Stain Issues

In the early years we ran into several issues with staining decks for residential homes in North Atlanta. In the Cumming area, where it is little more mountainous than in the Alpharetta area, it is commonplace to see walk-out basements with decks that have large 20-30’ posts supporting the deck.  A challenging deck is a new deck that someone had just purchased. 

Our first conversation is determining the look they are trying to achieve. Do they like the natural wood look or do they want it to match the house? The second step is to determine the current moisture level of the deck, and importantly, determine when the wood was installed.  If it has a green look to it, then most of the time we need to wait until the green is gone. Oftentimes it takes 1-3 months or longer. 

The third step is to prepare the wood for stain.  Most wood that is milled has a thin white layer on it that does not allow stain to penetrate. A good product to use is Deck Revive from Sherwin Williams. It will open the pores of the wood and allow a stain to penetrate.  One of our first decks we had to redo did not penetrate the wood.  It looked like it just sat on top of the wood.  We stripped it, used Revive and then reapplied a stain. The difference was significant, and most importantly, we had a very happy customer.

The different types of stains can be confusing as well. We are extremely experienced at this point, but we do recall a customer that was very particular about their deck. It can be confusing as a customer to pick the right stain. Shall we use semi-transparent, semi-solid or a solid stain color.  Now, we always recommend that the customer spend a little time in the store picking their stain. Then buy a little bit as a test and put it on their deck or a spare piece.  If it is just a re-stain we can easily reapply the original that was on there.  We ask customers to keep their cans or at least a digital record of the color for future jobs.  Additionally, all of our customers' colors are stored in our database. This helps to keep everyone organized.

A good tip for potential clients is to keep a scrap of copy wood after they get their deck built. This scrap wood is to be used at the store for samples.  Further, Sherwin Williams does a great job matching stains.

If you are in the process of picking a stain, we recommend educating yourself on the type of stain you want.  A solid stain looks very much like paint.  It does provide the best protection but you lose the appearance of wood. Also, a dark color will show lots of footprints and such. We also do not recommend an oil based stain on pine. Only use Oil on.