I've found water blasting damages wood, so probably avoid that. Paint stripper is probably best but can be slow. 

Is it the whole deck or just a spill.

If it is the whole deck, and it is groove side up, punch the nails and flip over and sand the paint off that has wicked around.

Probably quicker and easier to replace the wood to be honest. 

John

SATTV:

 

Is it the whole deck or just a spill.

 

If it is the whole deck, and it is groove side up, punch the nails and flip over and sand the paint off that has wicked around.

 

Probably quicker and easier to replace the wood to be honest. 

 

John

 

It's the whole deck and groove side is down. Do you mean punch the nails right through the deck boards?

jrcollins:

 

SATTV:

 

Is it the whole deck or just a spill.

 

If it is the whole deck, and it is groove side up, punch the nails and flip over and sand the paint off that has wicked around.

 

Probably quicker and easier to replace the wood to be honest. 

 

John

 

 

 

 

It's the whole deck and groove side is down. Do you mean punch the nails right through the deck boards?

 

Being groove side down you can use a floor sander ( can hire from Bunnings ) then punch the nails right through to remove the board to remove any other paint then screw down.

A lot of work, probably quicker and easier to replace all the wood.

John

Sanding, uplifting the timber, further paint removal and re-laying could be an option - but imagine the huge amount of difficult work involved in removing any paint from the edges of the boards. Then when you re-lay the timber, if you don’t or can’t use the old nail holes for the new screws, it will look awful.

The initial machine sanding may be difficult too, depending on the type of paint on the deck. The paint may quickly clog the grit of the sander which is frustrating and can lead to damage of the surface if there are clumps of paint in the sandpaper. If there are railing uprights around the deck, the sanding machine is unlikely to get close to these and there will need to be further sanding with an orbital sander or by hand.

I agree with others above who said it would be better and easier to replace the timber.

Bung: What is the timber like? It could have been painted originally because it was very average looking "merch" grade that won't repay the effort of stripping and staining. All you might notice are the knots and cracks.

Our local timber yard has a lot of premium grade pine. Ordered ages ago and now not flying off the shelf because the joist and bearer timber is short supply. It's not getting any cheaper though!

The timber is actually pretty good. My parents decided to paint it a few years ago and are now regretting the decision.

@jrcollins Interested to know what you decided to do.

eracode:

 

@jrcollins Interested to know what you decided to do.

 

I haven't decided yet but was leaning towards ripping it up and replacing it with new timber. The other option would be to get it repainted but if I did that I would probably hire someone to do it. The quote I got for that works out about the same as putting a new deck down if I did the work myself. Whatever I decide to do I will probably wait until summer.

👍. The thing about painting is that once you do that, you've got an ongoing periodic re-do situation.

eracode:

 

👍. The thing about painting is that once you do that, you've got an ongoing periodic re-do situation.

 

Yes, which is why I wouldn't recommend painting a deck.

But surely that applies to oiling and staining as well, to various degrees.

rb99:

 

But surely that applies to oiling and staining as well, to various degrees.

 

That's a fair point but I think a painted deck is probably more difficult and costly to maintain in the long run.