Trying to bring my deck back to life with Behr Deck Over

[Pauls234]

Hi All,

When we bought our house (June 2012) the wooden deck around the pool was structurally sound, but very weathered and grey. I have re-stained it several times, but without doing the true necessary prep so it would start peeling pretty quickly. Whatever.... a power wash and applying stain would take me only an hour so I just kept band aiding it, especially given short season and time constraints.

End of last season I had some rotting deck boards and a stair stringers, so I spent the last month replacing and rebuilding those and am now ready to do a proper staining.

I am going with the solid color and textured Behr Deck Over (the translucent just won't work given the age and condition) and the directions say to prep with Behr wood stain and finish stripper. My plan is to use that (not on the new wood of course) and then follow it with the Behr deck cleaner, give it a very light pressure wash, let it dry and then apply the solid color stain.

Curious if anyone has experience with this or anything else in the process that I can do to help ensure the coat sticks this time? Does the stain stripper really do the job better than say, a good sanding and power washing (which I suppose is just as labor intensive)? I guess I want to make sure the stripper isn't the equivalent of pool store snake oil, but otherwise interested if there is any other prep I should do. I know surface prep, prep, prep is key.

(You can see the deck in my avatar and also the link in my signature about painting my pool if that helps)

Links to products:

Stain stripper

BEHR PREMIUM 1 gal. Wood Stain and Finish Stripper 06401N - The Home Depot

BEHR Premium Wood Stain and Finish Stripper is specifically formulated to remove existing oil and latex coatings. Easy to clean.

www.homedepot.com

Cleaner

BEHR PREMIUM 1 gal. All-In-One Wood and Deck Cleaner 06301N - The Home Depot

Transform old, dirty, mildew stained wood surface into clean wood by using this BEHR Premium All-In-One Wood Cleaner. Mold and mildew resistant.

www.homedepot.com

Stain (but not going with this color)

BEHR Premium Advanced DeckOver 1 gal. #PFC-63 Slate Gray Textured Solid Color Exterior Wood and Concrete Coating 500501 - The Home Depot

Gain an irresistible shiny appeal to the surfaces with this BEHR Premium DeckOver #PFC-63 Slate Gray Textured Solid Color Exterior Wood and Concrete Coating.

www.homedepot.com

 

[Orion7319]

Hi All,

When we bought our house (June 2012) the wooden deck around the pool was structurally sound, but very weathered and grey. I have re-stained it several times, but without doing the true necessary prep so it would start peeling pretty quickly. Whatever.... a power wash and applying stain would take me only an hour so I just kept band aiding it, especially given short season and time constraints.

End of last season I had some rotting deck boards and a stair stringers, so I spent the last month replacing and rebuilding those and am now ready to do a proper staining.

I am going with the solid color and textured Behr Deck Over (the translucent just won't work given the age and condition) and the directions say to prep with Behr wood stain and finish stripper. My plan is to use that (not on the new wood of course) and then follow it with the Behr deck cleaner, give it a very light pressure wash, let it dry and then apply the solid color stain.

Curious if anyone has experience with this or anything else in the process that I can do to help ensure the coat sticks this time? Does the stain stripper really do the job better than say, a good sanding and power washing (which I suppose is just as labor intensive)? I guess I want to make sure the stripper isn't the equivalent of pool store snake oil, but otherwise interested if there is any other prep I should do. I know surface prep, prep, prep is key.

(You can see the deck in my avatar and also the link in my signature about painting my pool if that helps)

Links to products:

Stain stripper

BEHR PREMIUM 1 gal. Wood Stain and Finish Stripper 06401N - The Home Depot

BEHR Premium Wood Stain and Finish Stripper is specifically formulated to remove existing oil and latex coatings. Easy to clean.

www.homedepot.com

Cleaner

BEHR PREMIUM 1 gal. All-In-One Wood and Deck Cleaner 06301N - The Home Depot

Transform old, dirty, mildew stained wood surface into clean wood by using this BEHR Premium All-In-One Wood Cleaner. Mold and mildew resistant.

www.homedepot.com

Stain (but not going with this color)

BEHR Premium Advanced DeckOver 1 gal. #PFC-63 Slate Gray Textured Solid Color Exterior Wood and Concrete Coating 500501 - The Home Depot

Gain an irresistible shiny appeal to the surfaces with this BEHR Premium DeckOver #PFC-63 Slate Gray Textured Solid Color Exterior Wood and Concrete Coating.

www.homedepot.com

We just had our deck done with opaque stain. I hired my wife’s step father to do it as he is a licensed painter. He just pressure washed it and sanded the entire thing. It came out great.

 

[Pauls234]

Thanks @Orion7319. How did he sand it? With an electric hand sander? Or is there something more efficient?

 

[Orion7319]

Thanks @Orion7319. How did he sand it? With an electric hand sander? Or is there something more efficient?

He just used an orbital sander. It’s a big deck too. He did the same thing with my parents deck.

 

[Pauls234]

I didn't take any purposeful "before" pics, but this should give a sense. The "after" shots are results of using the stripper, vigorous scrub brushing, followed by a power wash. It did a pretty good job as you can see, but I think I'm going to hit it with the orbital hand sander... as tedious as that sounds. But, I've come this far so would rather over do it on the prep.

 

[kimkats]

My best friend and her husband used the Beur stuff and it did not hold up well at all. In fact it seemed to cause the boards to rot faster as it seemed to hold the water after a rain

 

[Pauls234]

Thanks Kim. The reviews on home depot site were generally positive, but there was definitely a notable amount of highly negative reviews along those same lines.

Reading those reviews as well as other forums on this suggested that prepping the surface and using their stripper and cleaner is critical.

I considered similar products of more premium brands but saw the same kind of mixed reviews, so ....

Supposed to rain a bunch this week so may not get to application until next weekend. I'll keep this thread up to date.

 

[Orion7319]

I didn't take any purposeful "before" pics, but this should give a sense. The "after" shots are results of using the stripper, vigorous scrub brushing, followed by a power wash. It did a pretty good job as you can see, but I think I'm going to hit it with the orbital hand sander... as tedious as that sounds. But, I've come this far so would rather over do it on the prep.

That’s starting to look good. Looks like using the stripper is going to save you a lot of sanding time.

 

[Pauls234]

Just an update to close this off... I finished a couple of weeks ago and it is a tremendous improvement over my half hearted restaining efforts of the past. I used the textured stuff and it has significantly reduced how slippery it is when wet, which is another nuisance I had been trying to solve for years. The proof will be in how it lasts over time of course, but it feels really durable. This stuff was like molasses in terms of thickness, not like anything I've worked w before, but was still pretty manageable.

 

[Newdude]

Awesome work Paul !!! I think your larger gaps will help a good deal. A neighbor redid his a few years back with similar textured stuff (pretty sure it was Behr), but his boards were swollen a lot closer. The stuff kind of pooled in the cracks and broke free in a year or so leaving him with ugly bare pinstripes.