Painted Deck Help

[Lightning Gene 66]

Customer wants me to strip off paint on their deck and either stain or seal it.What is the best method to remove the paint....THX in Advance

[bigchaz 157]

Option:

A) Replace the boards

B) Repaint deck

C) Burn the deck down

D) Strip the deck

In that order. But honestly, stripping paint will be the worst nightmare of your life. Ive never done it, but I understand that the chemicals needed to do the job are extremely costly (50/gallon and above). Someone else might chime in with where you get the stuff

[PressurePros 248]

The last cost I have seen for the stuff I now use to strip paint was $240 per five gallon pail and had to be either hand applied with a brush (imagine spreading pudding onto a deck at 50-75 s/f per gallon) or with an industrial airless. Clean up is nasty. Annnnd, you still will have to sand 20% of the deck. I relegate these jobs to the "not worth it at any price" category.

[Deck Guy 14]

Just run away! I won't ever try another at any cost. IMO it is impossible to srtip enough that you will be able to apply stain.

[Lenny Schrec 14]

What about using a solid stain. Just clean and remove any loose paint and go over it.

[bigchaz 157]

What about using a solid stain. Just clean and remove any loose paint and go over it.

Youll want to prime first, but yea you can do that

[Freshlook 14]

I'd suggest walking away, OR go get yourself a power hand planer and a 13" surface planer. Get ready to spend about a solid week pulling boards off and planing them down, then sanding, and reattaching. For the posts, your looking at making the beltsander your wife for a good 1/2 day. ALWAYS wear a respiratory mask. and I would charge starting at 7$ Sq/Ft and factor up from there for the PIA factor. If you don't get the job, OH WELL, it wasn't worth your time anyhow to do it for anything less.

[drush 14]

Hey Bryan...

Been there, done that. I posted about 6 mos. ago "help with an ugly deck" that a customer wanted stripped & the wife wanted to see "wood". If you have a few minutes, ok, probably 30 to read the responses/scenario. At the time I didn't have much going on in Western (cold) NC & decided to do it. It CAN BE done. I ended making 8-9 trips, learned SOOOOOO much, yes you will sand some paint, yes you will learn something & I made good $$$$$ for it.

I have a few suggestions so as NOT to leave $$ on the table. Give 2 seperate quotes/estimates. The first for stripping & cleaning. This way you also get paid a bit faster, just broken into 2 payments. The sealer/staining is another ballgame. Then you get paid again. I'll tell you what I charged for each if you like. Of course our markets are different, but it might help. Also, (& I got this from Celeste) remember to set the HO's expectations. You cannot remove 100% of the paint. I was able to get about 99% off & was quite pleased when finished.

Let me know if you'd like to talk, it's a free call for me. Yeah, I do use Vonage, but that's for a different thread. I have plenty of pictures I can share with you too. Most of what I learned to do this job, I got HERE. Thanks again Celeste for your inspiration. Let me know if you want to talk.

David

[bigchaz 157]

The wood tux looks great on there

What did you end up using for strip?

[PressurePros 248]

David, nice job bud.. my hats off to you.

[Lightning Gene 66]

Thanks for everyones suggestions. Stripping is out for me after hearing all the replies.....Guess I will talk them into pressuring off as much of the paint that I can get off and repainting over the old....Maybe I can still turn a tough job into a easier one and make money on it....

[drush 14]

Thanks guys... originally I thought it was just a layer of latex from a visual perspective, BUT nooooooo. first mistake was NOT taking a spray bottle of stripper & a stiff scrub brush to test "the toughest looking area".

After doing estimate & the customers agreed to (good $$$) for a strip & clean job, then I ordered the hd-80. So I go with my tub of confidence, mix it up according to directions, looking like a warrior in my PPE & start to spray it on & I realize my learning curve is about to explode in an upward direction. 2 days later I realize that there is a layer of what seems to (bad word here) Thompsons clear sealer, a layer of brown paint in various areas, a layer of primer & then......WHITE paint.

LONG story short, hd-80 mixed 10 oz/g & (thanks russell for the tip that saved my backside) LOW tox mixed 13 oz/g. Oh, DWELL time was increased & you MUST keep it wet at all times. The paint came up rather easily, sanded w/ 60 grit, then finished with WTW.

Yesterday, I got a call to look at a house w/ 2 decks (1500 sq/ft) that has 1 (verified 1) layer of an old failing, i think Flood or Beher sealer that is only 2 years old. I now took my spray bottle of confidence & a scrub brush & did demo for HO. He was amazed after only 5 minutes of dwell time to see wood. He had previously bought a gallon of Olympic deck stripper & did his own test area spending 30 minutes & working up a slight sweat.

I measured his deck, took some pic's, talked with him & the wife & briefly educated them on the process & explained I could probably come down a bit on price. (this was now an easy job after the "beast") My learning curve has now recovered a bit & I owe a majority of my new confidence to those of you here that made it all possible. I'm working on his estimate today & hope they approve. He'd probably spend $2-300 just on Oly stripper alone. He may want to put the same sealer back on, but hey.... it's his house & we all win.

Thanks again & don't be afraid to take on a tough one....

David

[MMI Enterprises 289]

David, that was indeed one of the best examples of commitment ever lived out on one of these boards.. Thanx!!