Tips for staining an outdoor deck

1. Select a stain

You can get at least two types of deck stain or sealer. One type is a penetrating finish that is designed to soak into dry wood. Other deck stains are formulated to perform much like varnishes or urethane. These products soak into the wood, but they also form a film on the surface much like a sheet of plastic wrap. The problem with these film-forming deck stains is that they almost always peel when they eventually fail. The peeling is unsightly, and when you go to re-stain the deck, you must completely remove or strip off the old film. As you might imagine, this can be a tough job. It's easy to prepare a previously stained deck for re-coating if you have a penetrating finish on the deck.

2. Decide if you want your deck to be a color or clear

Some prefer colored stains that are a medium color of brown. Others like a clear look that shows the natural color of the wood from the mill. Still others prefer the gray look you see on weathered boardwalks or fishing piers. The pigments used to color a deck stain perform a very important job. They help to absorb the ultraviolet light from the sun that bleaches out the natural color of wood, causing it to turn gray. Some clear deck stains contain ingredients that also act to block the sun, much as the sunscreen lotions we slather on our skin.

3. Clean all wood surfaces before applying stain or sealed

This cleaning is meant to get rid of all dirt, weathered sealers or stains and damaged wood fibers that may be hanging onto the surface. Many promote the use of pressure washers when cleaning a wood deck. If you use too much pressure, the wrong tip on the cleaning wand and/or hold the tool too close to the wood, you can cause serious damage to the wood. The enormous pressure easily erodes the soft springwood that's in between the darker bands of summerwood. To get the wood smooth again, you have to sand the deck. That's a tremendous amount of work. Try cleaning the deck with oxygen bleach, which is a less aggressive method that works well. Don't confuse oxygen bleach with household chlorine bleach you might have in a white plastic jug in your home. Chlorine bleach takes the natural color out of wood, it's highly toxic to all vegetation and trees, and can accelerate the corrosion of any metal fasteners and structural connectors. Oxygen bleach has none of these bad characteristics. It's a powder you add to warm water. The oxygen ions that are then released in the solution are powerful cleaners. It's best to apply the oxygen bleach to dry wood so it soaks in, deeply cleaning the wood.