Wood Deck Restoration - Woodworking Talk

Barry M · 10-22-2007, 08:52 PM

I do enjoy working in the wood shop and I've already learned a lot from this forum. I thought I would post some pics that are a little different than what is normally posted on this board. Here are a couple of wooden decks I've restored and brought back to life.

Barry M · 10-22-2007, 08:54 PM

Two more. This one had latex paint on it and the home owners thought it was a lost cause. I love restoring wood

Boardman · 10-22-2007, 10:02 PM

Nice work!...what did you do? Powerwash? And Clear oil finish?

mackem · 10-22-2007, 10:10 PM

1st class work Barry.

woodman42 · 10-23-2007, 09:52 AM

Wow. Big difference on the porch.
Looks brand new.

Kingfisher · 10-23-2007, 12:46 PM

Man, if the grain didn't match perfect I'd call BUL****T. That is incredable. What is the process? power washer with some magic formula

If you don't mind sharing I'd love to get that kind of result

Barry M · 10-23-2007, 04:32 PM

Thanks guys.

I use a sodium hydroxide based stripper that was made for this specific type of work by a chemist and another power washing contractor. Its strong enough that it can be applied at low pressure with my pressure washing unit. I coat the entire deck and then start washing the deck with 8gpm. Most of the time the old failing sealer is melting off before I start washing, the decks above were stripped in under an hour each. Then I applied acid onto the deck which neutralizes the caustic stripper and prepares the wood to be sealed.

The first deck was sealed within a few hours of being stripped with a wet sealer called wood tux wet. The other deck after pic was taken right after I stripped it so it was still wet and didn't have any sealer on it at the time of the pic. The pink deck home owner also had another deck that we did too. Here are the pics of it and here are some more deck cleaning pics if your interested.

Kingfisher, do you restore a lot of decks? Do you do it for a living? I can give you the info on this stripping chemical and process in more detail if your interested.