The key to being happy with your deck stain is to align your expectations with the reality of your circumstances.
Every year when the sun comes out, people in the paint industry brace themselves for the onslaught of customers who have been frustrated by the performance of their deck stains. Very few people relish the prospect of sanding and scraping a peeling deck finish. While no product is infallible, in most cases the frustrations are due to either insufficiently prepared wood, poor weather conditions around the time of application, or unrealistic expectations about the life expectancy of the product.
In the Vancouver area, cedar is very popular to use as a design element for exteriors. The climate here is temperate rainforest, which means that we experience exceptional amounts of rain for the better part of the year. Any kind of porous building material will expand and contract to some degree, and will see a build up of green matter over the course of the winter season. This movement and interference from living matter will confound even the best of deck coatings, and most will realistically need to be touched up or redone every 3-5 years. In the case of stairs or decks that see snow, snow shovels, salt, pets, golf shoes, or the like, you may be doing some maintenance each year.
Deck coated by Goodhome Painting Co
To improve the lifespan of your stain, one of the most important pieces of advice I can give is to ensure the wood is prepared to sufficiently absorb it. Newly installed wood can have what is called "mill glaze" - essentially the surface of the wood is sealed by the burnishing effect of a hot saw running across its surface. Sanding with a coarse sandpaper will open the pores of the wood, allowing the product to absorb properly.
Allowing the wood to weather naturally for 6-12 months before coating it can make a great difference as well, and is in fact necessary for any pressure-treated wood you might be using.
Finally, avoid applying stain to damp wood (less than 18% moisture content), in the heat of high noon in the summer, or if it's actually raining...
For best results, beautiful wood decks will need regular maintenance, with the odd application of good old elbow grease. Happy deck season!
