Refinishing and Renewing Our Wreck of a Deck

Project deck overhaul (aka fixing our wreck of a deck) is finally complete! Behold the renewed, restored, and refinished deck in all her glory!

This sad back deck was in really rough shape when we purchased the Forest House. The project to refinish the deck kept getting pushed to the back burner with all the interior reno we’ve done. But it REALLY needed to happen for the sake of aesthetics and safety. We had a few warm-ish days in December and decided to tackle the project.

The deck always seemed like a builder’s after-thought, and it seemed, how do I put this nicely, hastily crafted. It needed some love.

The vertical railings were constructed using a nail gun and nails were every which way, not living up to their ‘purpose.’ And since the deck hadn’t been stained often over the last 15 years, the nails slowly removed themselves from the boards as the wood swelled and shrank. Friends – it was deck sadness.

In hindsight, it’s amazing that we put the deck refinishing project out of minds for sooo long. We thought about it as we walked across it every day, but then quickly denied its dilapidated state as soon as we stepped inside. We call those “mental gymnastics” around here. Like a form of self-induced amnesia!

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Look at these sad boards. Mold and algae had taken up residence. We considered tearing them all out but decided they really still had some life in them.

Nails were pulling out of the guard posts in the corners. If you leaned too hard against the railing, you would have plunged over the side. To compound this, the railing was not up to current code. The support posts need to be a minimum of 6 feet apart, but one side was more than 8 feet apart…

…and another side (the side highest off the ground) had just one small board nailed to the rim joist. No post for a 12-foot span!!

We originally had big plans to expand the deck (doubling its size) and using composite decking instead of wood, but our extravagant thinking stalled the project. So, we felt it was better to finish something than nothing! And we’re glad we did — the refinished deck is much improved!

By reusing many of the boards, the project totaled a little over $300 and took 3 weekends to complete. Really, not a big investment for such a big payoff.

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Tearing it Apart

We tried to get a bunch of pictures of this process, but it went really quickly. We let our kids remove the railing with kicks! Don’t try this at home folks — we were super-supervising!

We decided to replace one section at a time so we could still use the deck during construction. We didn’t need a dog trying to fly off a ledge*.

(*Yes, this actually happened..but not from our deck. Evie jumped about 5 feet down into a ditch about 4 months ago and dislocated all of the bones in her back foot. You can see her cute pink cast in the image above. Long story, short: she has a metal rod and 9 pins in her foot now. We joke that she’ll never make it through airport security.)

Putting it Back Together

Materials

• For the new horizontal rails: 2″ x 6″ x 8″ pressure treated prime boards. NOTE: We wanted a thinner rail look, so we ripped the boards lengthwise in half.
• For the new posts: 4″ x 4″ pressure treated (length determined by need)
• Exterior decking screws (consider your final color here – decking screws come in yellows, beiges, grays, etc.)
• Exterior wood stain: Behr Premium Waterproofing Exterior Stain and Sealer in the color Slate.

Process

To correct the whole 12-foot-span-without-posts issue, we purchased 4×4 posts and notched-out the deck boards. Then, we bolted the post to the side joists. Here’s Melissa using my least favorite thing to notch out the wood – the multi-tool!

Another major change for aesthetics, and not just safety, was our decision to run the railing horizontally for a more modern look. Per code, the railings can only be 4 inches apart or less, so we factored that into the design. (If you remember our Palms House, we did something similar with our old back fence!)

In this picture, you can see the first side of the deck refinished! Proof of concept! (Note, this was December and Chris is in shorts!)

At this point in the process, we had no idea what we are going to do about the staircase railing. We hadn’t even checked the codes for handrail heights. But it needed to go, so we demoed it.

This forced us to figure it out, design it, build it, and finish it. No going back or cutting corners, just moving forward. That’s one thing we love about renovation – the mental/physical challenges. We know we will figure it out. It’s not open-heart surgery. It’s a bunch of wood and some screws. And, if you mess something up, you can fix it!

On this side (highest off the ground and above a brick wall), we made sure we added 4×4 posts, bolted to the side truss (no notching them!!), 3 feet apart, across the 12-foot span to support the railing. And then on the railing, we used deck SCREWS!! No more nails!

In the picture below, the longest span of the deck is on the right side. On this longest side, we added an additional 2 posts 3 feet apart. We didn’t need that to meet current code (6 feet span max), but adding 2 posts matched the overall symmetry of the railing and made for a much sturdier and safer deck.

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Construction Complete

Once we finished all the construction, we had a solid refinished deck, but the wood was a mix of old and new. We kinda liked the raw pressure-treated wood, but we wanted to create a uniform look and do away with the reddish, faded color and completely restain the wood.

We waited about 3 weeks before we stained the pressure treated wood. You need to allow the wood a chance to completely dry out before painting or staining. If the chemicals are still saturating the wood, the paint or stain will eventually begin to bubble up.

Semi-Pro Tip! If you aren’t sure if your pressure treated wood is ready, put a few drops of water on the wood and wait. If the water sits on the surface and doesn’t soak in, it’s not ready yet. If the water does soak in, it’s cured enough and you can paint or stain the wood.

In the meantime, we enjoyed our almost-done deck knowing that Evie could not skydive from this platform.

Wow, the $300 transformation is amazing! The horizontal rails also give a much better view as you look across into the yard.

Staining the Deck

Before we stained, Melissa pressure washed the entire deck, used a wood stripper to remove the old stain, and scrubbed all the dirt off the old wood. Fun fact – pressure washing is Melissa’s favorite thing to do (just not in December though! Brr!)

For the stain, we used Behr Premium Waterproofing Exterior Stain and Sealer in the color Slate. This product was a great choice for our deck because it helps hide imperfections but still allows the wood’s texture to show through.

The vertical posts took the color a little darker than the deck boards did, but it gives a gorgeous contrast. The rails almost look like metal. Really amazing how well the pressure-treated wood took the stain (after they dried out).

We are just in love with the sleek, simple, and modern look!

For the handrail going down the steps, we opted for something a little unexpected. We used a galvanized pipe to make a custom handrail. To finish it, we simply spray-painted the rail with Rust-Oleum in Satin Black, so the iron won’t rust.

Here’s one last photo of the refinished deck looking out towards the grapevines in our backyard. It’s ready for some grilling and patio furniture this spring.

And one last look at the before…

And the AFTER!!!

If you enjoyed this post, check out some of our other exterior projects at the Forest House – Custom Designer Shutters, Custom Exterior Touches, and Fire Pit and Garden Lights!