Sand paper suggestions for stripping a deck

[HappyCamper]

Okay, I am ready to pull the trigger on two sanders, the RO150 and the RO90.  I am going to use them both to strip a very weathered deck that was stained at one time.
It is fairly cupped in places.  The RO150 will share paper with another 6 inch sander so for this I would just need the paper to strip a deck.  I was looking at both the
Rubin and Garnet.  I was also considering whether I would need another pad.  Any thoughts on this from anyone out there.
For the RO90 what would be the most useful range of grits.  Given it has the two heads, the 3.5 and the Delta, I will have to layout the cash for two different sizes.
This is going to be fairly painful moneywise, so I want to make the best choices.
Once the deck is finished, I will be using the RO90 for other projects including finishing, but the RO150 will mostly be used for cleaning up reclaimed wood or refinishing exterior projects.

 

[jacko9]

What wood is the deck made from?  Redwood and red cedar are pretty soft so, you don't want to remove too much wood with the RO150.  I like Garnet but there are more experienced deck finishing folks on the FOG with better experience.  I would let them know what kind of wood, how heavy is the old finish and are there exposed fasteners.  I think you have the correct selection of sanders, good luck.

Jack

 

[Brice Burrell]

I wouldn't recommend either.  Rubin is for bare wood, any type of finish would likely render the Rubin useless pretty quickly.  Garnat is pretty ideal as far as being resistant to the finish loading/clogging up the paper, but it isn't going to be durable enough for this type of rough work.  I say try Saphir, it's the toughest abrasive Festool makes, just be aware that it is somewhat pricey.  A good alternative would be Festool's Cristal abrasive, but it was discontinued last year so it might be hard to fine a retailer that still has it in stock.  

 

[Walk On Wood]

Happy camper- i would highly recommend the Rubin paper.  I sand floors, and it performs very well at sanding finish off, particularly when you can buy it at 40% off  http://beavertools.com/festool/festool-accessories-1/festool-abrasives-69/festool-rubin-abrasives-closeout.html?limit=all  (Shhh, dont tell anybody)

 

[Scott B.]

Granat.

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[Handyman Mike]

I wouldn't recommend either.  Rubin is for bare wood, any type of finish would likely render the Rubin useless pretty quickly.  Garnat is pretty ideal as far as being resistant to the finish loading/clogging up the paper, but it isn't going to be durable enough for this type of rough work.  I say try Saphir, it's the toughest abrasive Festool makes, just be aware that it is somewhat pricey.  A good alternative would be Festool's Cristal abrasive, but it was discontinued last year so it might be hard to fine a retailer that still has it in stock.  

What Brice said!

I've gotten very good results stripping varnished pine floors with the Saphir. Don't be put off by the price. The stuff is very durable, and how often do you want to stop and change paper?

 

[HappyCamper]

Thanks for the replies so far.  My deck is probably Douglas fir or hemlock/spruce.  There are screws on the top but they are well recessed, so I think I can just sand over them.
Would the pad that comes standard with the sander be good to use if the boards are rather cupped?

 

[w802h]

Hi,

I've used Mirka Abranet paper on my Rotex 150.  It's heavily textured surface resists clogging and the holes line up.  It's pretty coarse stuff with a long wear life.  The 80 grit performs more like a 60 grit.  This might be a little aggressive for redwood and cedar, but if you have a tough surface to prep it would get you off to a fast start.  I should probably add that I use the Rotex almost exclusively for coarser work and some paint grade finishes.  

 

[Handyman Mike]

...
Would the pad that comes standard with the sander be good to use if the boards are rather cupped?

A soft pad would be better if you want to follow the contours of the surface, a hard pad if you want to flatten them.

 

[HappyCamper]

Well it was a long time coming, but I finally got around to stripping two decks.  On the front cedar deck I used the new 6 inch ETS EC 5mm stroke with Garnat P60.  The 6' by 40' deck was stripped in about 2 hours.  Would have done it a long time ago if I had known it would be that quick and easy.  This sander is very easy to use and the low vibration was a very nice feature for someone like me with with carpal tunnel.  The low profile made it possible to sand under the wooden railing.
On our badly weathered, cupped, and very rough back deck made out of Douglas fir, my husband used the Rotex with the same paper. He was very surprised at how quickly he was able to finish the job.  I think we used maybe six discs of sandpaper in total and the discs still have a fair amount of wear left on them.
I went with the Garnat P60 on the advice of my Canadian Festool dealer, Ultimate Tools.

 

[leakyroof]

Well it was a long time coming, but I finally got around to stripping two decks.  On the front cedar deck I used the new 6 inch ETS EC 5mm stroke with Garnat P60.  The 6' by 40' deck was stripped in about 2 hours.  Would have done it a long time ago if I had known it would be that quick and easy.  This sander is very easy to use and the low vibration was a very nice feature for someone like me with with carpal tunnel.  The low profile made it possible to sand under the wooden railing.
On our badly weathered, cupped, and very rough back deck made out of Douglas fir, my husband used the Rotex with the same paper. He was very surprised at how quickly he was able to finish the job.  I think we used maybe six discs of sandpaper in total and the discs still have a fair amount of wear left on them.
I went with the Garnat P60 on the advice of my Canadian Festool dealer, Ultimate Tools.

. And here I thought I was slow getting around to projects..... [wink]
Glad it's worked out very well for you. Granat is a great Abrasive to use for stripping finishes too.
Did you stain the deck again ?

 

[Holmz]

Well it was a long time coming, but I finally got around to stripping two decks.  On the front cedar deck I used the new 6 inch ETS EC 5mm stroke with Garnat P60.  The 6' by 40' deck was stripped in about 2 hours.  Would have done it a long time ago if I had known it would be that quick and easy.  This sander is very easy to use and the low vibration was a very nice feature for someone like me with with carpal tunnel.  The low profile made it possible to sand under the wooden railing.
On our badly weathered, cupped, and very rough back deck made out of Douglas fir, my husband used the Rotex with the same paper. He was very surprised at how quickly he was able to finish the job.  I think we used maybe six discs of sandpaper in total and the discs still have a fair amount of wear left on them.
I went with the Garnat P60 on the advice of my Canadian Festool dealer, Ultimate Tools.

He is lucky to have you show him the way...
I hope he had dinner ready when the 2 hours were done...  [wink]

Was he going faster with the RO or about the same? The 5-mm stroke ETS/EC goes at a pretty good clip, and IMHO it is a more pleasant sander than an RO (which I only tried for ~15 minutes)

 

[agarwalsa]

I just sanded a 700 sq ft cedar deck which had a solid stain on it. I have the RO150 and the RO90 but used the  RAS for this job with Saphir 25 and Rubin 40. The RO sanders cannot compete with the speed of the RAS for striping stain. As the solid stain is a layer on top of the deck I sanded only enough to the point of removing the stain which kept the surface nice and flat without any gouging.  I used the RO90 with extended triangular pad to sand the edges between the boards.