koi pond shown 7 months after the deck was done. We had come back to clean and restore their cedar shake roof.

This is the koi pond shown 7 months after the deck was done. We came back to clean and restore their cedar shake roof. No fish were lost as we were very careful in protecting them from the chemicals.

Here is the deck 7 months after the strip job. It is now June. When we did the roof we did a deck maintenance which is just to pressure clean it off and apply a light coat of oil.

Another view of the deck 7 months later. You can see that the bits of paint that had been stuck in the deep cracks or stuck to the nail heads have all but disappeared.

Another view of the deck shown 7 months later. The clients were very happy to be rid of the white, flaking paint that we removed.

Another view of the deck shown 7 months later. Here you can see the color difference caused by different batches of wood installed at different times. Where the chairs are is the area that was stripped.