diydk

I wish I found this site two years ago when I bought my house and decided it would be a good idea to put 100% Acrylic Latex solid color cedar stain (Pittsburgh Paints Ultra) on my 14 x 20 deck. Anyways, after getting sick of the cracking and peeling, I spent several hours the last month stripping the solid stain off of my deck. I mainly used Jomax brand stripper (paint brushed on, 45-60 minute dwell time) and used a pressure washer to blow it off. Of course there are several spots remaining on the deck boards. I began sanding the boards with a combination of a small angle grinder and random orbital sander. Of course there is some solid color stain left between the decking boards, and a few very small spots here and there around the nails. The whole point of this project was to strip the solid stain and apply a nice semi-transparent oil stain. I've already resisted the urge several times to simply slather on another layer of solid color stain and live with the cracking and peeling. So finally, here's my question. If I finished sanding, cleaning, brightening, and decided to put on a semi-transparent (I was looking at Cabot's cordovan brown), would the small spots of solid stain I'm practically too lazy to sand from between the decking boards be that noticeable? Also, I would appreciate any opinions on what the pros would do. Anything helps :) Thank you!

I got PT wood from Menards... it's stacked in my garage, in layers and spaced out so it can air dry. Some of the boards were very wet and heavy (there was a big storm a day or so before I bought them and it's an outside lumberyard). I'm going to air dry them out in the garage for a couple weeks and then install them. I'm going to use Cabot's oil semi-solid. Any opinions on that?

I decided to replace all the decking boards instead of the 9 or so I wanted to so that won't be a problem. I did find out just now that Jasco Premium Paint and Epoxy Remover works extremely well at getting the spots of solid stain I have left on my railings and steps. I just put it on, let it sit for 10-15 minutes, and scrape with a hard bristle brush. I then took a wet coarse stripping pad and worked the area with that to get the rest of it off, then rinsed. Worked great! on the small cracks on the railings where some solid got in too! Anyways, thanks for your help! This forum is an excellent resource for DIYers like me :)

Old color is cedar... was looking at a darker (brownish) semi-trans. Also was considering a Cabot semi-solid... but not sure if these are as "bad" as the regular solids. I attached a picture of my deck. The left two boards in the picture are after sanding