When I bought my house a few years ago, I was excited about the back deck. Unfortunately, I toured the house after a snow storm so I could not see the condition of the wood deck under the three feet of snow. The first spring and summer using the deck was fine. The boards were old and had more bounce to them than we wanted, but it worked.
The second summer I almost had an accident with bare feet and a rusty nail, and my partner fell through a board when he was firing up the grill. It was time for our first big home renovation project!
Decks, patios, pathways and other hardscaping ideas in your yard are great ways to enhance outdoor living spaces, but they do need to be maintained properly. The previous homeowner put the deck on my house but never finished it. It was up to me to remodel and refinish the deck to make it safe and usable.
The process of deck refinishing wasn’t as quick and easy as it seems on home renovation TV shows. However, we got it done and it looks nice! Find out my tips to avoid the same mistakes I made when remodeling my deck and hopefully your deck project will go smoothly.
Problems With The Old Deck
As mentioned above, the old deck was not built properly or finished so there were major issues that needed to be dealt with. The joists were spaced too far apart so the boards were sagging, springy, and eventually a few boards snapped as we used the deck. The wood surface was never stained or sealed so the wood was damaged from a decade in the elements. It also had extra water damage from the drip irrigation system I used while growing tomatoes in containers the first summer.
In addition to the boards breaking, rusty nails began to rise from the boards over the two years we used the old deck. I almost broke the skin when I tripped on a rusty nail in bare feet. Tetanus risk aside, the rising nails also allowed the boards to warp and curl up creating further tripping hazards. We could not continue using the deck in this condition which led us to rebuild it.
Deck Remodeling Mistakes
The first steps of rebuilding the deck was ripping up the old surface, replacing rotted joists, and doubling the amount of joists. (I was actually able to recycle the old lumber into a raised garden bed!) The old deck was constructed incorrectly and the joists were spaced too far apart to provide adequate support for the thickness of lumber that is used for decking.
Once the joists were secured, I put tar paper on the top edge of them to help prevent rotting in the future. The next step was to buy lumber, cut it to length, and screw it to the new joists to form the new deck surface. Sounds straightforward, but I made some big mistakes along the way.
1. Poor Lumber Selection
The first mistake I made was the selection of lumber. The goal was to create a budget-friendly backyard living space, but maybe I should have spent a little more money. Although my partner and I spent a few hours going through the lumberyard to find the straightest boards, we went with the cheapest option the store had, and it shows. The lumber looked fine upon initial inspection, but as we were laying it we noticed problems with the quality of the wood. There were lots of knots in the wood which was harder to work with.
Additionally, the wood was green and had not cured for very long which led to the boards cupping and twisting after we secured them. This required extra fasteners later in the process to bring the boards into a flatter position. It also required many hours of sanding to bring down the curved edges of the lumber.
2. Waiting To Sand
On the topic of sanding, mistake number two was waiting to sand the boards after they were secured to the joists. Since the boards were new, they didn’t need a considerable amount of sanding to look nice and absorb stain properly. I wish I sanded them before securing them to the joists. Using a hand sander on lumber that is at a tabletop-height on sawhorses would have been a lot easier than sanding on my hands and knees for days.
I also let my procrastination get the better of me and the deck sat without stain or sealant for a whole year. This mistake meant the boards cupped more than if I had sanded and sealed them right away and resulted in more backbreaking work to sand them flat.
Deck Refinishing Mistakes
As mentioned, my procrastination and waiting a year to finish the deck after installing it resulted in more effort and frustration than necessary. Prepping the new deck surface for stain required power washing to remove dirt and residue and securing a few unruly boards that had come loose and curled up over the winter.
Then came the process of sanding everything smooth with a random orbital sander and blowing away all the sanding debris with a leaf blower. Once the surface was clear and completely dry, it was time to apply the stain. I researched deck stains for days before settling on Behr Premium Semi-Transparent Waterproofing Exterior Wood Stain and Sealer in the color “Russet” from the Home Depot.
3. Waiting To Finish The Deck
I should not have waited a full year between installing the deck and finishing it. My procrastination allowed the wood to split and a few boards curl up from the winter freezing and thawing. The wood suffered needlessly and made me work harder to prep it for stain later.
I also got into a self-induced weather crunch because I waited. It is humid and rainy in Ohio in the spring and summer and I was only able to get one coat of stain on the deck before a week of storms rolled in. The deck still only has one coat of stain on it! I am hoping that there will be a long dry stretch soon and I can give the deck a good scrub and then apply the second coat.
4. Not Keeping A “Wet Edge”
The stain instructions were clear if a little sparse. They mentioned that it was important to “keep a wet edge” when applying the stain but I didn’t take the time to investigate what that meant. In terms of deck staining, keeping a wet edge means you should stain the entire length of a board before moving on to the next one. This prevents “lap marks” where you can see the overlapping sections of stain that were applied.
Unfortunately, I applied the stain to a three-foot section of three boards at a time, so I have some definite lap marks in my final results. However, the Behr Premium stain and sealer went on very smoothly and the color is fantastic. Hopefully the application of a second coat will go well later.
My Deck Remodeling Tips
- Plan ahead and give yourself lots of time. Each step in the process of remodeling and refinishing the deck took longer than expected.
- Don’t procrastinate! Get your deck finished and protected so you don’t have to work even harder later.
- If you aren’t sure of something, do some more research. I didn’t research what a “wet edge” was in deck staining. My deck would look better if I had taken a few extra minutes to research.
- Give yourself some grace! You’re not a professional so you are bound to make mistakes. Even though there are things I would do differently, the deck is finished, usable, and looks nice.
Despite my mistakes, the deck still turned out well. It would have been a quicker, less frustrating process if I had known of these pitfalls before I started, but now I can use the space to host friends and grow low-maintenance patio plants. Hopefully, this will help you in your deck remodeling and refinishing project and you won’t make the same mistakes I did!
