Periodic Maintenance and Staining will Protect your Deck for Many Years.
A customer from Oshawa.
A deck is a great addition to someone’s living space. It can increase the value of a property, but most importantly, it serves as a gathering place for friends and family. Being an outdoor structure, a deck is exposed to severe weather elements that can damage it structurally. A neglected deck can develop all kinds of problems including cracks, raised grain, mildew and severe wood deterioration. There are measures that can be taken to protect the deck surfaces and keep it looking good for many years to come. Like with most exterior painting you will need to use a quality finish and apply it properly.
Basic Types of Stains as Defined by their Opacity
Semi transparent stains, as the name implies, allow for some of the wood to show through, offer U.V. protection and are best for wear and tear. These need to be applied on new wood or wood that is stripped from any old finish. Some manufacturers offer a semi-solid version that is almost opaque but has a little transparency. You can get two or three years service from a well applied semi transparent coating.
Solid Stains resemble flat paint and contain a lot of pigment. As a result solids offer the most U.V. protection and are great for covering discolouration and other imperfections of the wood. Solid stains are a good choice after stripping an existing finish and the wood looks uneven. In fact, if you know you are using an opaque stain, complete stripping of the previous stain is not necessary. All failing coating should still be removed and prepped in a way that is similar to exterior painting prep. Solid stain can be tinted with any possible colour and you can also stain your fence with them. If your prefer the rustic look of wood keep in mind that you need to achieve that with colour. Opaque stains will not allow the wood colour to show through but they are thin enough to show the texture.
Cleaning Your Deck
Water and moisture is the worst enemy of deck stains. Make sure the deck drains well by cleaning the space between the boards. Leaves and soil can be built up
Does your Deck Have Pressure Treated Wood Sold Before 2003?
Some Testimonials from our Deck Staining Customers
Rose D. (Pressure Washing in Don Mills). Rose’s deck was pressured washed and had most of the existing stain removed by power sanding. After examining the condition of the deck, the customer decided to use an oil based opaque stain from Benjamin Moore.
“This year, when it came time to refinish my deck, I was overwhelmed with the extent and difficulty of the task. Ecopainting stepped up to the job and did a superb job for a great price. My deck looks great! I will certainly call on Ecopainting again.”
Bruce T. (Deck Staining in Thornhill). Removing the existing but failing Sikkens finish was very difficult. We first used a chemical stripper that removed most of the finish. There were some areas that were very stubborn and needed to be sanded off. After neutralizing the surface and waiting for it to be dry, we applied new Cetol Deck Finish. This was an alkyd based translucent product that created a look resembling the look of finished furniture.
For Deck Staining in the GTA, call us at 416 733-7767 to schedule an appointment. Our summers in Toronto are short and humid. As a result, there is a small window of opportunity to finish a deck. We limit our availability to about 10 -15 decks every year. Scheduling your deck ahead of time is a wise decision.
If you have questions about exterior painting we wrote this blog.
Hi – could you please provide me with a rough quote to stain a deck that is approx 400 sq ft. Thanks
Thanks Mike,
we only do about a handful of decks every summer.
We can’t really do any more this year unfortunately.