A lot of the prep work on the deck is something I can do. Good news as saves a bit of the budget and moves things on a bit faster. Bad news as it is all a bit fiddly and tedious.

The seams on the deck (the gaps between each plank) would originally have been filled with caulking cotton hammered into the gap and then topped with tar to make it water tight. This has long gone with the seams now filled with a mixture of sand from the blasting and crumbly black gunk. This all needs raking out – you can get special tools for it but a screwdriver seems to be most effective. The seams then need hoovering to pick up any remaining debris. 

Lots of time spent crouched on the deck but not a bad job when the sun is shining.

   
In the whole of the front deck I probably found enough caulking cotton to roll a small cigarette. This would have originally been packed into every seam but has disintegrated over time.

Some tiny fragments of the original tar.
  The Hoover which is proving an absolute godsend as brushing the sand out of the seams doesn’t really work. I also treated myself to some serious knee pads which make it much easier.  
The screwdriver after a whole days raking. Pretty darn blunt.     

Sunshine over the site means that the tan is coming on fairly well!!