Home project I don't really want..

Front deck at the house (deck's not big, our place is a "manufactured home", i.e., a double-wide mounted to a permanent concrete foundation, front door's about 3ft off the ground) and rail along the sidewalk to the door of the place, paint is dying. M'girl wants to "fix" it. So do I. Here's the problem..

I wanted to strip & paint, and replace the rotted wood at the bottom of the stairs.

SWMBO wants to grind the whole thing back to bare wood, and stain it. I thought showing her that the pressure washer won't do what she wants (easily removing the old paint) would be a clue. It wasn't. Bought a Ryobi belt sander and a bunch of 50 grit belts, hoping it might do the deed. It didn't (actually, it might..if I spend 10hrs a day going over every single millimeter of the thing for the next thirty days). The wood's gotta be somewhere between 10 to 20yrs old. even she looks at the platform in front of the door, and says, "that's gonna be a bitch to remove.."

Guys, I gotta admit..I think the stupid thing would look better stripped & stained as well. Anybody got anything that will keep me from spending the next three months sanding it?

In reply to friedgreencorrado: have it sand blasted. Messy, but it'll get all the old paint off--and some rotted wood, too. Do it with care, and it should work

I've stripped whole houses using a 4.5" grinder and the sanding wheels. Haven't tried it yet, but I understand those paint stripping discs that fit on will do the job even better. The wire wheels don't remove paint as well as you'd think, and are quite superb at gouging the heck out of the wood.

As you've suspected, time is involved. It just takes time. You never get the paint out of the low spots. You create gouges and waves as you sand or grind.

Then the stain. It bleaches and fades, so you get to do it again next year. As well the sealer. None of them last as long as a coat of good paint.

Replacing rotted wood can be easy or difficult, depends on the piece. Trying to cut and spice is often times not worth the effort, and you're better off replacing the entire piece.

cost analysis of what your time is worth, how much time to strip and stain compared to the time it takes to rip the old boards off and replaced them with newly stained ones. Use this as your arguement, just make sure you're on the winning side before showing it to her.

I don't really see the problem here.

You say up front this is a project you don't want to do. You know that paint will be easier and last longer.

SHE wants it fixed. SHE wants to rip up difficult boards.

I don't see where it's YOUR problem. YOU bought her a sander and belts. Why would YOU consider wasting lots of time fighting it?

Take her iced tea and sandwiches, and give lotsa "atta boys" and moral support. I suspect inside of 2 days, she'll be begging to go buy Porch and Deck enamel.

NYG95GA wrote: I don't really see the problem here. You say up front this is a project you don't want to do. You *know* that paint will be easier and last longer. SHE wants it fixed. SHE wants to rip up difficult boards. I don't see where it's YOUR problem. YOU bought her a sander and belts. Why would YOU consider wasting lots of time fighting it? Take her iced tea and sandwiches, and give lotsa "atta boys" and moral support. I suspect inside of 2 days, she'll be begging to go buy Porch and Deck enamel.

We have a winner. This is one of those "things" were it all begins. She is probably a bright woman, if she wants a home project, HAVE AT 'ER!

With NY on this one, the little lady is constantly wanting to change stuff, so I let her do paint/hanging art etc, because I know in 6-8 months she will want to change it again.

Especially when I never cared to change it in the first place.

Also what is SWBSO or whatever abbreviation.

She

Who

Must

Be

Obeyed

Was it painted in place or prior to install? Basically I'm wondering if you can flip the boards. I did that to the well worn stair treads inside my house. Worked damn well.

This is what you need.

You can rent them about anywhere - http://www.sunbeltrentals.com/Equipment/equipment.aspx?itemid=0680300&catid=s240

Do they all have on that same Tshirt or can I get a local-themed model?

I think you should tell her to get busy strippin' or get busy paintin'.

spitfirebill wrote: I think you should tell her to get busy strippin'

Hey, thats a good idea. Then you guys could PAY somebody else to do the work for you!

Oh wait, you didn't mean it like THAT did you?

sachilles wrote: Was it painted in place or prior to install? Basically I'm wondering if you can flip the boards. I did that to the well worn stair treads inside my house. Worked damn well.

Gonna try to reply to everybody at once..

Yeah, I know about the stain. Even the nice lady at Home Depot was joking about, "so, you're going to do all this work to apply a product you'll be doing again in a lil' while?" And, the rotted pieces are the easy part. It's the bottom couple of stairs. The rises are solid, the couple of treads at the bottom are going.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! (especially NYG! where's the "thumbs up" icon?) And I'm actually the one who wants to replace the steps..I work 2nd shift, and I'm tired of twisting my ankle in the dark when I step on the bottom (split, and rocks back & forth) one in the dark.

fastEddie, thanks for the tip about the floor sander. I'd never even thought about it.

triumph5...whoa, that's tempting. Sure sounds like that would do the deed!

Again, thanks everybody..I knew this was the place to ask the question!!

I suspect this one time when dynamite isn't the answer. Oh well.