Question 1: Do I have to remove all of the paint before I can apply an oil based, opaque stain?
Question 2: What is the best method for removing the remaning paint (if necessary)? I was thinking that I can use a belt sander???
Thanks,
Dhbel
COMMUNITY FORUM
The deck of my house appears to have been painted by the previous owner. It is pressure treated wood and, of course, the paint is peeling badly. I assume the paint was a latex exterior paint used on the house. I rented a pressure washer and was able to remove 80% of the loose paint. There are few boards and rales where the painted surface was not pealing and where the pressure washer was not effective. My plan is to remove as much paint as I can and then apply an opaque stain.
You should remove all paint before you stain. An alternative to sanding is a chemical stripper. It won't be as messy and the stripper will not harm your wood like a sander could. Try Klean Strip KS-3. I used it on my deck rails and it worked great. Good luck!
I had a similar problem with my wood deck. I agree with the previous reply, that you should use a stripper rather than a sander. I tried several paint strippers and pressure washing on my deck with little luck. I then hired a deck cleaning service to do the work, and they used a combination of paint stripper, scrubbing with a brush then pressure washing repeating twice to remove 95% of the paint. In case you were wondering, they did use one of the paint strppers I had tried, so it probably was their technique. They said it was a particularly tenacious paint marketed about 10 years ago they had run into a couple of times before.
By choosing a stain similar in color to the remaining paint, it blends away where the stain cannot penetrate the wood because of the paint. It was better than replacing the deck or flipping the boards and replacing rails, which were the other two options given us. I think it looks quite nice now. More of the paint has worn off in the area where I have a sand play table for my kids. The spilled sand underfoot is an effective abrasive without the hassle of belt sanding.
Good luck to you.
