Fun with Erosion

After dropping some serious coin at Lowes last weekend we've begun getting the outdoor space in shape. My new favorite toy is the Powerwasher. That thing kicks ass! The first thing we're tackling is the back deck. Furtunately we had the skanky Ghetto Jacuzzi removed by the seller leaving a bleak expanse of semi-painted wood backed with the concrete block garage. Not pretty. Well, it still isn't pretty but we're working on it.

We decided that painting the deck may not work...I'd rather not try to make something so large look like something that it's not. Also a pristine deck would look out of place. So we decided to go with the weathered look by stripping off the remaining paint and using a clear sealer/stain. I really thought the power washer would take off the paint but unfortunately the paint withstands the assault of the water jet better than than the wood does. That thing chews off a good amount of material. We tried pretreating with several cleansers then blasting, spot treating with paint remover then blasting, and just plain blasting on the highest setting. Plain old blasting worked best so we set to it.

You can see we did the left hand third of the deck. Now it almost blends in with the area that was covered by the Jacuzzi. The lower right hand third is untouched. Pretty cool. If we're goint to do it right we should rent a sander and give the whole thing a once over because the powerwasher does a number on the surface texture. We don't want to put too much into this because we figure the whole deck will need to be replaced in a few years anyhow.

So now we have to finish blasting, replace or patch some rotten spots, sand it (maybe), find a non-rainy weekend to seal it, get some outdoor rugs (I'm obsessed with Mad Mats), get the container gardening thing going, paint the garage door red, figure out what to do with the garage wall and fence colors, etc. Ugh!