The LAST time I will sand a deck!!!!!!

Well, one of the summer projects that I wanted to complete before school starts back up in September is to re-stain and seal the deck.

Each year we have pressure washed the deck, and stained it to give it a fresh look and protect the wood so it will last for a long long time. Last year I stained it with a "solid" redwood color that was not as nice as the transparent stains that show off the wood grain. On top of that error in judgment, I also rushed the staining job by probably not letting the wood fully dry out, and we had mold/mildew areas under the stain. The mildew may have also been a result of the rainy winter we get, and the two trees that surround the deck.

So, the right thing to do would be to sand it all down to remove the old solid stain, and get down to the nice wood with its natural grains. That was about a month and a half ago. I first started by hand-sanding the railing and each individual rail, followed by a nice natural cedar transparent stain. That portion went okay, so then I started on the floor of the deck.

I would not recommend sanding by hand to anyone--it takes way to long, especially trying to remove layers of stain. We have since invested in an electric belt sander and an orbital sander, which have helped with the process tremendously, but it is still hard work. I have invested about 32 accumulative hours of labor into this deck so far this summer, and its almost ready to seal.

I don't plan on having to do this again, I'll either move or hire someone else to do it.

-Lori