# Cleaning an outdoor wood picnic table?



## traveller89 (Jan 7, 2009)

About 2 years ago, we bought some wooden outdoor table online and got stained so we placed it at the storage house. Now, we badly need more picnic tables for my son's birthday and we wouldn't want to buy a new one.The table's stain looks like red wine stain with molds/mildew. My sister suggested that I bleach it out, so I did. But the stain was not removed and the bleaching seemed to change the color of the table. I found online a question which is somehow similar to mine and someone suggested that we sand the whole thing. Will sanding the wood table the best solution? Or there are any other ways?


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jun 17, 2008)

Sanding out the stain might work, but a lot depends on how deeply the stain penetrated into the wood. Personally, I think the best option would be to contact the company you bought them from and see what they recommend. I expect you won't be the first one to ask them how to remove stains from redwood.

Alternatively, you could either try staining the affected area to match the original colour of the table, OR simply contact any of the local places that sell redwood and replace the stained boards.

For the time being, why not just put a cheap plastic or cotton table cloth on your stained picnic table so that it looks OK for the birthday party?


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## traveller89 (Jan 7, 2009)

Nestor_Kelebay said:


> Sanding out the stain might work, but a lot depends on how deeply the stain penetrated into the wood. Personally, I think the best option would be to contact the company you bought them from and see what they recommend. I expect you won't be the first one to ask them how to remove stains from redwood.
> 
> Alternatively, you could either try staining the affected area to match the original colour of the table, OR simply contact any of the local places that sell redwood and replace the stained boards.
> 
> For the time being, why not just put a cheap plastic or cotton table cloth on your stained picnic table so that it looks OK for the birthday party?


Contacting the company where we bought the furnitures is the best solution to keep the quality of the wood. I am not an expert on the sanding part. And you are right, I just need to find an alternative outdoor table to use since my son's birthday is this weekend. Thanks.


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## Tom Struble (Dec 29, 2008)

table cloth?:yes:


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## losttool (Dec 2, 2008)

Have you tried a power washer? It works on my deck, sometimes too good.


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