A painted deck, especially when done the right way, is a beautiful and long-lasting alternative to staining. However, like a good stain, painting is just as subject to wear and tear over time, whether it’s from the elements or from routine foot traffic. So, you might be wondering if you can seal it for increased longevity.
There’s good news and bad news. The good news is, you can seal your painted wood. The bad news is, you can only seal certain paints, rather than just any paint. Paints and stains are not all the same and some are designed for an accommodating seal while others are not.
For most practical purposes paints and stains are the same things, with paint being a pigmented version. Since you do seal a nice, stained deck, that means you can also seal a painted deck. However, some paints are effectively sealants themselves, depending on the type and chemical composition.
You have to be careful if you want to seal a painted deck, especially if you don’t know what kind of paint that you’re dealing with. There are also situational things that you should consider before you go out and buy that first gallon of deck seal.
What Kind of Paints Are Good to Seal?
Latex and most oil-based paints do not need an additional sealant as they are more than capable of taking care of the deck by protecting it from weathering and UV-based damage. Water-soluble paints are more applicable when it comes to using a sealant to cover the paint.
If you look around a painted deck and notice that in certain areas, the paint is bubbling, cracking, or peeling away and you know that those are areas that are infrequently trafficked, you don’t want to add a sealant or even paint over it with a matching color.
This type of damage indicates that there is a problem with the old paint’s ability to bond with the deck. Either there was moisture, uneven application, or a poorly chosen paint for wood applications.
Paint, like a good stain, bonds with the surface at a molecular level, in a way that you can’t see but have to trust that it’s effective.
The most important thing that you should know, is that sealing a well-painted deck, even if the deck is painted with oil-based or latex paint, doesn’t do anything additional for the deck.
So long as the wood is covered, it’s already protected and if the paint is going to start peeling off, it will do so whether it has sealant above it or not. So while you can certainly seal a painted deck if you want to, it’s not going to improve the quality nor preserve the underlying paint.
What to Do with a Deck Paint That’s Peeling
The last thing that you want to do with a painted deck that’s peeling is seal it. Since the paint is peeling due to a failure to properly bond with the underlying wood, nothing is going to stop that. Your best course of action is to sand the paint or remove it entirely and seal the deck with sealant alone.
Repainting the Deck
When it comes to paints and stains, surface prep is everything. Any residential or commercial painter will tell you that ¾ of the entire process is surface preparation. Without adequate surface prep, the entire endeavor will result in a failure and if your paint fails, it will turn a beautiful deck into a nightmare aesthetic.
If you don’t want to remove all of the paint, you will have to systematically go through every square inch of the deck, using a sander with very fine grit or use regular sandpaper, sanding the bad spots.
When you come to bad spots, you will need to do what is called feathering. That means you have to sand from the center outward, in circular motions, until the paint stops coming off easily and will take the shape of a feather on the edges.
You want to sand it down until your original paint is almost flush with underlying wood and the closest you will come is a feathered appearance on the edges. By the time you reach that point, you will have sufficiently sanded the underlying wood as well, opening up the pores for a better bond with new paint.
From this point, you need to thoroughly clean the deck and do not paint it until the exposed deck is completely dry.
Removing the Existing Paint
Sometimes it’s just best to remove the paint altogether. Especially if the paint is old, chipping, bubbling up, or just peeling away. You can always stain the underlying wood and seal it later.
To remove paint from the deck, you’ll need a good paint stripper, a large paintbrush, and a pressure washer. Apply the stripper to every square inch of paint on the deck, using just the paintbrush so that you can catch every crack and crevice.
Paint strippers are typically pretty acidic, so use gloves as they will burn and irritate your skin on contact. The stripper needs time after application but you will know you are all set when all of the paint has bubbled up and is cracking.
Break out the pressure washer and go to town. If you applied the paint stripper the right way, the paint will just roll off of it and it may get a bit messy so prepare yourself for that as well.
Once you’re all done, allow the deck to dry before you go through and lightly sand the entire deck. Clean it thoroughly afterward and you can then prepare to apply the stain and seal it.
Final Thoughts
Though you can certainly seal a painted deck, there’s really no reason to do so. For one, the deck paint may not be in the best condition, even if you can’t see it. For two, the addition of a seal over paint isn’t going to improve the deck’s durability nor will it improve the longevity of the paint.
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