Anyone have anything good or bad to say about the various wood stains for decks/fences available at Home Depot or Lowes? I need to spray our small residential fence and am looking for input. I realize it’ll be something I have to reapply every few years, so looking for a balance between quality and price.

We have an offer from some random guy going around the neighborhood for $300 per house to do inside and out (we don’t have neighbors behind us). Figure I can do if for less and probably do a better job as I have one of those Wagner Flexio sprayers.

Anyhow, just looking for any good suggestions.

Here's the stuff I used. It's on the third summer and it might make it through another year. Not available at the box stores, but google for a vendor in your area if you're interested.

^^^Well, seeing as how we’re both in Fort Worth, where did you find it?

start at www.wooddefender.com

The place I got it was in Mansfield but don't remember the name.

Awesome, thanks. This is one I’d seen pop up but didn’t know anything about. Looks like it’s actually made down in Mansfield.

quote:

Originally posted by SigM4:
Anyone have anything good or bad to say about the various wood stains for decks/fences available at Home Depot or Lowes? I need to spray our small residential fence and am looking for input. I realize it’ll be something I have to reapply every few years, so looking for a balance between quality and price.

We have an offer from some random guy going around the neighborhood for $300 per house to do inside and out (we don’t have neighbors behind us). Figure I can do if for less and probably do a better job as I have one of those Wagner Flexio sprayers.

Anyhow, just looking for any good suggestions.

Screw staining.

Clean the fence with a bleach solution, and apply whatever is similar to Thompson's water seal (but cheaper). It will last for two or three seasons before you need to repeat it.

Both the bleach cleaning, and application of the sealer, can be done with a pump sprayer.

What I do is dilute bleach with water, using 1 quart per gallon. Wet a section of the fence with the hose, spray on the diluted bleach, let it sit for for 5 to 10 minutes, then rinse it off.

Let everything dry completely, a few day should do, and then use a pump sprayer to apply the water seal. I usually do the bleach one weekend, and then follow up with the water seal the next weekend, assuming the 2 or 3 days before applying the water seal were rain free.

Some folks recommend you do it annually, but I think you're good for 2 or 3 years. For a deck with a lot of horizontal surfaces where rain and snow sits for long periods, I'd do it annually.