sloanmilliken

I'm so frustrated I almost don't want to write about this... I'm a painting contractor that occasionally does decks. All the decks that I have done have been stain over new wood or the stain has been easily stripped. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that someone would have put thompson's over latex semi-transparent stain...and it wasn't even DECK stain! Just furniture/fences/etc... So, I thought this deck was going to be straightforward. Acrylic solid over latex semitransparent. Then we pressure washed it and found the Thompson's. They are trying to stay on a pretty tight budget...their main concern is having it look ok for a rehersal dinner at the house in six weeks...but I'm concerned about doing work that will be worth my time and their money! At this point in time I have scraped and hand-sanded the 12x20 deck, and I have rented a drum sander and removed all the stain under the 12x20 screen porch except around the very edges. The edges still have some thompsons, as do the horizontals around the screen and the door to the screen porch. Some of the outside deckboards still have remnants of the watersealer, as do the handrails. I'm basically trying to figure out what to do. Obviously, I would love to get everything off, but I'm not sure the homeowner is ready to spring for that. What would happen if I use acrylic over the thompsons? Or should I just get that drum sander back and sand off as much thomspons as I can? If I used stain stripper from the paint store, would it remove the thompsons easily? Any suggestions would be helpful...I'm trying to avoid using heavy chemical strippers due to the time and cost...and b/c I'm concerned they'd discolor the screens on the screen porch. Thanks!