Deck Stainer

[rockran]

Any recommendations and experiences with DIY Deck Stainers ? My Deck is quite weathered and I plan to stain it this summer
Thanks

[essence]

Water blaster

Try water blasting the deck first, to get rid of all the gunge etc. You'd be amazed at the difference a good clean makes.

[rockran]

I do plan to water blast first but after I would like to either stain or oil

[BusyLizzy]

I use a combination of turps and linseed oil, and just used a weed sprayer to spray it on.

[alhoon]

If it's your own place I'd recommend Sikkens http://www.jacjay.co.nz/sikkens/ it’s up there in price but lasts for years. Stained one of our rentals decks with Resenes stain, on the can it said we would have to redo it every two years. Use Sikkens on a job we did 6-7 years ago and it still looks great, It wasn’t a deck though but I was very impressed at how it have lasted.

[SuperDad]

Careful with the waterblaster - they can chew up timber.

Use an oil-based stain, rather than a water-based one. From memory Cabots have a good product.

Paul.

[simoncoles]

Wear overalls and gumboots.....

Yes, possibly stating the obvious but when your fiance is splashing around stain all over the place it stains skin, concrete and gets everywhere etc etc!!

Simon

[tricky]

...but when your fiance is splashing around stain all over the place it stains skin...

Gosh, it must be quite a chore scrubbing your fiance clean in the shower afterwards....

[rockran]

Hmm Simon must admit hadn't actually thought about that.. now tricky's gone and confused the issue

[NESW]

Have you got a bit of spare timber, similarly aged and weathered that you can take to try samples on?

Here is our experience to date: we have/had a nice chunky cypress pine deck around our inground pool, and had been applying oil based stain on it, however it was aging in the summer an "orange" colour which neither of us particularly liked.

So we decided to get a tinted jarrah stain and took an unused piece (which hadn't weathered) to try some samples. That look fantastic so I bought a huge tin. Did half the deck but with the previous weathering and "orange" it looks a red wine colour in parts, and dirty in others...

So we tried a few colours on sample pieces, but up against the fencing and pool they didn't look the same. Cleaned that lot off...

And so we still have a deck in need of "something" and it lets our property down badly which considering its on the market, isn't a good thing. If we have viewers, we have been hosing it down, which makes a slight improvement. I have considered hiring a big upright sander to take the lot off as much as possible might be the trick....

If you are really determined to do something, please take a weathered sample of your timber with you, it make such a huge difference to how it will look back home, and nothing like the pretty samples in the shop.

We wish that we had left ours completely alone to weather naturally.

[RentMaster]

NESW - maybe you should paint yours now. Paint should cover anything and looks good for a while until it starts wearing off in the normal walking areas.

[NESW]

It was an idea we had as well, trouble was, we never found anything that looked good next to a "rock pool" pool.... all looked a bit false.... so we stripped those bits back up, and it went back to the original state.

Too hard to do the entire deck in paint stripper though, and I don't think it would achieve much on the stained area.

But thanks for the thought. It certainly was a good one...

[simoncoles]

Gosh, it must be quite a chore scrubbing your fiance clean in the shower afterwards....

It was one of those hazards of the job.

Simon