Deck Makeover - Big Change for 250.00

Laura Lanier
by Laura Lanier
2 Materials
$250
20 Hours
Medium

Chuck and I bought our first house together in April 2014 and it has been one project after another...and yea we love it:) The deck looked OK at first, then the cheap red stain the seller had put on started coming off, a year later this is what it looked like - it was so ugly we had to do something. So Memorial Day weekend we power washed it for what seemed like hours and hours and did a full deck makeover.

Nothing could hide this ugly.

No matter the angle of my camera it was still ugly...

The black spots where bad too....oil we think

We really didn't know anything about stains or decks so we researched on line for a few more hours. Finally decided on Flood Cedar Tone Stain, zipped off to Lowes and picked up a 5 gallon container. Was really nervous but nothing to lose. After 3 coats and little over 1/2 the container our deck looked like this - Beautiful! We couldn't believe how great it turned out!

A few hours later

It looks new and it is a really old deck. The rails on the other hand looked bad. We couldn't get all the red stain off them so we decided to paint them white. So off to Lowes again for some Olympic Icon Paint and Primer. I thought 5 gallons, but Chuck thought 3 would be enough (he's usually right especially about math stuff) in Brilliant White.

Yep it has rained on it and no problem

This was by far the hardest part, painting all those rails. We are not young folks- I'm almost 50 and he is a little over. I feel my age today. We painted 3 coats yesterday (6 hours), but it turned out wonderful. Also only took 2 1/2 gallons of paint.

We love it! Can't stop looking at it...

This morning we put all the furniture back on and I had spray painted some old flower pots (on a budget with all these projects) and then added flowers. It looks great. The wood is old and it does show on some of the rails however it is so much better than it was. When we win the lottery we will have a new deck with the new fake wood and rails put on..lol

I love the rails!

But for now and for a few more years (we hope) it is perfect just the way it is. I plan to add some color with some pillows and maybe a few more flowers.

Waiting for it to get a little cooler..

Probably need to add a pink flower pot for our 3 year old granddaughter :) It has rained on the deck itself and it was fine so we think the rails will be good too, however we plan to keep it up and not wait to fix something on it. We don't want to do the whole thing over anytime soon:)

The flowers make it look better too..

Now it's on to other projects, like the front porch. It has the same pretty (not) red stain...

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  • Brenda Dougherty Kampa Brenda Dougherty Kampa on Jun 02, 2018

    Around the outside of the deck, did you stain or paint? I have lattice around the outside of mine and am wondering if I should paint or stain. I’m guessing your stairs are stained? I can see the rails are painted. Your deck is beautiful! You did a great job!

  • Donna Donna on Sep 11, 2019

    You said you bought a 5 gallon container of stain, an used 3 coats.

    Don't know size of your deck, we are replacing the entire deck floor from being worn out an water logged from so much rain past few years. But our deck is 80 ft long 10 ft wide with a center that goes out 17 ft (a Juliette balcony bump out). 5 gallon container of anything at Lowe's here in TN runs $175 an up How was $250 able to do it all?

  • Gail Gail on Feb 16, 2020

    What brand of stain did you use?

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  • Rebecca Platt Rebecca Platt on Jun 20, 2018

    You didn't mention cleaning the deck or sanding it. You had to have done one or the other.

    • Rebecca Platt Rebecca Platt on Jun 20, 2018

      I'm replying to myself. I didn't see that you had power washed it. Sorry.

  • Mary H Mary H on Jun 24, 2019

    I am just wondering how your deck is weathering/holding up with the Fllod stain?


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