Tips for Painting a Dark Fence Light

Sanding is the best bet to refinish the wood. However, depending on if you're doing it DIY or hiring someone the labour time/cost may be similar to replacing the boards so I would get both estimates done see what the difference is. Now if you are painting the wood and not staining it, you could paint right on top. I don't recommend or personally like to paint wood projects like fences and decks but that is the quickest solution (but not the best).

No, don’t pressure wash, this will make the fence wet and you’ll have to wait for the wood to dry completely before attempting to paint (or bubbles will appear in the paint later on from trapped moisture). Sand the fence down or if you can use a sandblaster to remove as much of the previous colour. If it’s a stain, you may be out of luck and the only way to cover the previous colour will be multiple coats of paint. Sand off as much as you can and be sure to use a paint that will not absorb the stain. A coat of white primer first should help reduce the chances of this happening. Summarizing: sand twice, wipe down with a damp cloth and prime first.

You don’t need to strip the previous paint off unless you have a problem with peeling and bubbling. If the paint that’s on your fence right now is solid and there’s not a problem other than you just can’t look at that colour anymore and you want to change it to a lighter colour. Give it a good power wash give it a couple days to dry go by yourself a moisture metre test your fence make sure it’s dry. There’s no moisture in it and apply to coats of the new fresh colour that you want on your fence. Go to Sherwin-Williams and buy yourself some exterior duration product.