Painted deck - refinish, repaint, or replace?

[janovetz]

Hi folks--

My ranch home has a walk-out deck in the back. The previous owners had been painting it brown. The finish (paint) is showing lots of wear and I'll be selling the home next year so I'd like to make it look a bit nicer in the next couple months.

I originally hoped to strip the paint and refinish with stain. After getting a sample of some BareZall from Star Bronze, it seems that stripping would be a lot more work than I was hoping and may not turn out well. (the boards are mostly "flatish", but do have some uneven spots from wear -- they've also been painted over a few times)

I could also continue the trend and just repaint. Should I rent a floor sander and sand before doing this? What sort of sander would work best for an uneven surface like this worn deck?

My other option was to rip out the boards and put in new ones. I would keep the support structure but just replace the top boards. This would certainly give a nice new look to the deck. Unfortunately, it would mean buying about 100 8' 2x4s. Not my preferred option.

Any suggestions?

[slickshift]

Unless it the boards are really bad I'd repaint
Stripping and staining as you mentioned is an awful lot of work
Replacing the deck boards is much prefereable if you want to stain
Painting is the easiest and least expensive way

I prefer Sikkens Rubol DEK for oil and Ben Moore Porch and Patio for latex, neither of which recommend sanding unless the previous paint is glossy

[chicago111]

repaint a few weeks before you begin to show the house