Our deck was about 10 years old. It was originally pressure treated planks with a semi-transparent stain. The stain was peeling and the deck was too big to resand, about 12x20. I started by removing the planks one at a time.
| how to: Redo Your Deck | Need to redo your deck? Want to reuse your existing structure and boards and add some updates? Read the details here... |
| Remove the deck boards Our deck was about 10 years old. It was originally pressure treated planks with a semi-transparent stain. The stain was peeling and the deck was too big to resand, about 12x20. I started by removing the planks one at a time. |
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Plane the boards Each deck board was removed, the screws were completely removed and the underside of each board was run through my planner multiple times to remove just over 1/16. This made the board look brand new. I installed the boards as I went, moving across the deck. |
| Re-Install the boards After several evenings of work and lots of sawdust generated, I had installed all the boards back onto the deck. It looked like I had bought new deck boards. |
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What about railings? The original deck had no railings, just a single step down from all edges. This time I wanted to do a railing, but something unique. Not just white vinyl, or pressure treated spindles that would warp and twist. I found a black metal railing system at Lowe's and they were very easy and quick to install. No drilling required. |
| Copper Tops! I found some copper tops that I would put onto my railing posts. The posts were pre-cut and routed with a pattern in them, but the copper tops were about 1/2" too big. So I made some thin strips of pressure treated wood that I painted black and the glued the copper tops to them. This continued the black and brown look we were going for. |
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What about posts? To attach my railings to the deck, I used pre-cut notched posts with some long bolts and washers and nuts. I also bought some lattice to finish off the lower part of the deck. |
| The finish We wanted a natural look for the finish and we went with a Thomsons water seal product that has a light cedar pigmentation in it. |
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The final look It was a lot of work, a lot of planing, a lot of staining but we ended up with what looks like a brand new deck. I went through a set of planner blades, but replacing those was much cheaper than buying new deck boards. |
| Lights and Sound I also ran some low voltage electric for lights and speaker wire for some outdoor speakers. |
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| Some tools we used: |