The time I refinished my own deck and regretted every minute of it

Last summer I decided to strip and stain my 12x16 deck instead of paying someone $800. Three days in, the rental sander broke down and I had to hand sand the whole thing with 60 grit paper. By day five my back was wrecked and the stain looked patchy in spots. Still cheaper than hiring it out, but next time I'm at least renting a better sander from Home Depot on 137 Ave.

2 comments

2 Comments

caleb26224d ago

Still cheaper than hiring it out, but next time I'm at least renting a better sander" - man, I feel that. I did almost the same thing to my fence two years ago and I'm still mad about it. That Home Depot rental sander situation is a gamble too, sometimes you get one that's beat to hell and it dies halfway through. I learned the hard way that spending the extra 40 bucks on the heavy duty commercial sander from the real rental place down the road saves you like three days of crying on your knees. Plus the cheap stains from the big box stores are garbage, I had to redo my whole fence the next season because it flaked off. If you're gonna do it yourself, at least spring for the good Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams stain, it actually sticks around for more than a year.

eric72324d ago

Hold on though, I gotta push back a little on the Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams thing. They're solid, no doubt, but for a fence? You're overpaying. I switched to using a solid body stain from a local paint store that's like a third of the price and it's held up way better than the high end stuff I tried before. Plus those big box store stains aren't all trash, just stay away from the ultra cheap stuff. I used Behr once on a pergola and it lasted four years before it even started fading. It's more about how you prep the wood than the brand you throw on it.