4 Important Steps to Stain a Deck That Is Made With New Boards

When you wish to install a moderate-sized deck, you will need a lot of decking boards. And it’s natural to find one or two of these boards warp, split, or otherwise fail. At the same time, it is also true that the replacement decking boards probably won’t look the same as the rest. Staining the decking boards with a semi-transparent stain is a brilliant strategy to blend them well.

However, before you apply the stain after adding new boards, you need to remove any old finish from the existing boards.

Stripping and Power Washing:

If your existing deck has a pigmented finish, or it’s painted, you will need to remove the finish if you want to apply a stain. There are two unique ways to do that. First, you can apply a chemical stripper and wipe off the existing finish. Secondly, you can use power washing to remove the finish. Power washing is less time-consuming. But it has a drawback – the high-pressure washing method can gouge the wood. This may be a great risk worth taking if you have a large deck. On the contrary, stripping and scrapping off the finish are both excessive labor-consuming and requires a lot of time. The main thing is, you have to wash the deck either way to remove residue.

Choosing a Good Quality Stain:

You can use a simple oil penetrating stain to bring out the beauty of fresh, natural wood. However, when you have a deck with both new and old boards, you will need to apply a stain that can not only revive the old wood, but it also gives the deck an even look. Using a stain with more pigment is better option than using a stain that contains one pigment. There are few reasons for that – the pigment actually helps in hiding the natural wood color and makes the blending more effective.

Staining Conditions:

Once the washing of your deck is done, you should give it several days to dry before you start staining the same, otherwise the moisture will be locked into the grain and you will get a poor finish. If you find that there is extreme contrast between the new and old woods, it will better to wait one or two months for the sun and rain to weather the wood.

Applying the Stain:

You can start staining your deck by using a paintbrush, roller or a paint sprayer. Be sure to test the color on small, inconspicuous area before you start applying stain on the other important areas.

To get the best result in your stain job, you can contact a Painting Company in Andover MA.