How long does it take to sand a deck?

In general, it will take you 8 hours to sand a deck that is 25m2, using a belt sander. But there are a few factors that can affect the time it takes to sand your decking.

There are 3 main things that will affect how long it takes to sand your deck…

These are:

• The condition of the coating on your deck
• The type of sander you’re using
• The size of your decking

The Condition of the Coating on Your Deck

If the current coating on your deck is in pretty good condition like this…

Then it’s actually easier and quicker to sand your decking.

If your current coating is like this…

It’s actually a lot harder to sand…

When you sand a decking with a coating that is in good condition you’ll find that it comes off easily and you’re left with timber that looks brand new…

But a decking that is faded and missing in spots has two layers….

You’ll sand off the top faded coating then you’ll be left with a grey or black coating which is damage from the weather…

You’ll have to sand this off as well, but it takes a little more “elbow grease” to remove this grey damage.

If you don’t sand it off properly then your deck will look black and blotchy.

You can see what I’m talking about from the photo below…

If your decking looks like this, it’ll take you more time to sand your decking back properly.

The Type of Sander You’re Using

If you’re going to get down there yourself and sand back your deck, then you’ll probably be wanting to use a belt sander for the bulk and an orbital sander for the edges…

Not all sanders are created equal…

The sander you use can drastically affect the time it takes to sand your decking…

By now you k now that I recommend this belt sander from Makita…

But if you don’t want to spend that much I would recommend checking out something like this Ozito for $99

Something like the Ozito could be fine for a one off small deck but it would be a lot quicker with the top range Makita sander.

I’ve found these cheaper tools get the job done but they’re not as effective as the Trade quality tools…

It’s at this point that most people consider just hiring a big sanding machine to make life so much easier…

You could always hire a stand up Orbital sander to get the job done, but…

The problem with the bigger, stand up sanders is that a lot of the times your decking boards will have slight cupping…

Or decking boards that are sitting uneven…

You probably won’t even notice it until you start sanding…

And when you use a big sanding machine, it can’t reach any uneven sections or cupped boards…

So the only way to sand a deck properly with a big floor sander is to sand across the boards first to level it off and then sand up and down the boards to smooth it off…

The problem with this is, most decking boards are only 19mm thick…

And when you sand across the boards and then up and down the boards, you could be removing 5mm from your 19mm boards…

This means that your decking boards will now be only 14mm thick…

That doesn’t sound very safe to me…

The thing is, most deck sanding companies won’t tell you this but, you can only sand your deck twice before you need to replace the boards…

Because, what happens in 2 years time when you need to sand your deck again?

Will you take another 5mm off the top leaving you with only 9mm to walk on??

That’s why I only ever sand a deck using a combination of my “gentle sanding techniques” namely the “RoundHouse Sanding Method” and the “High Skii Technique”

These techniques together allow you to sand every section of your deck evenly without weakening the boards and making it unsafe to walk on…

Plus you won’t have to pay thousand of dollars to replace your entire decking because you weakened the boards to unsafe levels with a floor sander…

It’s hard to sand these boards properly with these big sanders. It’s a lot easier and more effective to use a belt sander with the RoundHouse Sanding Method and The High Skii Technique…

Choice is your…

But before you move on, there’s something else that affects the time it takes to sand your deck…

And that is…

The size of your decking…

Of course the size of your decking will affect how long it takes you to sand your deck.

I’ve found that I can sand about 25m2 of decking in a day…

So if your decking is 50m2, it could take up to 2 days…

But if you aren’t used to sanding deckings, it can be a painful task that will have your knees aching… your back screaming… and your abs cramping…

You may need more regular breaks to allow your body to recover…

It could double the time it takes you to sand your deck…

If you do sand the deck yourself, make sure you get some knee pads…

The cheap ones will work pretty good if you’re using them just for your deck…

As you can see, there’s quite a lot of work that goes into sanding a deck…

If you want to know how to do it plus which sanders and sandpaper you should use, check out my guide on deck sanding…

That’s about all there is to it…

I’ll see you next time…

Peace,

Jason