Stripping Your Deck

CATHY: Yes, I have a wooden deck on the back of my house. It’s 12 years old and until three years ago, I always treated it with a transparent stain.

LESLIE: OK.

CATHY: But about three years ago I put a semi-transparent stain on it and I hate the color and I would like to go lighter than it is; at least a different color. Can I do anything or am I just stuck with this color forever?

LESLIE: And you want to keep in the semi-transparent family or are you ready to go to the opaque stage?

CATHY: I’ d rather go back to transparent. Is it too late?

LESLIE: Well, it depends. If you want to go lighter or you want to go to the transparent, you’re going to have to strip off the existing stain and that’s not hard. You just need a chemical product that’s made to specifically remove any of the stain that’s on there. Flood makes one called Stain Strip. There’s a lot of different manufacturers who make chemical strippers. You want to apply it according to the manufacturer’s directions. The autumn is a perfect time to do it because it’s very dry outside, so it’s really a good time of year to tackle this project.

You want to apply the stripping agent; allow it to really penetrate into the surface. Then you can pressure wash it away and, if you have to, you might have to go back to a couple of areas that maybe the stain didn’t come off. But once you get to a raw surface and it dries, you can go back to either a transparent if you find that it’s really picked up from a lot of the spaces. If you find that there are a lot of areas where you have some remaining semi-transparent stain, then you might want to go with a semi-transparent in a different color. But if you’re going lighter or you want to go back to transparent, then you have to strip it.

CATHY: Alright.

LESLIE: It’s not hard. Let the product do it for you.

CATHY: OK.

TOM: Cathy, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.