We have a fence made of pressure treated lumber and stained with a solid stain. If we want to restain it with the same stain just to freshen it, should we sand it? Or power wash it? or both? - the stain is in pretty good shape. Thanks!
2 Answers
Many fence treatments are intended for use on rough sawn wood as they soak in better. Assuming your fence is made of sawn timber, you shouldn't sand it.
Also the pressure treatment doesn't soak in all the way (or at least not at full strength) so you wouldn't want to remove much material.
A pressure washer or a brush would be a good idea, especially combined with detergent (and then a good rinse, consider what's underneath when you choose detergent). It's possible a pressure washer will remove flakes of old treatment, or even loose bits of wood. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as it will give you a good surface.
Based on the good information that Chris gave my answer would be give it a good washing with trisodium phosphate (TSP) and a deck scrubbing brush then high pressure wash with clean water.
answered Jul 24, 2016 at 8:28
