deck disaster?

[sheryl]

Hello, all. I hope someone can help. I have a 5 year old pressure treated pine deck that was stained dark grey a week after it was installed. Now the stain is very worn away. I pressure washed the deck and most of the stain just vanished. How do I get rid of the stain that remains (like under where the patio table was)? I would prefer not to use a chemical stripper if I can at all avoid it. Can I leave it over the winter and then wash it again?

Do I have to sand it? What about scraping it?

Thanks for helping me.

Sheryl

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Expose it to the sun and over the winter and good chance most of what remains will be easily washed away.

[newluddite]

I too wanted to avoid a chemical stripper, and sanded my deck down to what I thought was bare wood. Lot of work, even with a floor sander. But even so, stains and sealers often have wax/oil in them and these can get deep into the wood and would require quite deep sanding, as I discovered when I put on a product that required bare wood. I didn't have bare wood, tho it looked like I did, and I had to chemically strip off the new product and the old. That said, it was a lot less work than sanding. Protect your plants and use lots of water. Let it sit over the winter and decide if you need to strip it in the spring. But the chemical strippers actually seem to work pretty well.