How to Renew an Old Deck Quickly

Perhaps you have been staring at your old, weathered Ithaca deck for some time now, with questions as to what the best route to go will be to bring it back to life. This article will show you exactly what to perform Ithaca deck restoration.

Step 1: Your deck needs a good cleaning

Unless you want to spend hundreds of hours with a deck brush and water buckets, your best bet here will be to use a power washer to clean the wood. You need a 1500-2000 psi power washer to do the job, if you don't have one you can rent one for about $50.00 per day. Cover or protect any areas that you want to protect from water sprayed from the power washer.

Chemicals? Usually, they are not required. Although they make a variety of deck wash solutions, these are usually not needed as the water pressure will remove just about anything on a deck surface including moss, mold, mildew, gray color in wood, mud, grit and grime.

Next, use a fan shaped tip on your spray gun and start cleaning the deck top to bottom. Keep your spray gun about 1 foot away from the wood, if you get too close you will damage the wood and cause a variety of spray pattern streaks in the wood that are hard to remove.

If there is old wood stain that is on the deck, remove as much loose stain as possible with the power washer, any remaining stain will need to be re-stained to the same or darker color of stain. You cannot re-stain an existing deck with stain that is lighter in color than what is already on the deck, it will show through the wood.

Step 2: Sanding and repair

Let the deck dry at least 24 hours, and at this point do any repairs (replacing screws and damaged wood etc) followed by sanding any rough spots that might come up after the wood dries.

Step 3: Re-Staining

After you have completed your sanding and repair, you can now begin re-staining the deck. Again, if there was existing stain on the deck, you need to use a stain that is the same color or darker to re-stain the deck. If you don't a lighter color stain will not cover properly.

Hint: If you have an old, weathered deck, use a semi-solid or solid color stain to cover the wood, it will hide many problems and make the deck boards look very fresh and clean.

I prefer to brush on stain, rather than spray, it takes a little longer but the results are better in my opinion. Start by completing the outside rails and railing of the deck, and do the deck boards last. We find that cheap, disposable brushes work very well in the staining process. (2) coats of stain are about the maximum you will want for a deck, any more than that could result in very slippery wood.

That's it, you can now enjoy your Ithaca deck like new again!