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Watched a 30 year old deck in Portland go from gray and cracked to looking brand new with just a sander and a jug of oil
My aunt asked me to look at her back deck up in Portland last month because she was ready to just rip the whole thing out and pay for composite. The boards were gray, splintering at the edges, and every single screw was sitting proud about a quarter inch. I told her to give me one weekend before she called anybody. I went at it with an orbital sander and 80 grit, then 120, and the cedar underneath that dead gray layer was still solid as anything. Took about 7 hours total across two days, plus maybe $60 in sandpaper and a can of penetrating oil. The color that came back up was this warm honey red she forgot was even there. What got me was how fast it happened, one weekend of work flipped 30 years of looking beat. Now I keep thinking about every deck I've ever told somebody to replace. How many of you have saved a deck that looked too far gone, and what tipped you off it was worth the sanding?
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betty_kelly922d ago
So you're telling me I've been hauling my dad's old pressure washer out every spring like some kind of deck janitor when I could have just been sanding the thing back to life this whole time? That's just great, here I was feeling all proud of myself for blasting off the gray and you come along with 80 grit and make my whole system look dumb. The proud screws part is what gets me though, seems like everybody's first fix is just to rip it all out and slap down composite and pretend the wood was never good. Course now I'm sitting here eyeing my own back steps that have been looking rough for two summers, and I can't stop thinking about that honey red color hiding under there. Guess I know what I'm doing next weekend.
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