I am getting ready to sand my wooden deck (a small 8x10’ area). I bought a black and decker combo sander that can be either a random orbit sander or a regular “back and forth” sander.
From what I can tell, the random orbit sander is supposed to let me move the sander in any direction without screwing up the finish of the wood. I don’t know if there are other advantages/disadvantages of either mode.
I am sanding to remove old paint before I re-stain the deck.
Any suggestions?
8x10 is about the sort of area where I’d start to consider hiring a large drum sander (use a punch to sink the nails in a bit further before you start.
The random orbital sander will be both more aggressive and will leave a better finish. For an 8 x 10 area, I’d use a 5" or 6" orbital disk sander.
Maybe a pressure washer will remove the old paint?
Perhaps a chemical paint remover?
8x10 is a lot to do with a small hand sander
Personally, I would highly recommend you do not use an orbital sander! You will be going against the grain and when you stain you will see the circular arks in the grain of the planks. SO unless that is appealing, using a Belt Sander is the preferred tool for this project. Also, chemical paint stripper’s should only be used when doing furniture and bureaus and such…on something you will be walking on, with bare feet at times, you’d want to stay away from chemical solvents…
Nope. That’s what the “random orbital” buys you. The random tiny eccentric motions evens out the large arcs caused by the rotary motion. That’s why RO sanders are so popular among woodworkers – you don’t have to worry nearly as much about cross-grain sanding. I do a lot of woodworking and use the random orbital sanders almost exclusively. And it it’s good enough for a piece of furniture or a jewelry box, then it’s good enough for a deck.
While belt sanders are extremely aggressive, that’s about all they have going for them.
What’s up with the chem strip on walked on stuff? I was thinking that it might not be good for pressure treated wood, and I was also wondering if the resulting mess would be worth it, but walked-on???
Or use a wrench to run in the deck screws!
A drum sander is for Experts Only. In the hands of an inexperienced amateur user the deck will end up with a washboard effect.
The belt sander is the way to go if sanding. Consider the pressure washer, it will take old chewing gum off concrete sidewalks!
I’ll agree with the wonders of RO sander’s, however, what I meant to say in my post was: “…You’ll see the circular marks on the planking…” Not arks.
Having recently sanded down and resurfaced our porch 12’ X 35’, I found that the belt saw gave me much better control, and worked much faster than my RO sander. And I have made the mistake of using my RO sander on the porch when I was finishing the stairs, and the first coat of finish I put on it, brought out the circular markings in the freshly sanded wood. In all, with the belt sander you never have to worry about circular markings…and for a layperson working with wood, it may be an easier path to take. We all have our favourites.
Though I am not a tree-hugg’in Dirt worshipper, I try and stay as chem free as I can, including lawn fertilizer’s etc…etc… There nothing inherently wrong with using chem solvent’s on decking…but a nice sand down to the bare bones of the wood and a good finish is nearly second to non.
I wound up using the RO sander. 8x10’ was a lot to do in the midday sun with a 5" RO sander. I am using opaque stain, so I didn’t think I needed to worry about leaving marks from the sanding. It looks like the RO did fine work, although next time I’m going to get up early and sand them darn thing before noon.
Thanks for the advice!
Glad it worked for you – for the sake of those others following this thread, I just refinished my new deck (new in the sense of “new to me”).
Chemical Stripper – worked as advertised. Washed off mostly okay.
Pressure Washer – to get the wood as clean as I could. The problem with the pressure washer is it really raises the grain on the wood, leaving it really, really rough. Left it spotlessly clean, though.
Orbital sander – used this just to test if it’d be worth it to sand the hand rails. Would have been really, really slow to do then entire deck. So, ran out and bought a cheap…
Belt Sander – took care of everything in about 10 minutes.
I regret, though, using opaque stain instead of semi-opaque. Next time around, I guess.
Feh. I used a drum sander to do my deck (it’s more like 12 feet by 30 feet) and it came out fine. You just have to be careful and follow the instructions. Hiring drum sanders out to amateurs to sand and polish their own internal floorboards) is commonplace in Australia, heaps of my friends have done it successfully.
since no one else mentioned it, an accessory called a soft pad is available from marine or auto body stores. It is a foam backed disc that fits on a large (7’) disc grinder. Use the “medium” density
the advantage is that it throws the sanded material out while following the slight contours resulting in a very quick removal with minimal paper expense. You might get that whole deck down with a couple of sheets of 80 grit paper. This is unbelievably fast as well. The job will take only minutes compared to other methods and yields best results. The swirls are removed by hitting it with a lighter grit, (say 120) and will dissapear entirely at 150-180.
You will never use a belt sander again… (for this sort of thing anyway)
