Deck Painting
Warning: This post is almost as boring as painting a 16 x 22 deck!
I have this 16' x 22' two level painted deck that really needs to be replaced. I have been planning to do something about it since about 2002. Each year, it is on my to do list. So, a couple weeks ago, I went to Home Depot to remind myself a.) how incompetent I really am at home improvement b.) that I don't have a vehicle to transport large long items in it anyway - presenting yet another obstacle to the whole Do It Yourself kick we all are in these days. And then I start pricing all the various elements and figure out that this little project could cost $1,000 or more and a boatload of time. That's if I do it myself.
So, I decided on another approach. Despite a few boards warping and a small spot of rotted wood, this painted deck really could last another year or two with a good coat of paint. Oh, yeah - that's easy. But first - you must clean the darn thing - it has mildew, dirt and is a lot of the paint is very chipped. In my usual gross underestimate of time to do a project, I figured - maybe an hour to clean it, then the next day, a few hours at most to paint it.
Yeah, right. Cleaning it: This is an art - and I don't have equipment. So, getting the supplies, I ask this helpful guy at H.D. what type of pump sprayer is good for the job. (I don't want a pressure washer, just an applicator.) He tells me the one I was looking at was good. Now, I need cleaner. He suggests this wicked super duper Clorox for outdoors - a super concentrated bleach blend that will lift that mildew right off, in probably ONE application. Yeah, right.
Then, it's over to the paint department. Let's see ... 352 square feet. One gallon should do it. Yeah, right.
So - I get home with my new cleaner, sprayer, paint, paint sticks and an ambitious spark. Problem is that it is too late to do anything. And, it's Saturday night, so time is slowly slipping away for the "weekend" project. Clean and hose down one day. Paint next day. Not happening.
So, I open the box to the sprayer. I read the directions. It says NO CAUSTIC agents (i.e. bleach.) This really sucks. Very seldom do I rely on advice for these types of things, but I let my guard down, and this H.D. guy led me down the wrong road. What to do? Do I defy the directions and just use the sprayer with the bleach mix or do I obey them. A lot of people just ignore these instructions, but I am one who prefers not to ruin devices by going against the manufacturer's suggestions. Not to mention, it can be dangerous.
So - here I have this 3 gallon jug of Clorox Super Duper Bleach with no way to apply it. That is until I read the directions on it, and it tells me that you can apply with a brush. So, I find this handy little O'Cedar mop I never use anymore. I bought it in 1994 I bet. It is just a basic sponge mop, but it has a brillo type pad on one end, so it is perfect should I need to scrub some pesky mildew spots. Yeah, right.
So, here I go, I mix the water and clorox 1:2 and begin applying the solution to the deck. About five or six minutes into it, the old sponge of the mop falls off the holder. I take a look and see the little plastic parts that hold it on have broken on one side, so it doesn't work. Okay - I decide i will go over to the Big K mart down the road to look for a refill. Do you think the attachments to an old O'Cedar mop from a decade ago are still the same? You guessed it, no way. So, I buy a new O'Cedar mop that is a little bigger width wise. It also has an abrasive pad on one side.
Okay - so I am all set right? Yeah, right!
I get home, only to realize that this wider mop will not fit into the bucket I am using and I have no wider buckets. By now, it is like 10 a.m. on Sunday and I am really frustrated. Not to be outdone by these mundane tasks, I find that if I use the roller tray for the painting part of this project, it will hold the new mop head nicely. Less capacity, but it did the trick, problem solved. An hour later or so, I am done with the application and rinsing. Things are good.
Yeah, right!
I am out hosing off the bleach solution and a lot more paint is peeling off the deck now. This is important because you must free the surface of the deck of old loose paint before painting. Problem is, if I apply pressure from the hose stream SLOWLY to an area, nearly all the paint will eventually come off. Guess how long it takes to get four feet of one board done? About 15 minutes. At this rate, it would take me 2520 minutes to complete this process. Think, think - how can I speed up this process?
I tried the abrasive side of the mop - no dice - doesn't budge.
Scraping manually is out of the question.
Solvent means another trip to the H.D. cause K Mart sucks and has nothing that you really need and it would then end up taking me till 2 p.m. to acquire such stuff and then I am using toxic stuff on latex paint - kind of a bad idea.
Okay - so then I decide to just let it dry the way it is. Perhaps when it is completely dry, using a stiff brush on it will catch any loose stuff. What I figured out was that all that paint that was coming up with the force of the hose was probably due to my doing that and that it naturally would not do that. I am probably wrong. Anyway, that is what I did.
Okay - so now it is dry - I am anxious to just see how the new paint will look. I knew that it wasn't yet dry enough to paint the whole thing, but I decided to do one small area.
So - how to apply the paint - for my test, I just got a 3 inch brush and went to town. Lookin' good. I painted more than I had planned, which was probably a bad idea, because some unpainted areas might not have been dry enough.
So, I got the equivalent of four of the 42 16' boards done on Sunday. I felt some vindication in getting at least part of the project done. So the plan to finish it is shaping up.
But, what happened Sunday? We turned our clocks back an hour. Now, instead of a 6:45-7:00 dark time, it is now dark at 5:45-6:00. But, the weather is really nice and dry for a change. We fortunately have a break from the humid days of summer.
So plan is to leave work a little early on Monday to get in a good hour or so of painting. Yeah, right. I ended up getting home after dark and with Trick or Treaters at my door from minute one.
Tuesday - doesn't happen. Wednesday - it rains all day. Fast forward to today. Dry - but more humid - but I do get home early today and start on it at 4:30 p.m.
Now back to how to apply paint for a large area. Only good option is a roller, right? Well, a roller is not the right texture you want on a deck surface - a brush is the best. But, brushing 43 16' boards with a 3" brush is just ludicrous, unless you are a student of Mr. Miagi in the Karate Kid. So, I get out the old roller and begin to apply to one corner. I don't like the texture, so I do two boards at a time, about four feet or so. Then I squat down and take the brush to it to smooth out the paint. Works pretty well, but is a little more involved than simply using the roller. Another issue is that the deck boards are not new and not even - so the roller doesn't/can't apply paint properly. So, those spots I must use the brush anyway.
In about an hour tonight, I got about half done - with the first coat. The porch paint I am using is also the primer, so I knew going in that I would need to do two coats if I really want it to look good.
So, I don't know if one can will cover the whole deck. I think you use more paint when you use a roller. Not really sure if this is true - but as stated above, using a brush for the whole thing is just out of the question. Perhaps the 2nd coat will not use as much paint.
So this is the painting job - to lengthen the life a year or two on my deck.
Total cost - well, by the time all is said and done - probably $50-60. Compared to $900-$1,000, that isn't too bad.
I have this 16' x 22' two level painted deck that really needs to be replaced. I have been planning to do something about it since about 2002. Each year, it is on my to do list. So, a couple weeks ago, I went to Home Depot to remind myself a.) how incompetent I really am at home improvement b.) that I don't have a vehicle to transport large long items in it anyway - presenting yet another obstacle to the whole Do It Yourself kick we all are in these days. And then I start pricing all the various elements and figure out that this little project could cost $1,000 or more and a boatload of time. That's if I do it myself.
So, I decided on another approach. Despite a few boards warping and a small spot of rotted wood, this painted deck really could last another year or two with a good coat of paint. Oh, yeah - that's easy. But first - you must clean the darn thing - it has mildew, dirt and is a lot of the paint is very chipped. In my usual gross underestimate of time to do a project, I figured - maybe an hour to clean it, then the next day, a few hours at most to paint it.
Yeah, right. Cleaning it: This is an art - and I don't have equipment. So, getting the supplies, I ask this helpful guy at H.D. what type of pump sprayer is good for the job. (I don't want a pressure washer, just an applicator.) He tells me the one I was looking at was good. Now, I need cleaner. He suggests this wicked super duper Clorox for outdoors - a super concentrated bleach blend that will lift that mildew right off, in probably ONE application. Yeah, right.
Then, it's over to the paint department. Let's see ... 352 square feet. One gallon should do it. Yeah, right.
So - I get home with my new cleaner, sprayer, paint, paint sticks and an ambitious spark. Problem is that it is too late to do anything. And, it's Saturday night, so time is slowly slipping away for the "weekend" project. Clean and hose down one day. Paint next day. Not happening.
So, I open the box to the sprayer. I read the directions. It says NO CAUSTIC agents (i.e. bleach.) This really sucks. Very seldom do I rely on advice for these types of things, but I let my guard down, and this H.D. guy led me down the wrong road. What to do? Do I defy the directions and just use the sprayer with the bleach mix or do I obey them. A lot of people just ignore these instructions, but I am one who prefers not to ruin devices by going against the manufacturer's suggestions. Not to mention, it can be dangerous.
So - here I have this 3 gallon jug of Clorox Super Duper Bleach with no way to apply it. That is until I read the directions on it, and it tells me that you can apply with a brush. So, I find this handy little O'Cedar mop I never use anymore. I bought it in 1994 I bet. It is just a basic sponge mop, but it has a brillo type pad on one end, so it is perfect should I need to scrub some pesky mildew spots. Yeah, right.
So, here I go, I mix the water and clorox 1:2 and begin applying the solution to the deck. About five or six minutes into it, the old sponge of the mop falls off the holder. I take a look and see the little plastic parts that hold it on have broken on one side, so it doesn't work. Okay - I decide i will go over to the Big K mart down the road to look for a refill. Do you think the attachments to an old O'Cedar mop from a decade ago are still the same? You guessed it, no way. So, I buy a new O'Cedar mop that is a little bigger width wise. It also has an abrasive pad on one side.
Okay - so I am all set right? Yeah, right!
I get home, only to realize that this wider mop will not fit into the bucket I am using and I have no wider buckets. By now, it is like 10 a.m. on Sunday and I am really frustrated. Not to be outdone by these mundane tasks, I find that if I use the roller tray for the painting part of this project, it will hold the new mop head nicely. Less capacity, but it did the trick, problem solved. An hour later or so, I am done with the application and rinsing. Things are good.
Yeah, right!
I am out hosing off the bleach solution and a lot more paint is peeling off the deck now. This is important because you must free the surface of the deck of old loose paint before painting. Problem is, if I apply pressure from the hose stream SLOWLY to an area, nearly all the paint will eventually come off. Guess how long it takes to get four feet of one board done? About 15 minutes. At this rate, it would take me 2520 minutes to complete this process. Think, think - how can I speed up this process?
- Borrow a neighbor's pressure washer. Surely this would speed up the process.
- Take the abrasive pad side of the mop to the deck to loosen the paint.
- Get on my hands and knees with a paint scraper and go to town.
- Get some sort of solvent to dissolve the paint off the deck.
I tried the abrasive side of the mop - no dice - doesn't budge.
Scraping manually is out of the question.
Solvent means another trip to the H.D. cause K Mart sucks and has nothing that you really need and it would then end up taking me till 2 p.m. to acquire such stuff and then I am using toxic stuff on latex paint - kind of a bad idea.
Okay - so then I decide to just let it dry the way it is. Perhaps when it is completely dry, using a stiff brush on it will catch any loose stuff. What I figured out was that all that paint that was coming up with the force of the hose was probably due to my doing that and that it naturally would not do that. I am probably wrong. Anyway, that is what I did.
Okay - so now it is dry - I am anxious to just see how the new paint will look. I knew that it wasn't yet dry enough to paint the whole thing, but I decided to do one small area.
So - how to apply the paint - for my test, I just got a 3 inch brush and went to town. Lookin' good. I painted more than I had planned, which was probably a bad idea, because some unpainted areas might not have been dry enough.
So, I got the equivalent of four of the 42 16' boards done on Sunday. I felt some vindication in getting at least part of the project done. So the plan to finish it is shaping up.
But, what happened Sunday? We turned our clocks back an hour. Now, instead of a 6:45-7:00 dark time, it is now dark at 5:45-6:00. But, the weather is really nice and dry for a change. We fortunately have a break from the humid days of summer.
So plan is to leave work a little early on Monday to get in a good hour or so of painting. Yeah, right. I ended up getting home after dark and with Trick or Treaters at my door from minute one.
Tuesday - doesn't happen. Wednesday - it rains all day. Fast forward to today. Dry - but more humid - but I do get home early today and start on it at 4:30 p.m.
Now back to how to apply paint for a large area. Only good option is a roller, right? Well, a roller is not the right texture you want on a deck surface - a brush is the best. But, brushing 43 16' boards with a 3" brush is just ludicrous, unless you are a student of Mr. Miagi in the Karate Kid. So, I get out the old roller and begin to apply to one corner. I don't like the texture, so I do two boards at a time, about four feet or so. Then I squat down and take the brush to it to smooth out the paint. Works pretty well, but is a little more involved than simply using the roller. Another issue is that the deck boards are not new and not even - so the roller doesn't/can't apply paint properly. So, those spots I must use the brush anyway.
In about an hour tonight, I got about half done - with the first coat. The porch paint I am using is also the primer, so I knew going in that I would need to do two coats if I really want it to look good.
So, I don't know if one can will cover the whole deck. I think you use more paint when you use a roller. Not really sure if this is true - but as stated above, using a brush for the whole thing is just out of the question. Perhaps the 2nd coat will not use as much paint.
So this is the painting job - to lengthen the life a year or two on my deck.
Total cost - well, by the time all is said and done - probably $50-60. Compared to $900-$1,000, that isn't too bad.
posted by Noman at 5:55 PM
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