First one of the spring Cedar strip...

[thinkpaint1 14]

Hope all had a great winter, just came from this estimate of a cedar deck beautiful home on ocean in Southeastern Ma. Homeowner hired retired painter put solid stain on her cedar deck. She saw my work in a local magazine we advertise in then went to my pinterest page for decks and called me.

instead of stripping the rails just might replace them depending on price of the lumber. If not will strip, sand then seal with AC super cedar.

[bigchaz 157]

Definitely just put new pickets on, there are not that many of them. Then you can strip/sand the remaining rail lumbers

[RPetry 564]

Nick,

Nice water view from that cedar deck.

Western Red Cedar can be quite expensive. Another option is to strip the solid stain off. First, you must determine if it is oil or water (acrylic) based. This is easy. Just test with a strong, hot sodium hydroxide mix. If it gums up, its an oil.

That being the case, remove all the spindles and soak with a hot NaOH stripper in a tank or flat tray. Strip the deck, stairs, and remaining balustrade with the same mix, possibly twice. Sand any remaining solid stain off of the cedar before reattaching the spindles. Plan on the cedar firring, so a light sanding of the whole job should be priced in.

If the old stain is water based, there are some expensive but effective specialty strippers. Report back and I can provide more info on what has worked for us.

In either case, these are difficult jobs, far beyond the typical light strip/clean and stain projects.

[thinkpaint1 14]

Definitely just put new pickets on, there are not that many of them. Then you can strip/sand the remaining rail lumbers

What I'm leaning towards doing after adding up labor material to strip should be the better way to go. What I did with this monster deck on the ocean as well.

[thinkpaint1 14]

Nick,

Nice water view from that cedar deck.

Western Red Cedar can be quite expensive. Another option is to strip the solid stain off. First, you must determine if it is oil or water (acrylic) based. This is easy. Just test with a strong, hot sodium hydroxide mix. If it gums up, its an oil.

That being the case, remove all the spindles and soak with a hot NaOH stripper in a tank or flat tray. Strip the deck, stairs, and remaining balustrade with the same mix, possibly twice. Sand any remaining solid stain off of the cedar before reattaching the spindles. Plan on the cedar firring, so a light sanding of the whole job should be priced in.

If the old stain is water based, there are some expensive but effective specialty strippers. Report back and I can provide more info on what has worked for us.

In either case, these are difficult jobs, far beyond the typical light strip/clean and stain projects.

yes they are and thank you for your input but leaning towards replacing spindles strip frame and deck. It's water based and I'm always looking for a better solid stain stripper? Thanks

[seymore 90]

What I'm leaning towards doing after adding up labor material to strip should be the better way to go. What I did with this monster deck on the ocean as well.

That's a sweet looking deck!

You have pic of the floor? How long it take you to stain it?

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

VERY sweet looking!

Beth

[thinkpaint1 14]

Yes was quite a deck great job to do. Ill look for after pics here is the floor as we were sanding.