I have an unfinished deck and want to sand and stain it. Must I pressure wash it first if I'm sanding it?
Question:I don't have a pressure washer sprayer - that's why I'm wondering if I can bypass this step. I can rent one/buy one if need be, but want to do it with the least amount of steps possible.
Answers:
It depends on how old and cruddy it is. If it is newish without mildew or ground-in dirt you can skip any deep cleaning and just surface sand it. Otherwise you will get poor results skipping the power wash. If you do sand it you will still need to hose it down to get grit from sandpaper off it prior to staining.
Pressure washing is just that-washing with a high power sprayer. It really depends on how dirty the deck is and how much work you want to do.
If you sand it all , no need to wash.
If you want to the local rent center normally rents them. Ask around if you have any friends, many may have one for free.
If you sand though, no need. The only reason to wash it is to get the build up off. The sanding will do that.
If you can get all the mildew, dirt and other garbage off the deck just by sanding it, then you don't have to power wash it. However, it's pretty hard to do that , and power washing just insures that 99% of the job will be clean. Personally, I would defenitely wash it first. Why go through all that work and cheat on it! Do it right the first time. good luck
Wash it with 1 cup of bleach to 1 gal. of water then go to sanding and staining .
I used a solution of oxy-clean and water, then used a broom to scrub it in. I then used the garden hose to clean the residue off. It really did a good job on lightening the wood back up. I let it dry out and then used a stain sealer to seal the deck. Looked good. Now it is time to do it again. good luck to the both of us.
If you sand it you're still going to have to wash it down to get all the dust off.
I would powerwash it and forget about the sanding. There's all kinds of wood brightners out there that work great.
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