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.

When removing a failed transparent wood or deck coating it is needed to use a Deck Stripper similar to HD80 or the Defy Wood Deck Stripper. This will soften the old coating allowing easier removal.

*This process will work on the majority of transparent and semi-transparent stains. It will not be as effective on solid or opaque stains.

When brightening Wood or Decks, use a brightening product similar to Restore-A-Deck or the Defy Deck Brightener. This is extremely important after cleaning or stripping the wood. Not only will this "brighten" the wood, it will also neutralize the cleaner or stripper, ensuring that your deck stain will perform properly.