I finished laying the new decking on the side of the house and replaced 4 existing deck planks that had rotted.

I’ve decided to sand the existing painted deck and then stain it all the same color – it will be the best way to avoid painting and to get it to look like one big deck.

But wow…. bought a belt sander (nice smaller one which is perfect for these sore hands) and I’ve completely sanded five of the 12 ft deck planks so far. I also had to buy a small rotary sander to get the paint off in between the deck boards. What a job this will be.

I’ll take some pics tomorrow and upload them. If I live through this, it will look very nice when finished.