Need help...bad!

[dpaull 80]

Anyone have a video of someone staining a deck with transparent stain like WTW? I need a good, efficient, method for doing 320 sq. foot of deck and railings. I have to finish this deck by tonight.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

What are you sealing it with? What type of sprayer did you use? Are you doing this alone or do you have help?

Go to Sherwin Williams or Duron and get canvas tarps for the grass and plants. Get a roll of pre-taped plastic and a roll of blue painters tape. Mask the back of the house, 6 feet high. Cover plants, grass etc. Cover any exposed pavement. Spray and back pad. Do the rails first, outside, then inside, then the floor starting by the back door and work your way off the deck.

Beth

[bigchaz 157]

Get a pad painter for the floors. super easy to learn, and less mess. Just get a roller pan, and the pad painter from home depot or lowes in the paint section

[bigchaz 157]

And if you did 20 ft in 2 hours itll take you a while but you could finish that tonight. There cant be more than 70 feet of rails right? So work 5 more hours on the rails and 2-3 on the floor. Itll be late but it stays light so get working. your not gonna make any money going that slow but at least youll have it done

The middle of a project probably isnt the best time to figure this stuff out. Get it done somehow and then look into a better method or equiptment later

[Deck Guy 14]

There are ways to speed up the process.

If you decide to work by hand, get a stain pad on a pole. Wet the pad, then use it to do two spindles at a time. You can do the outside, then the inside, then get between the spindles after taking the pad off the pole. You should be able to do ten foot section in under five minutes this way.

When spraying, you do have to tarp, but not as much as you think. I use a 4x10 disposable tarp when spraying the rails. Just clamp it to the inside of the handrail and let it drape when you're shoting from the outside, and vice-versa. It will catch the stain that shoots between the spindles. Spray the outside first, shooting from a 45 degree angle to the railing to get the side of the spindles. I shoot about a 10 foot section getting the face and one side of the spindles, then work back to that spot shotting the other side and the face again. Move the tarp and repeat. When working on the floor near the house, I use a big piece of cardboard as a spray shield, but only in the area where I'm working. I just lean it against the house and go to town. Having said that, there are times when it is just too windy to spray, or when even a light wind is carrying the spray in to the house.

You will discover many techniques that will save you time as you get more experience. I can't imagine spending more than two hours on that deck from start to finish.

[dpaull 80]

OK...well, I have a friend that is in the industry going to meet me at 4 and finish this up with me. I should have waited for him in the first place...I've stained a few decks with him in the past and done a few fences on my own...

I think one main problem I'm having is that my sprayer's tip is giving me too tight of a spray pattern. It's a Wood and Masonry sprayer made to apply stains, or so the box said. It's coming out pretty solid. I'm going to get him to bring his sprayer which seems like it comes out more 'atomized.'

Thanks for the tips, I'm going to pick up some disposable tarps and use that method for the rails.

I'll post some pics...

And yeah, it's definitely not about making money at this point. It's about doing the job properly so I can live with myself tomorrow. I've learned quite a few valuable lessons though from this...being my first big deck job since starting up and going out on my own.

[dpaull 80]

Ahh well...all is good. I met up with my friend, 1 stop at home depot for some quick tools and 1.5 hours later, we were finished.

I know asking for advice in the middle of a project sounds pretty stupid, but at the same time, not asking advice would be more stupid. I feel that we stained this deck properly and effectively. It looks great and is covered everywhere, even under the rails and the framing wood also.

I'd rather stop, ask questions, perform the task properly, and do a good job than to be too proud and do something improperly and waste my time doing the whole thing again.

We ended up using some foam applicators and a 25' extension pole for the outsides. We used little 2-inch applicators for the detail work.

It may take a little extra time doing it this way (over spraying), but alone, I could probably get it done in 2.5-3 hours or so properly next time around. The best part is I don't think I left with a drip of stain on myself or on any stones around the deck. We did spray the floor boards and then go over them with the foam pad on the pole (extended down obviously)...With two people, doing the flooring was literally a 20 minute job. The work is in the railings.

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Which brings me to my next question. $2 per square foot seems like a good formula to follow. Now let's say a deck is 30x12 with 3' railings all the way around. Do you add in the sq. footage of the railings for your price? What is the common formula to charge for railings?

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Oh and no pics, the sun was basically down when we finished, so everything turned out too dark in the pics. I'm stopping by tomorrow morning to look it over again, so I'll have pics tomorrow night.

[bigchaz 157]

Either add the sq footage of the railing in or charge per linear foot. So railings you do like 5-6 dollars a foot and floor 2 bucks a square. Or you could just measure length of rails times height and get one big square foot figure

Some people on here do some crazy measuring, but im slow so I just do linear foot for rails and surface square footage. I dont measure all the posts, stringer, spindles, fascia and all that.

[Deck Guy 14]

I multiply the railing length times three or four depending on how it's made. I feel like that accounts for posts, facia, etc... If the deck is raised as you are implying with this one, you need to measure the railings on the stairs too, and add the square footage (or a fixed cost per stair tread) for the stairs themselves.

When you post some pics, I'll let you know where I would be on this project (privately).

[dpaull 80]

Oh ok, let me get a pic up right now of the before...one second...

[dpaull 80]

OK...here is the first pic of the deck:

It measured 30 feet long by 12 feet deep. That little section in the middle was 15 feet deep.

Here are the stairs:

9 or 10 stairs...

Now the tough part is that outer section is about 15-20 feet off the ground, but directly below it is some shrubs. So you have to stand out about 4 feet from it, and the hill is about 45 degrees or so...which makes the total distance roughly 30 feet.

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The last guy did a hack job...there were stop marks with a pwasher, stain sprayed on the house, door, gutters, below the deck, and under the railings was literally 5 coats of stain because I guess he dripped a lot.

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The deck is beautiful and looks great with the Wolman F&P Natural color finish on it. Although I really want to try out that WTW stuff...I just want to get a few more under my belt before I order it...a bit skeptical to apply it wet though.

edit: Oh and as you can see, plenty of weird, goofy plants to worry about watering down properly while I was stripping the old stain. No complete before pics, as I forgot my camera (I know, costly mistake as far as marketing goes at this point).

[Deck Guy 14]

Call this place if you are interested in downstreamable chems.

Deck Stains and Brick Paver/Cement Sealers - Exterior Wood Deck and Paver Restoration Services and Sales

They will help you shave some time off prep. Jarrod claims he can do a deck without even getting out of his truck using this stuff!:lgbounces

A flexible wand will help you reach the spindles from the inside.

BEND IT! TWIST IT! TURN IT! KEEPS ITS SHAPE UNDER PRESSURE - LANCES / WANDS STAINLESS / ZINC / ALUMINUM / GRIPS / TELESCOPIC / DUAL / SPECIALTY

[RPetry 564]

Those flex wands are a must for anyone doing decks. Bought one my first year and still use it on every balustrade we pressure wash.