Blog #4: The Deck: Park 1
We recently became new homeowners - we're very lucky with this home, the previous owners did a great job keeping it up - but one thing that caught our eye - the deck.
- Wife: This deck is gray and lifeless! With deep etching, not attractive, time to refinish!
- Husband: Oh contraire my sweet, I deem it superbly functional - supports my anti-gravity chair, means its good enough for me!
Day 1
Luckily, this was a Friday. I was at work and spared. Wife and her Mom (visiting with intent to zip through the Deck project with her daughter) initiate.I have read (after starting the deck project) many articles about redoing the deck that don't mention sanding. They talk about power wash - chemicals, cleaning. I'm quite curious how this compares to sanding - sanding, as I now know from experience, gives you the opportunity to level off the ridges, get a smooth finish, and work your way to some beautiful wood under the aged outer layer of the deck. Moreover the fresh wood absorbs the protective coating you paint on later. And sanding should be easy right? You just rent a orbital sander for a day and zip! Your done!
Sanding Prep
The only zipping happened in the car. Wife and Mom zip up to the Home Depot Pro shop (can you rent an orbital sander anywhere else?), come home with a monster sander ($60/24 hours + $20 sand paper). But you know what, you can't just apply the sander to the deck. You need to prep the deck:- Screws
- You know all those screws and or nails that hold your deck together? They were probably flush with the wood when the deck was new - but you know what happens as the deck ages? Shrinkage - for the Wood - but not the screws - so many of these screws are protruding just a bit above the floor boards. You know what happens when a power sander goes over these guys? BAD THINGS! Sparks! Paper rips! So you got to get those screws down.
- Clean BETWEEN the floor boards
- You've got to get in there with the putty knife, get all the stuff out, do you now what we found? Peanut shells. LOTS and LOTS of Peanut shells!
- Our home was previously owned by one of the 5 guys! Or maybe all of them!
- Parties! Our home was previously owned by some serious party people, sharing peanuts with all the land!
Orbital Sanding
Finally! Time to unleash the machine! Although it didn't do anything. Turned on - moved a bit - turned off. What the Heck! Swearing & Frustration ensue. Phone calls to Home Depot Pro shop follow. Finally the ladies get the machine going - but it didn't sound like they were in the control - they managed to get it go to the right - only to the right - BIG circles, wife getting dragged along by the sander, and mom desperately trying to keep the chord from getting sanded!
Husband gets home. Husband and Wife go back to Home Depot to return Sander (couldn't wait until Saturday as we thought we were going to see niece Irish dance at 8am, Good Gawd! Who is planning 8am children activities on Saturday?) At last minute - Husband has to clean out sanding collection sack of dust).
We were excited about the effect of the Sander, it was certainly less grey and ridgy than before - but not really good enough.
What Protective Coating to get?
One last 'Day One' activity was buying the protective coating - there are many choices. Transparent, semi-transparent, paint - etc etc.We have a redwood deck that we eventually sanded down to the beauty of, what do you think transparent stain redwood protective coating is? It is not, a clear transparent protective coating for redwood. It is in fact a redwood colored stain through which you see the wood grain - so it really alters the color of the deck - but I jump ahead - stay tuned for more days of, "The Deck" which as I write this now, just finished day 9 of a yet to be determined final amount!
Comments
Ah what a crazy deck project! Now we had a bit of rain and I just started sanding the spindles on the lower deck! The drama continues....lol
Yes readers - the drama continues! The Deck is not done! - D
Hilarious! Thanks David!
Thanks Jeff! -David
At first I thought you were saying your wife was gray and lifeless. Rachel was valient, trying to do the job herself rather than assigning it to you, at least initially.
Whoops! I'll edit the blog for future readers - Thanks Claude! - David