What's your favorite brand of deck stain?

[Deleted]

Hello YM'ers.  It's time for us to pick a stain for our new deck.  We've always used Sherwin Williams brand, but there's Behr and Cabot out there too.  

We will be using the transparent stain in a light color which all the brands have and they are all about the same price here - $50/gallon or so depending on if you hit a sale.

Which one(s) have you used and how did you like it?  Did it hold up to the weather?  How about stains from bird droppings, etc.?  I want to hear the good, the bad and the ugly from your experiences.  It's about $1,500 for labor so I want to use a great product.

[Deleted]

I've used Sherwin Williams in the past.  Then I had a contractor use Behr.  Part of the problem was that he didn't use a mold preventative.   But it also blistered.  Within two years (and it was at least a 5-year stain), we had to have it completely redone by the guy who does most of our painting, etc.  He only  uses SW and said a lot of the problem was the Behr stain.   He also explained about how important it is to use a mold preventative.

This is the second year of the stain he put down, and it looks super!  All painters have their preferences, but his definitely is holding up better.  Mine is semi-transparent but in a light color.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

The Behr we used a few years ago did not hold up well.  We will be using SW this time around.

[haapai]

I'm not sure whether it is a matter of brand or prep or application.  My SO didn't go particularly cheap on what he bought for our deck but he skimped on prep and slopped it on.  It's peeling off areas that receive any sun, rain, or foot traffic in less than 9 months.  FWIW, it was not a new deck.  It had been sitting nude and exposed to everything for a year before we got around to staining it and we did not rough it up adequately prior to applying stain.  

I don't even want to think about re-staining and re-sealing it this summer.  I'm pretty sure that if I apply any sort of brush to the stained areas, the stain will lift in huge gummy chunks and that the underlying wood is thirsty as hell and will require multiple light coats at precisely timed intervals to acquire any sort of weather resistance.

[hoops902]

May 20, 2020 17:18:51 GMT -5 haapai said:

I'm not sure whether it is a matter of brand or prep or application.  My SO didn't go particularly cheap on what he bought for our deck but he skimped on prep and slopped it on.  It's peeling off areas that receive any sun, rain, or foot traffic in less than 9 months.  FWIW, it was not a new deck.  It had been sitting nude and exposed to everything for a year before we got around to staining it and we did not rough it up adequately prior to applying stain.  

I don't even want to think about re-staining and re-sealing it this summer.  I'm pretty sure that if I apply any sort of brush to the stained areas, the stain will lift in huge gummy chunks and that the underlying wood is thirsty as hell and will require multiple light coats at precisely timed intervals to acquire any sort of weather resistance.

That's what makes brand comparison really difficult sometimes.  There's SO much that goes into prep and application...how wet/dry is the wood, how much do you slop it on, are you using the right product from that brand for what you're trying to do.  

We've always used Sherwin Williams, we've never had any real problem with it per se...and I suppose for deck stain maybe that's the seal of approval...just not having had major problems?

[bookkeeper]

Pressure washing the wood and letting it dry completely is the first step to a good finish.  My brother in law stains decks, fences and log homes for money.  Duckback superdeck is the only product he uses.  I tried to post a pic of the can, but technology can be troublesome.

I used this product on my new cedar fence and deck built in 2015.  The fence has two coats and won't need to be restained for several years. The deck sees more wear and uv damage.  It has two coats, but could use a good cleaning and a fresh layer of stain after 5 years.

This product is a penetrating oil.  There is no layer that sits on top of the wood.  It will not blister or peel.  As it ages, it fades to a lighter color.

[Deleted]

I agree with penetrating oil versus a stain that has the potential to blister and peel. 

Decks are a maintenance nightmare. 

[Lizard Queen]

This thread is lighting a fire 🔥 under my ass to get our deck stained or sealed or something. We haven't done anything with it since building it several years ago.

[hoops902]

May 21, 2020 11:07:48 GMT -5 Lizard Queen said:

This thread is lighting a fire 🔥 under my ass to get our deck stained or sealed or something. We haven't done anything with it since building it several years ago.

Not to put a damper on your motivation, but typically early Fall is the time you'd want to do it (the weather and humidity tend to lend itself better to staining then).  Obviously depending on your area of the country and your current weather it's possible ti would work now too.  You want it to be not too cold and not too humid.

[Lizard Queen]

May 21, 2020 11:13:12 GMT -5 hoops902 said:

May 21, 2020 11:07:48 GMT -5 Lizard Queen said:

This thread is lighting a fire 🔥 under my ass to get our deck stained or sealed or something. We haven't done anything with it since building it several years ago.

Not to put a damper on your motivation, but typically early Fall is the time you'd want to do it (the weather and humidity tend to lend itself better to staining then).  Obviously depending on your area of the country and your current weather it's possible ti would work now too.  You want it to be not too cold and not too humid.

I live in Michigan. The weather is a crap-shoot year round. Today, it's not too cold or too humid. But, I don't currently have the supplies to do it immediately, so I'll keep that in mind.

[hoops902]

May 21, 2020 11:26:19 GMT -5 Lizard Queen said:

May 21, 2020 11:13:12 GMT -5 hoops902 said:

Not to put a damper on your motivation, but typically early Fall is the time you'd want to do it (the weather and humidity tend to lend itself better to staining then).  Obviously depending on your area of the country and your current weather it's possible ti would work now too.  You want it to be not too cold and not too humid.

I live in Michigan. The weather is a crap-shoot year round. Today, it's not too cold or too humid. But, I don't currently have the supplies to do it immediately, so I'll keep that in mind.

And you'll want a good week of non-humid, decent temperature weather after you apply it.  And you may already know this, but put a drop of water on the deck...if it absorbs then the wood is dry enough to take the stain.  If the drop sits on the surface, the wood is still too wet to do anything to it.  

[Lizard Queen]

May 21, 2020 11:27:59 GMT -5 hoops902 said:

May 21, 2020 11:26:19 GMT -5 Lizard Queen said:

I live in Michigan. The weather is a crap-shoot year round. Today, it's not too cold or too humid. But, I don't currently have the supplies to do it immediately, so I'll keep that in mind.

And you'll want a good week of non-humid, decent temperature weather after you apply it.  And you may already know this, but put a drop of water on the deck...if it absorbs then the wood is dry enough to take the stain.  If the drop sits on the surface, the wood is still too wet to do anything to it.  

Okay, checking out the 10-day forecast, I'm thinking conditions will be right for doing this approximately never.

[Deleted]

May 21, 2020 11:13:12 GMT -5 hoops902 said:

May 21, 2020 11:07:48 GMT -5 Lizard Queen said:

This thread is lighting a fire 🔥 under my ass to get our deck stained or sealed or something. We haven't done anything with it since building it several years ago.

Not to put a damper on your motivation, but typically early Fall is the time you'd want to do it (the weather and humidity tend to lend itself better to staining then).  Obviously depending on your area of the country and your current weather it's possible ti would work now too.  You want it to be not too cold and not too humid.

Our deck contractor likes July and August for our area - hotter than blazes and no rain unless we get a hurricane.  They recommend 3-6 months minimum for the new lumber to dry so July would be great for us.  

[tskeeter]

I’ve used Cabot and Behr to stain our fence.  The Cabot was really expensive and started to peel after two years.  The Behr is now on year four of the scorching Northern Nevada sun with no problems.

The Cabot left a film on the surface of the fence, like paint will.  It was this surface film that peeled.  Had to scrape the fence so new stain could be applied.

The Behr was the top quality, I think 12 year life, semi-transparent penetrating stain.  I’ll use it again when the fence needs to be stained.  I’ve also used the transparent version with good results.

Haven’t used SW deck/fence stain.  But, our 15 year old house and my Dad’s newly built house were both painted with SW paint when they were built.  The paint on our house has stood up well.  Other than a little repainting on some exterior door frames, all the paint is still original.  I did a little touch up at Dad’s House, after moving some towel bars, and the SW paint I got to do the touch up seemed to be good quality paint.

It seems like the Behr stain goes on sale (purchase rebate) about this time of the year.  The last few years, I think the rebate has been about 20%.  That makes the Behr product a pretty good buy.

[lynnerself]

We used to love Cabot and then they changed owner/ manufactures or something.

We always use and oil based stain, and have yet to find one that lasts more than 2 years since the Cabot change. We're trying to wait another year or so and redo it right before we sell the house. But I don't know if I can stand it that long.

[Lizard Queen]

My DH is in the process of ordering restore-a-deck semi-transparent water-based stain. It's only available online, and he wanted to do it this weekend, but we have oak trees dropping their oak tree crap right now, so I reasoned with him that he probably doesn't want to stain the deck right when the oak trees will drop that crap all over the wet stain.

[Deleted]

We’re still working on our deck. It kind of got to be an ordeal because we had trouble removing the solid stain that was in there. So we ended up sanding it. The whole deck. DBF decided to start sanding during a rainy week. I kept telling him the wood needed to be dry before sanding, and it would be best if it didn’t rain between sanding and staining. He refused to wait until the forecast looked better, so sanded in between the rainy days. And there’s still a small part to be sanded. That also happens to be the part that he messed up with the pressure washer, trying to removed the original stuff. There are gouges in every board in that area. He wouldn’t listen to me about the pressure washer either.

Plus, my sanding was more thorough than his. He left many spots where the old stuff is still there. I don’t think that’s going to work with a semitransparent stain, so I’ll probably go back and clean it up.

So basically, our deck is now a hot mess. And he doesn’t want to replace the boards with the gouges..... because I’ve said I’m putting a bench there. As if a bench will hide the whole area.

We have a Behr semitransparent stain, and DBF will probably put it down tomorrow or Monday. We did so many things wrong, there’s no telling how it’s going to turn out. Everything I’ve read said that the prep was vitally important to what the end results would be. When it first seemed like we were in over our heads because we couldn’t get the old stuff off, I offered to pay to have someone do it that knows what they’re doing. He refused. I’m a bit disgruntled about the mess we’ve made, but maybe he’ll listen next time when I tell him what my hours of research say should be done and how.

The odd thing is that we messed with it in the first place because the old stuff was peeling so bad even though it’s only been down 2 years. It was a very dark solid brown on a deck that gets full sun several hours of the day, so it was also faded. The way it was coming off in places made me think it would be easy to remove. That was not the case, and I’m not sure why.