Stripping paint off deck with pressure washer. What happens to the paint?

It'll come off in varying sizes. Where the washer hits a flaking part it may take off a large piece in one chunk, and in other spots it might take it off in smaller less noticeable pieces. In the end I'd say you will have to clean some up and the rest will bury into the stones and dirt with a lot shooting into your grass. You might get some on the house too, which I have no idea how easy it will be to clean off. Shouldn't be a problem, but not sure.

Sell the house and keep the deck!

Seriously that is an awful deck and lowers the look of your house. Consider a deck rebuild please.....

2000 PSI will take off already flaking paint but will have trouble with patches that still adhere to wood. Go for 4000 but be careful since it will literally blast wood fibers to pieces. After that it's still a good idea to sand all the flat surfaces.

Take a few weekends, unscrew those boards and flip them....maybe cut a thin slice off painted ends with table saw when boards are loose. Reinstall most boards, toss a few or at least cut rotted sections out, 16 or 32" lengths and replace that section centering cuts on joists. You can put the cut boards sections at end of deck away from steps.
You will be far happier with the deck the next 5 years if you put a bit of work into this.

I agree with Zamboni but will also say that some of those boards do not look like they are salvageable. They just look like they are too checked, cracked and rotted at the ends.
I think you have a significant job and the pressure washing is the easiest and last thing to do.
Something else about pressure washing a wooden deck. The higher the pressure the more damage you can do to the wood. Even minimum the wood will check and the grain opens and you will have to sand the wood to get rid of all the splinters and "fuzz" before you can finish the wood again.
Your deck looks like a pretty big rehab job is required and the time and effort to pressure was, turn board over and sand and then finish...it may be easier and quicker to remove the old and put on new boards.
Lastly, there are companies tat will rehab your deck. It may cost a bit but, they have guarantees and do the work for you www.theDeckDoctor.ca or http://www.deckrefinishing.ca comes to mind.

I had a similar dilemma as the OP (still grappling with parts of it as my deck is bigger). Same paint colour, worse condition in some areas. Looks like there is water/sun damage.

On the one side, I just ripped the boards and replaced it last summer. Really not that hard at all. You do need a saw (Mitre or circular) to cut it to length if it's not stock size. Mine was nailed in as it was built in the 80s so had to buy a tool to help take the boards out.

Those look like the thin ones (1 inch thick) so it should be pretty easy to manage and cheaper. Mine are the 2 inch ones and some are near 14 ft long boards.

I tried everything. 1500 psi pressure washer. Deck remove products, paint remover, heat gun, belt sanding it, etc.. name it, I've done it. I think the paint was oil based so it was caked on. Using a pressure washer, the areas where it was already cracked and coming off, it 'flew' off, but if there are any splinters or 'holes' like I see in yours, the pressure washer will just destroy it, and you'll have even bigger splinters after the water rips it away. I said screw it.. just replaced it. And areas where the paint is still hard and flat on the board, the pressure washer didn't do anything.

Areas where the paint is thick, it didn't do anything. Again, with a much stronger PSI, it might, but I have a feeling it'll just cause more damage. The stairs don't look as bad, so maybe it'll work better for that, but for the area with table, I recommend just replacing it.

For mine, On the other side, where it wasn't damaged, I just sanded what I could and will just plan to prime and paint it (new born so haven't had as much time). That side, I'm putting a rug on it, a bench seat, plants, etc, and it's going to be a kids play area so I don't care as much. Later on, if it gets bad, I'm just going to rip it up and replace it.

Hello again.

Two questions. If I wanted a simpler solution than re-building.

1. What if I unscrew all the planks and flip them over to the bare wood side? I already took two of them out and the wood isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was wondering if it would be moldy but it isn't. It is rusted and off coloured on the parts where it was screwed down to the supporting structure. But I borrowed a belt sander, though I haven't tried it yet. Was wondering if I sanded off the discoloured area and then used dark stain if it would look fine.

2. Someone suggested to me to lay new planks on top of the existing deck, but perpendicular. I was wondering how drainage would be for rain and snow melt. And also wondered if it would get moldy in between the new and old wood. I never imagined that this idea was a possibility. Is this pretty far fetched?

Thanks for any feedback on these ideas.

Should also mention that I may end up forking over the several hundreds of dollars and getting all new wood and a family member will help.

metaman wrote: ↑ 1. What if I unscrew all the planks and flip them over to the bare wood side? I

Quite often the planks all have a bit of crowning. Assuming the deck was built by someone who know his stuff, all the boards should be installed with the "crown" up. If you flip them all over they would all be facing the wrong way and water will not drain.

metaman wrote: ↑ 2. Someone suggested to me to lay new planks on top of the existing deck, but perpendicular.

There are actually products that are designed to do exactly what you want. Go to your local home depot they should have composite planks that are designed to be installed over old wooden planks.

csi123 wrote: ↑Quite often the planks all have a bit of crowning. Assuming the deck was built by someone who know his stuff, all the boards should be installed with the "crown" up. If you flip them all over they would all be facing the wrong way and water will not drain.


There are actually products that are designed to do exactly what you want. Go to your local home depot they should have composite planks that are designed to be installed over old wooden planks.

Good points on the crowning. I pulled out two and to me I can't see a difference.

As for the composite, I think that will cost more than we are willing to spend right now.

Looking at the condition of these two planks, any opinions on them?

I will try belt sander soon to see how they look. Plan is to stain dark. Chocolate from Behr.