I am a person that enjoys projects. I have a good feeling when I complete a project. It’s an opportunity to know that I can create, change and positively impact my environment. Of the many projects that I like, building and staining decks is of great fun to me. This might be because I have a worldview that thinks everything is fun on the lake, or it might be that I am outside in the nice weather. The other part is that I like creating and enhancing items around my lake front.

Staining my deck allows me to create a beautiful finish that will protect and enhance the aesthetics of the deck for years to come. Here is some reason to stain your deck:

• Protects from mold and mildew (that green stuff)

• Maintains the natural wood look (Using clear stain)

• Reduces splinters

• Without staining the wood goes grey and looks old (driftwood)

• Adds years on to the life of the deck

• Aesthetically, enhances the beauty of the deck.

• Over long periods of time, will help the deck maintain strength.

• Helps to protect deck hardware (Screws, lag bolts)

I have stained about five decks in my life. I do not claim to be an expert, but I am willing to pass on my insight.

The first deck that I stained I did so with a solid color. I was looking for a deck stain that would last at least five years without re-staining. I used a brand called Sikkens, I followed the directions to a tee. I individually sanded each board. I made sure that the lumber was dry. I purchased the lumber from an indoor lumber yard, paying a bit more to make sure it was dry.

I stained each board before assembling the deck. Of course there is some waste in this as you have to cut some boards. This was a 10 x 12 foot deck with an out cove for my BBQ grill. I also had a built in bench. Because of the sanding and painting prior to assembly, it took three times as long to build this deck. I know of no contractors that would sand and paint each board prior to assembly. This was fun, but tremendous work. I was very pleased with the outcome of the deck. Three years later it still looked great! By the fourth year, the paint had some minor peeling. This would leave spots of bare wood against the solid stain color. By the fifth and sixth year, more peeling had occurred. I was still happy with the deck and stain, but now I was going to have sand and re-stain. Without doing this, the stain was in contrast to the bare wood.

My next job was to stain a wood fence. For this I decided to use a water based wood protector. Thompsons I believe. This went on easy, cleaned up easy, but did not last more the 2 years. I learned that you would have to apply this almost every year to keep the wood looking nice.

I decided that I wanted a clear oil based stain that would not show such a contrast when it wore off, such as described above with the solid color stain. I decided water based products were not effective enough for me. For staining my lake front deck I decided on a product sold at Lowes called Olympic clear stain with a 2 year guarantee. I was not happy to think that I would have to re-stain every 2 years, but the only way to increase that time was by getting a more pigmented stain, this reduced the visibility of the wood underneath. Cedar tone might go three years, redwood four years, etc. But with each step up, the closer you were to a solid color. I wanted to see the natural wood.

The nice thing about using a clear stain is that you can’t really mess up. Because it’s clear, if you go to light or heavy in application, it looks close to the same. If you were to miss, you would barely notice it. I have had all my teenager kids help me. You can’t really go wrong in application (unless it rains within 24 hours of application). This stain tends to make the wood designs (knots or grain) stand out more, so that you get the wood look. This stain tends to make it shine, a bit of a yellow tint and provides for a smooth feel. I have used this stain for about 8 years now, and I am able to go three years before it is noticeable that it needs to be restrained. My dock has gone five years since last using this product, and you can clearly see that it is starting to “grey out”. This Olympic 2 year guaranteed clear stain is in a blue gallon can at Lowes.

partially stained