Swab th' decks, matey!

We have lots of great outdoor space surrounding our li'l house on the ridge. Big decks. Little decks. High decks. Low decks. A screened deck off the living room. Funny, I just read a blog by my mom (a gifted writer and rockin' mom who also house/dog sits for us a lot), about our decks a few days ago and said almost the same thing about our decks! The spring weather always gets me itching to get out and enjoy them. The big deck is my favorite, as it sits a story above the ground; in the summer, surrounded by cottonwoods, oaks and birch heavy with leaves, it's like living in a tree house. Some day, I want a cozy li'l 2-person hot tub on the deck off the master bedroom. I envision soaking in it, on a snowy December evening, with Bob and a bottle of wine (yeah, I know, I know, alcohol and hot tubs don't mix - this is my fantasy, okay?), snowflakes softly sizzling in the water around us . . . The decks were the selling point for us when we bought the house four years ago. Even in February, with a foot of snow covering the decks, we knew we'd love the outdoor space.

The decks have "good bones," but have been worn by the elements. I don't think they're original to our 1974 rambler, but they have seen better days. Faded, stained, weather-beaten, they're in desperate need of a good scrub-down. We tried cleaning and staining the decks ourselves the first summer we lived out here. Below is a video of us (umm, me; Bob is conveniently "documenting" the event) doing this the first time, a few years back. Warning: you may hear a few colorful words from me during this clip. I wonder how many hapless souls have declared, "Hey, this ain't rocket science - why pay someone hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to do something we can do ourselves!" You soon find out it could just as well be rocket science, because you don't have the proper equipment, cleaning agents, or good ol' fashioned know-how to do the job right, no matter what the guys at Menard's tell you. Before you know it, you, too, will be swearing a blue streak, cursing the day your spouse came up with this lame-brained idea. Don't say I didn't warn ya.

 

After three day's worth of back-breaking labor, the decks didn't look much better than when we started, as clearly evident in the photos below. We couldn't get all the discoloration off the wood, so when we stained them, it turned out blotchy and uneven. By the end of summer, wind, rain and sun had taken their toll; you'd never had guessed we had done anything to the deck. I'm still suffering from lateral epicondylitis (aka "tennis elbow") from that damn project, nearly four years later. As I learned in a basic finance class at St. Cate's, time is money, and sometimes it pays to pay someone else to do the dirty work. 

before . . .

deck after it was "power washed" . . .

newly stained deck . . .

We briefly talked about replacing the decks with some kind of maintenance-free, eco-friendly material, but for the amount of deck space that we have (at least 1000 sq. feet), that just wasn't in the budget. And, the wood itself was in good shape, so that route seemed rather wasteful and excessive, as well. Instead,  at a loss for what to do, we did what most good homeowners do: forget about the project and just let 'em sit, at the mercy of the elements.

Fast forward a few years to the spring of 2008. I attended the Living Green Expo at the State Fairgrounds, and came upon a company, Deck Renewal and More, that refinishes decks in an eco-friendly manner, and guarantee their work for seven years. I'm going to naively trust that the people who organize the Expo hold their exhibitors to certain high ethical eco-standards, and as such, I am going to believe the Deck Renewal people when they say their products that are safe for pets and the environment. And, that with the average cost of $1800 for most deck renewals, there would be no more maintenance for at least seven years, compared to the cost and labor of doing it ourselves, or hiring a deck maintenance company to come out every few years (didn't even know there were such companies)!

I was impressed with what I saw at the Expo, and with what I read on the company's website, yet another year passed before we finally decided to make the phone call. A friendly, grandfatherly salesman named Dennis came to the house a few weeks ago, gave me a quick, yet thorough description of the process, and took measurements of the decks. After punching numbers with big fingers on a tiny calculator held in place with velcro inside his three-ring binder, Dennis looked up from his notes announced that it would be $3800 to refinish all the decks. I'm sure I failed miserably in disguising my complete and utter surprise - so much for the "average cost" of $1800. He said, "Well, your situation is unusual, because most people don't have 1000 square feet of deck surface." Seeing my shock, he quickly followed with ways to cut the costs: we could do just the big deck, we could do just the first two steps of the process - cleaning and staining - and leave the acrylic topcoat for another time, up to two years later. 

I told him I would discuss the information with Bob and call him as soon as we decided what to do. I called Bob after Dennis left, and we debated the pros and cons of the project as in-depth as if it were a bill we were trying to pass in Congress. After much deliberation, we decided to go ahead and do the big deck,  and just the first two steps for now, at a much easier-to-swallow rate of $1600. We could even do the last step at the end of the summer, just to spread out the cost, but at least we have some time to decide on that one. I called Dennis back that afternoon and put name in the queue. 

We waited patiently for almost two weeks, but just got a phone call from someone from the deck company tonight. He said it's short notice, but he can come out tomorrow (Monday) and start the project. Yippee!