Home> How-To Tips> Wood and Deck Restoration

question_mark7Need Deck Concrete Restoraton helpdeck_calculator7

Deck Restoration Steps

Must Read! The Most Complete List of Tips for Wood Deck Cleaning and Staining.

Wess_avatar have been in business since 1993 and have used or sold close to a 1/2 Million gallons of wood stain. These wood and deck cleaning and staining tips have come from hands-on experience. A lot of them learned the hard way .Frown Please read this thoroughly as you are sure to learn a few that will make your deck project a success!

We suggest printing this article and reading it a few times before starting your deck restoration project.

Must Read!

Top 10 Myths for Exterior Wood and Deck Restoration

1. New wood does not need to be cleaned. This is not true. New wood needs to be prepped with a wood cleaner and a wood brightener. This will remove dirt, grime, and mill glaze. These two steps will "open" the wood pores allowing the stain to penetrate better. The better the wood stain absorbs, the better it will work.

deck sealerMust Read!

These tips will help you stain an average wood deck in 2 hours!

The suggestions below will help you speed up the process of applying a wood stain to a deck. It is best to apply a semi-transparent wood or deck sealer with a pad applicator or by low pressure spraying followed by a pad to ensure an even application.

pressure wash

New or Gray looking Decks/Wood

When cleaning Wood or Decks, use a cleaning product similar to Restore-A-Deck or the Defy Wood Deck Cleaner. This will open the pores and remove any graying and or dirt. This is important even for new wood. New wood has a mill glaze that should be removed prior to any stain application. For removal of old coatings see Wood and Deck Stripping.

The reason the majority of products fail are:

  • A product is applied too thick, over a previous coating, or a solid color stain/paint was used resulting in a film forming coating. A film forming coating is a product that does not penetrate into the wood completely. A product that does not penetrate can result in premature peeling and or flaking. All of our stains penetrate into the wood.
  • The deck/wood is not properly prepped for application of coating resulting in the stains not penetrating into the wood.
  • New wood is not dry and/or prepped for application of stain. You cannot stain a brand new deck/wood without applying cleaners to open the pores.
  • Unless absolutely necessary (removal of solid stain and/or paint), never power sand a deck. This will close the pores of the wood and your new stain may not penetrate properly. If you must, try not to use a grit finer than 60 grit. You can lightly sand by hand or with de-felting pads on low speed orbital sanders to remove splinters and/or raised grain of wood.

More Articles...

Page 1 of 2

Start
Prev
1
The Sealer Store Forum

Browse Stain Brands

Narrow your wood stain search with available filters

Join Our Mail List!

Subscribe for Product Tips, Info and Periodic Coupons!