One of the reasons Leah and I are talking about moving is that our house requires a lot of maintenance, and I can’t see myself doing it indefinitely.
We have two decks in the back that are about 10 by 30 feet, and a front walk constructed like a deck that is about 25 feet long. They are seriously weathered and I am currently in the process of re-staining them. I bought a gallon of gray for the decking and a gallon of white for the railings. The salesman said a gallon should cover about 300 square feet. I knew I would need more of both, but it’s not going as far as I thought. I have just now run out of the white stain and am about two-thirds finished with the railings on the front walk.
It seems to go on forever
The front walk slopes up so it’s about seven or eight feet off the ground at the front porch. That means I need a ladder to reach the outside part of the railing. The floor of the upper back deck is about 13 feet off the ground at the highest end. I’ll need an extension ladder to reach it. This does not make me happy. The last time I did any staining of the back deck, I fell off the ladder and tore my rotator cuff, an injury that required surgery.
The other part of this task that I don’t like is that each side of every baluster has to be stained individually, and there are a lot of balusters on our decks. That makes it a tedious, repetitious job. On the back deck I’m going to have to do the outside parts on a high ladder, which will be tedious, repetitious and potentially dangerous. So to do the whole deck, I’m going to have to lie on my back, crawl around on my knees, stoop, stand, reach, climb and descend. I will have to swap between brush and roller, and when I’m doing the outside of the railing I’ll have to do that on a ladder.
Painting the roof overhang would be even worse. Not only is it higher, but I decided to go for the farmhouse look, so there are no soffits to enclose the rafter ends. That means a lot of detail painting, done from a high extension ladder. We hope to have moved before that’s necessary.
I mentioned that we will probably make an offer on some land just down the street from us. Based on that possibility, I have been thinking of what a house would look like there. Unfortunately, the lot slopes, so a house will almost certainly have to have a daylight basement, and that means parts of the house would be two stories above ground. We also like decks, so they will be high off the ground, too. I don’t want to have to do this kind of maintenance 10 years from now, so if we get the property, whatever kind of house we build, it’s going to have to be different from this house and its decks.
This is going to take some thinking.
That does sound like a lot of work. Falling off a ladder– YIKES! No wonder this work comes with some trepidation. It’s an interesting thing, trying to figure out a lower-maintenance kind of exterior for a house. It’s something we’ll probably contemplate in the future. Good luck with this job. The outcome always makes the effort worthwhile.
Robin Andrea — I’m dreading starting on the deck at the back of the house, but I’m going to have to just start working and keep at it till it’s done. The front is already looking quite a bit better.
Leave me out of this. Thinking is not one of my strengths.
Pablo — Sometimes I think thinking is not one of my strengths either.
This would be expensive, but should you stay put, how about replacing at least the railings with one of the composites? Also, long ago we had our house trim wrapped in metal just so our aging bodies wouldn’t have to climb ladders and paint.
Minnie — I have been doing the math (in my mind, at least, which is not a very accurate way to do it) on composite components versus periodic staining/painting. I think (risky) there is really not that great a difference when you consider that stain can be quite expensive. We just got back from Lowe’s after buying two more gallons of white stain for nearly $40 each, and we’ll probably end up using at least three more gallons before we’re done. When you factor in the labor and potential danger (for me, anyway) of painting on a ladder, it begins to look even more favorable. If we build, I am pretty sure we’ll end up using composites for the decks, and probably for some or all of the trim. If we use white trim, we can use plastic boards that are no-maintenance on the time scale of how many years we might expect to live. Once we’re gone, it’s someone else’s problem.
There’s some comfort in knowing that we’ll probably outlive “lifetime guarantees”. Also, that, as my husband jokes, we’re no longer in danger of falling prey to “early onset” anything.
Good luck with that painting and staining.