It is nearing the end of June, and we have a tentative plan to market our house in August. We have quite an extensive list of updates that need to be completed prior to listing. One of the largest projects we need to tackle is freshening up our tired wood deck. After Hubba and I worked almost 20 hours over 3 days, there is now 1 coat on the railings, spindles and deck floor. Are you wondering what took so long to just get complete one coat!?! Read on as I describe the steps we had to take to accomplish the small victory of a single coat.
First, we had to sand all the railings and spindles to remove the old, loose stain that didn’t come off with the stripper. That wonderful task took us 3 hours; Hubs used a random orbit sander and I used a Ryobi Corner Cat. Did I mention it was sunny and 80 degrees, before noon? Thankfully, most of the deck is in the shade of a massive maple tree.
Working outside, we didn’t think to wear particle masks, which, in hindsight was probably a bad idea, as both of us are still recovering from pneumonia. We were both covered in a gritty layer of dust from the reddish brown stain that was being sanded off the deck surfaces.
After hosing the layer of sawdust off our exposed skin, we ate a quick lunch, took a few extra puffs from our inhalers, and headed back outside to apply stain to all…the…spindles. We thought about buying staining mitts, but the few videos I was able to find on them seemed very messy, so we opted to use the mini rollers that we already had on-hand. Starting out, this seemed like it was going to work very well. After an hour and a half of bending, standing, rolling, and reloading the roller, the novelty wore off, nevertheless, I persevered. As I rolled, Hubs used a brush, slapping and slopping, trying to get the stain into crevices, and laying on his back, on the hard deck floor to cover the undersides of the railings. 4 hours later, our backs aching and our hands cramping, we were both ready to call it quits for the day and we had only completed three-quarters of only the first coat on only the railings and spindles.
The next morning, as we were eating breakfast and commiserating with one another about our respective aches and pains, we almost simultaneously said, “I wonder if a paint sprayer would work on those spindles?” BOOM! I pulled out my laptop and 20 minutes later, we had decided on which sprayer to get and located one 5 minutes from our house. With renewed energy, we quickly made ourselves presentable enough for the hardware store, jumped in the truck and made our way to the local Home Depot. Less than 30 minutes later, we returned home with our prized possession, the Wagner FLEXiO 3000 HVLP Paint Sprayer.
While Hubs prepped the sprayer and looked over the instruction guide (definition: he saw it fall out of the box, flipped it over and threw it aside), I constructed a high-tech shield (definition: a large, flattened cardboard box with taped seams) to hold behind the spindles to keep any stain that sprayed between them from falling on the plants and rocks in the landscaping beds below. Once we completed our separate tasks, we were ready to start using the sprayer; I let Hubs do this because, quite frankly, I didn’t think my right arm had the strength to maneuver the sprayer for even finishing…and because he really, really wanted to use it.
This section would have gone quicker if there weren’t massive bushes to maneuver through on either side of the deck stairs, but we were finished before lunch, so we decided to treat ourselves to a delicious meal at a nearby Mexican restaurant. I came home and took a nap. Hubs scraped and sanded the deck floor, again.
If you want to see the sprayer and the super high-tech shield in action, check out my video on YouTube. Both worked like charms! My only regret is that we didn’t opt for the sprayer sooner. It will make the second coat so much easier. I am now looking for things that I can paint with it.
On the third day, when I thought we would do the second coat on the rails and spindles, Hubs informed me that he was ready to put the first coat on the deck floor, instead. Who am I to argue – it’s his project. We decided to use Behr Deck Over, since we were unable to strip every trace of previous stain and weren’t planning to spend any more time fighting it. FYI – We used regular Behr stain, in the same color, on the railings and spindles.
The directions for the Deck Over state to fill holes with the product and let dry prior to painting on the first coat, so I grabbed a brush and started cutting in, filling any recesses caused by sunken screws as I went. Hubs started by going over areas he had repaired the prior day, then he helped me cut in, to speed the process. Once I had finished my task, there wasn’t much else I could do, so I left him to finish the first coat.
The new color (Drift Gray) really brightened things up! I think it looks so much fresher already, with only one coat. We have been at a standstill, between Hub’s work schedule and the weather (rain). I wish we had done this earlier, as I’ve always disliked the brown stain. I’ll keep you posted on doing a second coat on the railings and spindles with the sprayer, how the deck looks after finishing the second coat on the floor, and how it wears throughout the summer. This is where we stand, for now.
