Deck Restoration: Making Your Deck Look New

We moved into a new home recently and one of the first things that needed to be done was stain/restore the front and back porch. It was gray, molded and looked gross. This was going to be the place where we spent the majority of our days and it was not very inviting. We needed to find the best deck restoration method out there without replacing it completely. I researched many different products for refinishing a deck and adding new life to our wood.

The one we settled on was Olympic RESCUE IT! MAX Resurfacer + Primer + Sealant, which we purchased from Lowe’s. This sealant/paint not only seals your deck, it makes it look and feel brand new. We chose to go with a dark brown (Oxford Brown) to really blend in with the natural area around our home.

Prepping

First thing we conquered was pressure washing. I pressure washed the entire deck and screened in porch. Once it was dry, I used the Olympic Deck cleaner. WOW, I thought it was clean before, this solution was amazing. You place the cleaning solution in a pump sprayer. Spray the deck with it, let it sit and spray it off. I did use a deck brush and run over it just to be sure we got everything. In the first image of this post, you can see the left side of the porch was not clean and right side is the after we cleaned with deck cleaner. You see a huge difference. Once it was good and washed off, no more soapy places, it was time to dry. This took a good two days because we had a small rain shower during this time.

Painting

After it was dry, we applied the seal. It is thick and goes on like a paste more than paint. The end result was fabulous. We did not sand anything, this product completely fills in any small holes in the wood or even small gaps. It will take two coats if you want it to hold up like we do. I really don’t want to have to do this again until we replace the deck. This product far out weighed our expectations and I would recommend it to anyone.

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