Restoring a cedar deck & reducing baluster distance - plan check

20 years ago

Hi, my wife and I are planning to restore our deck. Fortunately I came across this board before I slapped on another layer of Olympic clear sealant from Costco. Those will be going back shortly.

We bought the house a year ago, so not sure how old the deck is. The water still beads in most places but the deck is completely gray. A few boards are splitting, same story with the hand rail. A couple of boards have dry rot. The wood is knotty cedar. The deck is 24Â by 12Â. Lots of raised grain on all boards (more so on the horizontal ones and the ones which get no shade at all)

The previous owner had that Olympic clear sealant on deck, so I first need to get rid of that. After going through the treasure trove of information available on this board I have devised this plan, what do you folks thinkÂ

1. TWP Safe strip to remove that clear sealant. Hopefully it will get rid of that sealant.

2. Pressure wash (2.2 GPM, 2400 psi) with the very wide tip so as to reduce the pressure

3. TWP Wood Brightener for Cedar & Redwood. To tell you the truth, I am not sure if I should be going with TWP Wood Brightener Plus instead. Description for TWP WB Cedar & Redwood on one of the websites said "only for conditioning, use TWP Brightener Plus for restoring decks, logs etc"

4. Pressure wash

5. Wait for it to dry

6. Sand the whole deck with Porter Cable Random Orbital sander with 40 grit and then follow with 80 (or maybe just done one run with 60)

7. Vacuum the sanding dust. Anything else I can do to remove that sanding dust? Pressure wash maybe, or wipe with acetone?

8. Replace the damaged boards, and get rid of mill glaze by applying TWP wood prep.

9. TWP 116

Also, the distance between the spindles(2x2 cedar) on our deck is 5 1/2 inches, and we are always worried having our son (1 yr) and his friends on the deck. I am thinking of just sticking a 2x2 spindle right next to every existing one. Reduces the distances to the desired 4". If I put one in the center of the two it reduces the distance to 2" which might be too close. Any other ideas, suggestionsÂ

I am thinking of doing this as part of step 8 above.

IÂll greatly appreciate input and suggestions. Ken and John I would love to get your expert advice.

Here is a before pictureÂ After will come after.

Here is a link that might be useful: Before picture

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Comments (2)

pressurepros
20 years ago
1) I've never used the product but if it is sodium hydroxide based it will work fine. RAD would probably work just as well and not cause as much furring (cedar furs wickedly with too potent a stripper)
2) The wider pattern spray nozzles don't lower pressure they just spread it over a wider area. It may seem like semantics because this wider pattern when pulled back from the wood will, in effect, be a lower pressure over the fan of spray. I mention it because if you get too close to the wood, the amount of pressure will be way too high for cedar and will also contribute to a furry mess.
3) This brightener is purely oxalic based. Oxalic is very potent and poisonous. Wear respiration. The brightener in RAD is much more mild and equally as effective. Either will be fine.
5) Two days in the sun this time of year is fine.
6)One run with 60 is fine. I wouldn't normally even recommend that but I have a feeling you are going to have a good amount of fuzzies you will need to knock away.
7) We use a leaf blower
8) Repair/replacement should be the very first thing you do. Then treat them with the same detergents you will use when stripping. You eliminate this extra step by doing it this way. As far as your spindle placement, 2" will be close and will make sealing a pain in the butt, but safer is better than sorry.
9) TWP is a good product to use on cedar. Saturate it and plan on getting maybe 100 s/f per gallon (if that).
sahi
Original Author
20 years ago
Thanks! Ken for the great tips and taking the time to respond.

To reduce the baluster distance I am going with this plan:
Let's say they are currently marked: A B C D at 5 1/2" distance from each other.

Take B and C out, and replace them with 3 equally spaced balusters. Resulting distance between each of them: 3 3/4 "

Fill the holes left behind from B and C with outdoor wood putty and finish.

Cheers and thanks
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