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Options for lightening/removing deck stain

14 years ago

We just had our deck and the attached fence stained (Benjamin Moore Alkyd Semi Solid Stain), and we made a really stupid mistake. I take total responsibility for the mistake and have learned a valuable lesson, but now we need to correct it.

The color of stain we chose was WAY too dark. We really dislike the way it looks. We need to figure out how to remove it, or at least lighten it (but obviously any lightening would have to keep the finish even). Sanding is the obvious choice, but it's a little challenging on the fence. The fence has a lot of small surfaces (e.g. lattice), which would require hand sanding with a very small sander. It would probably take weeks, and I'm not even sure I could get into all of the crevices. Another option is to just paint over with a solid stain. I'd like to avoid that if we can because we don't really like the look (that's what we had prior to the current finish).

Are those the only options? Any creative ideas?

Thanks.

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