Hello everyone. I just purchased a home with a small deck out back (15' x 15'). It was build with standard lumber around 1998 (just a guess). They originally put on an chocolatey brown opaque stain and that's it - I don't think anything was done to it since then. So, when I moved in it was mainly gray with maybe 25% still covered with the opaque stain.
I'm not a fan of the opaque stain, I just like something a little more natural looking. So I went down to my local Lowes and bought some Flood's Stain Stripper, Cleaner and semi-tranparent CWF. I tried stripping the dang thing with the Stain Stripper but could only get about half of the remaining stain off. I then broke out the pressure washer and got a little bit more off but had to quit since the washer was splintering the wood. I then had to lightly belt sand the whole thing so I wouldn't get a splinter in my foot every time I went outside.
At this point I was pretty tired and mad so I just used the deck cleaner on it to see what would happen. It really brightened up the wood, but the old stain is still very visible. I tested the CWF on a small area and it doesn't look very good. It tints the wood towards a slight cedar color but the remaining stain underneath looks horrible.
What should I do? Cut my losses, give in and buy an opaque stain? If so, what brand should I look at - I was considering Olympic. Is there some magical product out there that I haven't found yet? Anyone else have any similar experiences they would share with me, either good or bad? Thanks, in advance, for all the responses.