renovating outdoor furniture

I recently purchased a timber outdoor setting second hand. While sound it was previously stained but has weathered in places. To restore the timber do I need to remove the stain before I apply a timber treatment like Reviva or deck clean.
There are 6 chairs and a table so I would like to avoid lots of sanding if possible but suspect that wood cleaner only works on timber which has no residual stain.

Are there solvents that can be used to remove remnants of stain?? The weathering is mostly on the arms of the chairs and table top.

any help or advice appreciated

Paul

Of course you don't want to do a heap of sanding...no one does.

What is required realy depends on what was there in the first place and what condition it is in now.....and of course what it is made of.

if it is in fair condition and it has previously been finished in decking oil...you may be able to get away with your cleaner of choice and a stiff scrub with a scrubbing brush.

Being furniture that will be sat on and sat at, you may be a bit more fuffy than something you will walk on.

So you may want to smooth any roughness out before you do what ever as a finish.

it may not infact be stained...it may be colour from the decking oil.

cheers

Thanks for the tips. Is there any easy tests to differentiate stain from oil on timber when they are old finishes. When I sand the coating the sandpaper clogs up with residue and the pigment is only on the surface. There is no stickiness like you sometime get on decks. I would like to use a deck oil ideally .is there any issues if the current coating is stain and some remains. I read somewhere that you can only use water based deck oils if the timber is raw or previously treated with another water based product. So I think in my case if I don't get the timber completely raw I should used a oil based decking oil. The timber is light so I will get a pigmented one.

appreciate you help.

paul

I would treat it just like a standard deck. Scrub it with deckclean or similar, and then get the high pressure hose and wash the deckclean off. since it is furniture, u dont want any rough or spikey parts so i would let it dry out completely, and then go over it with some sandpaper by hand to knockoff any splinters that may have formed over the years. Then just give it a couple of coats of decking oil of your choice and colour. I wouldnt sit on it for a couple of weeks tho, because i find the oil tends to bleed out for a while afterwards, and if it was pigmented, that pigment will be transferred to your clothing.

If its Kwila or Mearbau ( same tree different country), it will tend to change colour on the surface with exposure to just about anything including air and light.

This would be a brown, fairly heavy, straight grained timber with openish end grain.
When exposed to whatever for any period of time it tends to have a fairly dark brown colour deep as about 1mm from the surface.
When you cut or plane it it goes back to a much paler light tan with yelowish tinge.
If its Kwila it will have yellow flecks thru it, not so much with merbau.

cheers