Discussions

I am tired of having to stain my deck every year. It is old deck, built about 25 yrs ago. Very big otherwise I would consider changing to composite but with 2 areas it is 26 x 10 and 22 x 22 roughly. That would just make the cost too great. But I am so tired of doing it and then the next spring having it look terrible and in need of another staining! Now if you count the hours spent staining and sealing in the past 25 yrs...well it would have been worth it. Now that wont be in here more than 10 more yrs I am wondering what is a good deck stain. Which brand do you like? What can maybe last couple yrs in between painting? I have been doing a semi transparent, is solid better? Or would that peel off and then I would have to scrape it all down before redoing? I am getting desperate and not any younger, so this process is becoming daunting to me!!

My fence is about 2 or 3 years old and starting to fade so I started doing some test spots with boiled linseed oil, working well so far and gives it that nice wet look, not sure how well it stands up the foot traffic or sitting snow though

I used the good for 6 year Olympic stain and it didnt last a year horrible product and worse support or warranty. Maybe thats why coop discontinued? They said my deck didn't have enough air flow to breathe as the sides were covered with uprights 1/8 inch gaps between boards and its over 2 ft off the ground and the railings did not hold up at all either and they see allot of flow? Have Behr on it now wintered very well and purchased from Home depot Brandon they were very helpful Oh semi transparent so it doesn't peel I used I stayed away from solid. Best of luck

Behr. I went with chocolate stain last year. Went on really well and it wintered really well as well.  
 
I did prep my wood deck by cleaning it and letting it dry for a week prior to doing my stain.  
 
My last one I used Thompson, was pure garbage. Mind you I didn't prep the deck well and the stain did not stick well.

You need to prep it properly. Did you power wash, then use a liquid cleaner, then stain it after? Oil base stain should last you up to 5yrs if I'm not mistaken.

Even though “they” say solid stains last better, from my experience I would not recommend a solid stain. It seems to blister and peel in large flakes. We had the best luck with Sikkens Cetol 1. We had it on cedar and it was mostly shaded, but it looked really good for many years. Not sure if it still comes under that brand name or if it’s changed. It was a transparent product that soaked in very well and allows you to see the grain in the wood, although if your deck has been stained many times it may be tough to make it look good with anything other than a solid stain. The sun is very hard on any finish. There used to be a number of lumber yards - including McMunn & Yates- that sold it.