There’s a group of manic deck experts out there who claim “Do Not Sand a Deck”…
If you do, they get all emotional and scream “Bloody Murder!”…
While others whip out their humongous deck sanding machines and tear along your deck like there’s no tomorrow…
So who’s right?
The deck sanding guys or the “do not sand a deck” guys??
Well, that’s exactly what I’m going to expose in this tell all article…
Here’s what you need to know…
The reason why some experts claim that you should never sand a deck…
Here’s the thing about sanding a deck…
In most cases, your deck boards are only 19mm thick…
And when those deck boards are exposed to the weather, they will expand, contract, and warp out of shape…
You may not see it, but your deck is not level like the timber floors inside your home…
Now imagine taking out a huge deck sander, or deck leveller as I like to call it, and trying to sand these boards with all of these twists and cupping issues…
The only way to sand it properly is to run the sanding machine across the deck on a 45 degree angle to level it off first…
Then you run up and back down the boards to sand them properly…
That is at least 3 to 4 passes under the drum sander…
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How much do you think a drum sander will take off your deck to get it sanded properly?
2mm?
3mm?
If it’s really badly cupping, maybe 5mm?
So stick with me here, we’re going to do a little bit of basic maths…
19mm deck board minus 3mm from sanding the deck, equals…
16mm…
Do you think having a deck that is 16mm thick would be strong and sturdy?
Now think about what would happen if in 5 years you need to sand your deck back again…
Dang!!
Your deck could be down to 13mm…
Uhmm…
This doesn’t sound too safe to me…
What do you think??
Ok, well maybe some deck boards are thicker than 19mm…
Sometimes they could be 25mm or 1 inch thick, but most decks that I work on are 19mm…
And maybe your deck is completely flat with no warping or cupping…
So sanding it back would only take off 0.5 of a millimetre…
Well, here’s the thing…
There’s a couple of other reasons why they say “do not sand a deck”…
And being the great guy that I am, I’m going to tell you exactly what they are right now…
The Complete Step by Step Deck Staining Course…
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You shouldn’t sand a deck for the sake of your deck screws…
You see, when you sand a deck, you have to go along and punch down every deck nail or drive down all of the deck screws…
If you don’t, it’ll be like some mediaeval torture chamber…
You know…
Where the Queen screams, “Off With Their Heads!!”…
If you don’t get those deck screws below the surface, any sanding will take them right off…
Now I know for a fact that you aren’t that barbaric, so you’ll definitely punch those nails down…
Right?
And when you do, that’s where another problem arises…
Have you noticed how when your deck is installed, the deck screws sit flush with the surface of your deck and the nails sit on the surface with the dome head slightly raised?
There’s a good reason for this…
It helps to keep the rain from soaking into your deck boards through these nail holes…
Makes sense right?
And then we come along and drive them 1 mm below the surface of the deck to protect them from the deck sander but now we create these little pits that hold water…
Over time, the water starts to soak into these little pits and 3 things can happen…
- The deck boards start to rot out at these nail pits…
- Ugly black stains start to form…
- Nails and screws can rust out…
And no matter how much deck stain you fill these pits with, the “horrific three” above will still occur…
It looks pretty ugly…
Oh, you may be thinking that perhaps you could fill these holes with a wood filler and all of your problems will go away…
Let me tell you something…
Using a wood filler on decking boards that expand and contract with the weather will crack and fall out…
But that’s a story for another day…
As you can see, they kind of have a point with the whole do not sanding a deck thing, hey?
Well, there’s actually another reason why you shouldn’t sand your deck…
If you think you can handle more mistreatment of decks then continue on…
If you make these mistakes, your deck could peel…
Click here to find out how to avoid the Dreaded Peeling Deck!
You shouldn’t sand a deck because it prevents the stain from absorbing into the deck boards…
This one is a real bugger…
It’s one of those problems that kinda sneaks up on you…
You’ll sand your deck then stain it and it’ll look awesome…
But what you did wrong was to sand your deck too smoothly…
This looks great and feels really great when you run your hand along it but you make one fatal mistake…
You closed the surface of your deck boards and now the deck stain you apply can’t be absorbed onto the surface of the boards…
Even if you use the best deck stain available, 3 months after staining your deck, you’ll get the dreaded “Peeling Deck Syndrome”…
So if you do sand your deck, make sure that you never use any sandpaper finer than 80 grit…
80 grit will give you the balance between smooth and “open enough” so that you can stain your deck…
So should you sand your deck or not?
That my friend, really depends on your decking…
If it’s new and weathered, then all you need is a scrub with a brightener and a rinse off…
If it’s a 10 year old deck that has been weathered and worn, then perhaps you should sand it…
If your deck is in pretty good condition but it’s a bit rough in spots, then give it a light rubbing over with 80 grit sandpaper…
Just know that if you need to sand your deck, it’s not the end of the world…
The whole idea is to get your deck back to the best condition possible and then put a maintenance plan in place and stain your deck on a regular basis before it gets damaged…
That way you’ll keep any deck sanding to a minimum…
The way I like to look at it is this…
If your deck timber is in a bad condition then you need to sand it…
If your deck is in good condition but you need to strip it, then you should use a chemical stripper to strip it back…
If you need to remove old deck paint and the chemical stripper hasn’t worked, then sand it…
Sanding is not the monster some people make it out to be but you want to sand your deck as minimally as possible…
Actually, I sand multiple decks every week and I never have any problems…
But I don’t sand like most other decking companies…
I have created my own special deck sanding methodology…
It’s made up of two very basic sanding techniques that anyone can do…
The first is called ‘The RoundHouse Method”…
And the second is called “The High Skii Technique”…
I’ve used these simple sanding techniques together to sand some of the most uneven, cupped and warped out of shape decks you have ever seen…
All without grinding the deck flat or making it weak…
I have never seen my very special deck sanding methodology being used by anyone else, anywhere on the internet…
Look, you’ll have to see it for yourself…
I’ve put together a guide DIY guide where I break down both of these two deck sanding techniques…
I show you how to use them, when to use them and just how easy it is to use them…
If you’re planing on sanding your deck, you really need to be using these two special techniques…
Anyway, you can grab yourself a copy of my guide by clicking this link here…
Well I think that might be all you need to know on the topic…
If you decide that you need to learn the basics like which sandpaper to use, you can check out my awesome guide that goes into all the gruesome details about sanding a deck…
And if you have any questions about this, leave me a comment below and I’ll do my best to answer any question you have…
That’s it from me…
Peace,
Jason…
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FAQ’s
If your deck is in good condition and it doesn’t have any damage to it, then it is not necessary to sand a deck. If it has damage or raised fibres then you’ll need to sand it…
You can definitely refinish a deck without sanding. As long as you haven’t had to pressure wash it to remove an old coating or it doesn’t have any damage from weathering, then you can refinish a deck without sanding…
If your deck has any raised fibres or damage to the surface, then you will need to sand a deck before painting it. It will only need a light sand with 80 grit sandpaper…
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