Sooo deck progress… Let’s talk about that.
We are now halfway through the 6 week One Room Challenge as I enter panic mode. I entered this week extremely optimistic, maybe even a little prematurely as I tend to do. Rainbows and unicorns over here people.
We will start with the bad stuff.
As I mentioned in last week’s plans post, one major daunting project was to strip and stain my deck and fence in favor of something a little warmer, more cozy feeling. I knew this was not going to be a fun task, but man, did I underestimate just how unfun this was going to be.
Demonstration:
(Insert cries of frustration.) My parents, roommate, Mallory, and I spent the day and evening working on the deck trying different methods of stripping all that paint. We all ended the day exhausted, not much progress done, and not sure which direction to go from here.
We first tried a power washer. It worked ok for some of the looser pieces that were already peeling, but in all it was just taking too long. After some research on power washing, I also concluded that this could cause splintering and make the wood “fuzzy”.
Next, in my research I found that the best rated paint stripper was Citristrip. It received soaring reviews on Amazon. Not so much the case for me and my heavy duty deck paint. I was already reluctant to try Citristrip. Walmart only had a small 32 oz bottle, costing $11, which ended up covering only about a 24 sq ft area…. I have about 470 sq ft to strip. Probably not the most cost effective option, but I grabbed a bottle to try anyways. Results… Not effective.
Citristrip is the white row. The next row in this picture is the 2nd paint stripper I tried. Also not effective. That product was Klean Strip Strip-X Stripper.
I dunno. Maybe I didn’t do something correctly? Directions for Citristrip instructed to paint product on and leave for 30 minutes to 24 hours…? I tried 30 minutes. Nothing. I tried a couple hours. Nothing. I gave up.
So now I am at a stand still until I can find a better option. No chance of turning back. Please share if you have any positive experience with a particular paint stripper.
Now, I will end the post with a few updates I am excited about.
I ordered a sectional couch for the space. Even better news… the price dropped from the original $610 to $499! I ordered from Wayfair. This is my second furniture purchase from them and I must say, both times I have been blown away with their super fast delivery. Both items (the first was my kitchen chairs which i will try to share in another unrelated post) qualified for free 2 day shipping. Both items arrived on time for their scheduled delivery. I haven’t taken my sectional out of the boxes yet due to the deck paint issue. It would just be another thing to move around. I will give my full review on that next week hopefully.
I also found a couple rugs and an umbrella from World Market that I am LOVING! I went with these rugs from World Market due to the plastic mat material. There were several woven rugs that I also loved, however, I have read that on wood decks the safest option is the plastic mat style. The plastic dries quickly and doesn’t allow moisture to get trapped underneath causing wood rot. My number one goal here is to create a space that will last me a long time. Has anyone else used regular outdoor rugs on wood decks without any trouble?
Glad you could join me for another week in the One Room Challenge! If you are participating, hang in there guys! We are halfway there!
Tara Danei 
It might be the most effective to rent one of those huge drum sanders from the hardware store for a day? I’ve used them on interior wood floors, but not outside, so I don’t know if it would work. Good luck!
Have you tried sanding off the paint? That might help. You could also try Jasco liquid paint stripper, you have to scrape it off with a putty knife afterwards. With a deck as big as yours, that might be a lot of work. That is frustrating to run into a road block like that. I hope you find a solution for your deck.
– Jaclyn