Deck Railings Project

So, I am scraping and sanding the flaking paint off the railings on the back deck. The I'll do some wood stabilization in areas (some of the flat surfaces have very deep cracks where water collects), prime, and repaint.



The deck was built probably shortly after 1989; we have pictures of the house from 1989 without it. The owners did not get Historic Commission approval to build the deck, although they should have. The railings were apparently painted pale blue-grey at some point and them neglected for a loooong time (in many places there is no paint of this color at all.) Then, probably when the house was fixed up to put on the market 3 years ago, the railings were painted white. This is the paint that's coming off like crazy now.

It would probably make sense to just replace a lot of the railings, if I owned a saw and was good at carpentry. I am good at painting, so that's what I'm doing. I find the scraping satisfying, if slow. Since the deck is pretty recent, I don't have to worry about lead paint. The shop-vac is proving very useful for mess, and I got an early Mother's Day present of a hand sander that is also pretty useful.