Refinish Front Porch

[PirateKatz]

Hello,

I live in a 90 year old American Foursquare and we'd like to refinish the front porch. I'd really appreciate any advice or input, or any info about how much of a can of worms we're opening up.

Currently, the porch is covered with a green astro-turf like carpet. Underneath the carpet, there is a layer of what appears to be a yellow adhesive, which is broken down and no longer sticks to the carpet. Underneath of that, the porch was once painted gray.

I've inspected the wood and it appears to be in very good shape, both on the surface and in the crawl space.

I've done a pretty good deal of wood-working but I must admit, since the porch is outside I'm a little out of my league. I've also never refinished a floor. I would assume, the procedure would involve chemically stripping the porch, replacing damaged boards (if any), sanding, staining, and some kind of marine polyurethane?

Does anyone have experience with such a task?

Thanks,

Jim

[ransley]

Quickest might be rent a floor sander and sand off glue, get extra rolls of course paper, then stain with exterior porch oil stain. on an exterior floor a clear Marine poly will last a few years then need removal, alot of work in a few years. If the porch is covered paint will hold up but I would stain it this year.

[cshenk]

"ransley" wrote

Concur. I have done similar (Habitat for Humanity volunteer, refinishing work). It's actually easier to just sand down than mess with chemical strippers which *may* cause problems later with older but still firm woods.

If you have to replace any wood, it will have a different coloration so a darker stain is a better bet overall. I had to also replace several spindles (cosmetic, not truely load bearing, but collectively held up the railing). Puppy chewed . Anyways, it was easy to get the fellow who knew how match up patterns, to wood work that. Due to coloration however, we painted all spindles and used stain on the rest. There were 2 steps, one of which needed to be replaced but I replaced both. Reason being I wanted a perfect stain match between them. (Only takes about 30 mins to replace the top portion of a stair, if that and I'd done it many times so for me, 30 mins for both). Then, deck needed 5-7 planks replaced (I forget exactly) but we sanded down, replaced, resanded, then dark oak stain on railing, stairs, deck. Painted 'spindles' to match trim of house. Because I'm not particularily big or strong, one of the guys ran the floor sander for me while I fixed something else (wood trim along a back screened porch, and a dog house roof if memory serves). It was about a 12x6 porch on the front of the house. I think it took him perhaps 2 hours? Not sure. I am sure it would take longer with a hand sander.

Yes, oil based stain please and later if desiring to paint, oil based paint if legal for your area (some I gather now dont allow that?). If older wood, it will be soaking up some stain so very likely to need 3-4 coats. Dont worry, thats making the wood heathier.

[Norminn]

With the time, effort and expense of doing what you propose, it would probably be much more economical to rip up the old wood and put down a new floor. I have never done what you describe, but have refinished lots of furniture.

[ransley]

Be sure to hit all nails down as you see them and try not to sand them, a long steel rod hit with a hammer helps to keep you from bending over every 5 minutes

[PirateKatz]

Thanks everyone for all the advice. Regardless, of what I do it'll probably have to wait for a few months until we can have a dry week where it doesn't drop below 50 deg.

I do have another question though... I still haven't examined their condition (but they feel solid) but how exactly would somebody strip/ clean concrete stairs? Mine at the very least will have the remnants of adhesive and may have possibly been painted in the past.

Thanks,

Jim

[ransley]

Sandblast

[hallerb]

methyl stripper then sandblast

stripping is faster than sandblasting the entire thing

[Norminn]

Ever used paint remover on concrete?