FRONT PORCH

PAGE 2

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Copy of Before porch railings sm.jpg (56926 bytes)

Copy (2) of After porch railings east side.JPG (230460 bytes)

porch floor sides beforesm.jpg (19408 bytes)

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Before, bad paint rotten post bases.

First attempt , too dark.  I did it over in summer 2003.

This picture shows how bad the paint was.  The wood looked rotten.

After stripping the steps and restoring them with resins.

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We rented a large sander.  (not a drum sander)  This one isn't nearly as aggressive as the belt drum sanders. Though we needed something more aggressive.  This was after several hours of sanding.

After second day of sanding.  At least 6 more hours and many sandpaper pads.

After third day.  Will it ever be done?  We went back and bought more very coarse sandpaper.

We had to bring the sander back so the rest was done with a small orbital sander.  $20 more worth of sandpaper.  Just won't do the job.

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Copy of finished porch floor.jpg (53291 bytes)

porch aftersm.jpg (21253 bytes)

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Time for the big guns.  By the way, stripper wasn't budging it, either.  Even the heat gun couldn't get the thick black bottom layer off.  It was like tar, possibly creosote?.

So I went out and bought a grinder and lots and lots of grinding pads.  Finally we went and rented the sander again to finish it off.

All that work paid off.  What we thought was rotten wood turned out to be gorgeous long-leaf yellow heart pine.  Hard as a rock because of the high resin content.  Has a beautiful purple tint to it.

This is a close up of the porch wood.  I used dewaxed shellac and then ordered the diamond coat water based outdoor poly.  It isn't meant for foot traffic and can be slippery but I put in the grit to keep it from being slippery.  I'm sure it won't hold up too long with the grit but will recoat every two years or so.

Copy of steps done.jpg (67072 bytes)

Next spring I'll paint a black border around the perimeter of the porch.

I put a polyurethane textured border board on the bottom of the sides to protect the sides from snow.  I painted it to match.  You may be able to see it when you enlarge the above photos.

  

I painted the front steps a brick color.  So much better than that awful gray color.

Update:  These stairs had a lot of rot on them that I repaired with resin (bondo).  It lasted 4 more years but the rest of the stairs started to rot, too.  So I built new ones. 

   UPDATE

The beautiful finish only lasted one year.  I ended up having to paint it the color of the steps.  Looks good but it was gorgeous with the clear coat.  If they ever make a clear coat that can really stand up to the weather and not be slippery, I may strip the paint off and redo it.