Friday, August 10, 2012

My First (+ Only Time) Stripping

Last summer I helped my brother-in-law refinish his deck.

Man. I had no idea how physically demanding it would be! My body ached for days after.

Their deck is two levels and a fairly good size- maybe just under 300 square feet.

Life Designed
And it was in pretty bad shape.




Neither myself or my brother-in-law really knew what we were doing but he picked up some wood stripper and scrubbers from Home Depot and away we went.

Life Designed
Maybe we were doing it wrong or maybe the stripper wasn't very powerful because it took forever and like I said- very labour intensive.

I was on my knees scrubbing away as hard as I could for hours on end and it still didn't completely strip the old paint.

Life Designed
It took 2 full days of scrubbing to strip it down to it's natural state.
Life Designed
I suppose in the end it was worth it. Isn't it gorgeous? I love natural wood. Look at all those knots and imperfections. Beautiful! Or as my 2 year old nephew would say, "bootiful!"

After those 2 days, I was physically spent and my body was so sore. I don't think stripping is for me. I must be gettin' old!

A few days later, my brother-in-law and his friend stained the deck. 

Life Designed
Life Designed
A job well done by all those involved! Now let's bbq!

What's been your experience with stripping wood?

1 comment:

  1. If you have recently built a deck or have bought a house with a deck and are wondering how to maintain it, you have several staining options. Deck staining is a continual process rather than a single project. For some types of wood, like ironwood or mahogany, you will need to resurface the deck yearly to keep it protected. Other types of wood can be stained only once every few years.

    ReplyDelete