Marnie hired me to sand (part of) her deck. Over the phone I quoted 1-2 days. When I showed up and saw the tiny thing, I thought I had it beat. But sanding was very slow.
In the past I had sanded a deck and it had been easy. The only difference was that I had spent a day or two pressure washing and using stain stripper. At the time pressure washing seemed like a waste of time…maybe it wasn’t. I decided to try the stain stripper. It got a bunch of gunk off (a layer of stain?) but not all of it. I was back to sanding…
I rented a drum sander. It did in 10 minutes what my belt sander did in 4 hours.
There was still a lot to do by hand – deck boards aren’t level – and I had to sand between them by hand as well. But it turned out ok.
Now for the coffee part. The homeowner chose a semi-transparent stain called “Coffee.” I stained it the following week on a warm day. The fence got a quick coat too.
handyandrew.ca 