I will be staining my new replacement wood deck in a few weeks when I can get some time off and good weather. It's a pressure treated wood deck with grade A deck boards (no knots nice and clear). I'm gonna use a water based stain, and it's between Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams brand deck stains. I can't see much difference technically, but surprisingly the Sherwood Williams is more expensive by about $15 per gallon than the Ben Moore.

Do you guys have experience with either brand for staining wood decks ? Or wood fences ? I'd imagine the formulation for either are more or less the same.

Or do you guys have experience with another brand entirely ?

If it makes any difference I will be using a semi-transparent stain using a roller and back brushing the deck surface, and painting the vertical sides with a brush.

I'm not sure if I need to chemically clean the deck surface since the deck is brand new, though I will be hitting it with my pressure washer at a lower pressure before I stain it, and I'm pretty sure the mill glaze is pretty much gone by now. It's been drying since it was built in late winter.

Any advice appreciated.

Not stain specific, but I have used both Ben Moore and Sherwin-Williams products and have found the Sherwin-Williams to be far superior in every case.

I have used a product called TWP for three decks and a shed with excellent results. The only issue if you’re set on water-based is that it may be oil-based if I recall correctly.

I used Cabot stain and am very happy with how it has held up over the last 4 years.

Never used Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore stains but I have used their paints and much prefer Sherwin Williams to Benjamin Moore

I've used "One Time Wood" a couple of times with really good success. Latest was the ramp for the MIL which was 10+ years ago and still looks good.
I went to OTW after experience with other stains and water based attempts. The water based performed the worst. Despite my attempts at diligent preparation it looked horrible in 2-3 years. The biggest problem with water based is that when it fails in 2-3 years its a royal PITA to prep the next round.

If you have grade A decking I would seal it rather than stain it. Let the grain of that nice lumber be seen. Is it green treated or brown? I built a 16X38 deck five years ago and it is grade A lumber. It gets the sun all day. I use Cabots clear sealer and it has been very effective and it looks better longer than a stained deck. I went that way on the advice of my contractor who has built more decks than I have ever stood on.

I thought I read once you shouldn't stain (or seal) pressure treated wood when it was new. How long you were supposed to wait, I don't recall.

As for water-based stains, I've used both Flood (recommended here) and Valspar....both clear. In fact, coincidentally, I just did my deck yesterday! This time I used Valspar, but I do think the Flood product is a bit better.

Last year I treated my sister's deck using a PPG product she bought. That was very good I thought. That one might have been oil-based.

ETA: correction. We used Behr (HomeDepot) water-based stain on my sister's deck. It was transparent which has a bit more pigment than the clear. Good for four years the can says. My Valspar clear claims to be good for three years...on decks.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 6guns,

Schaeffer’s New Zealand Style Deck Sealant is reputedly good.

I have been in this business for more years than I care to mention (I make the TWP that FiveFiveSixFan uses) and I would be happy to offer council on preparation, application and maintenance, regardless of what stain you buy. There are "guidelines" that are somewhat universal when it comes to exterior staining.

quote:

Originally posted by wrightd:
I will be staining my new replacement wood deck in a few weeks when I can get some time off and good weather. It's a pressure treated wood deck with grade A deck boards (no knots nice and clear). I'm gonna use a water based stain, and it's between Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams brand deck stains. I can't see much difference technically, but surprisingly the Sherwood Williams is more expensive by about $15 per gallon than the Ben Moore.

Do you guys have experience with either brand for staining wood decks ? Or wood fences ? I'd imagine the formulation for either are more or less the same.

Or do you guys have experience with another brand entirely ?

If it makes any difference I will be using a semi-transparent stain using a roller and back brushing the deck surface, and painting the vertical sides with a brush.

I'm not sure if I need to chemically clean the deck surface since the deck is brand new, though I will be hitting it with my pressure washer at a lower pressure before I stain it, and I'm pretty sure the mill glaze is pretty much gone by now. It's been drying since it was built in late winter.

Any advice appreciated.

George, maybe you could offer some bullet points for all of us? Thanks.

Regardless of the brand some important aspects

Pressure treated isn’t the same today as it was even 5yrs ago…

If the wood will absorb water. It’s ready to seal (gone are the days of letting it “weather”)

Use a cleaner conditioner, typically oxalic acid based. This will break the mill glaze and open the pores for the product to absorb into consistently. This is the only way to get proper longevity of the product

Don’t use a pressure washer. All you are doing is destroying the boards. I don’t know of a single mill which recommends this process. You will cause it to fuzz and become an unstable substrate. Force water into the boards which when hot sun hits can cause cracks and splinters as it expands

Pay attention to surface temperature, not air temp. Too hot it will flash dry and won’t give the longevity and will fail prematurely

quote:

Originally posted by 6guns:
George, maybe you could offer some bullet points for all of us? Thanks.

Sure thing,

The most important factor when preserving exterior wood is ongoing maintenance. If you are investing time and effort to make your exterior wood look a particular way, it behooves you to plan ahead for cleaning and "color maintenance" as necessary. If maintenance is performed, just about any of the "deck stains" available today will perform just fine. There are a few points that are important to any successful project:

1. Wood available today is not close in quality to wood from 20 years ago, and will likely decline in quality as the years progress.

2. For any existing structure that is "stained", it is best to remove the previous stain by stripping, sanding, pressure washing, before applying the succesive product. This only applies when you are changing brands of stain, maintenance coats need only a clean and dry surface that is absorbent.

3. New wood structures of cedar or redwood need 4 months of "natural weathering" to help remove the "mill glaze" but to also wash away exccessive "tannin" from the wood. Tannin is prevalent in all wood species, but tends to bleed more readily from soft woods.

4. Pressure Treated wood needs 12 months natural weathering, mostly becuase of the pressure treatment, it is waterbased and moisture content of the wood can be as high as 40%.

5. Preparing the "substrate" for staining is the most overlooked aspect of the process, but can result in poor stain performance.

6. New, previously untreated wood needs to be cleaned, possibly pressure washed (to remove gray wood fiber only); there are plenty of "deck cleaners" on the market, use them if you wish, I recommend 2 ounces of bleach, 1/8 cup of laundry soap (liquid is best) mixed into a gallon of warm water. Begin by wetting the wood with water to help the soap cling, mix up your cleaner, load it into a Hudson sprayer (bug sprayer) and apply heavily across the entire surface. Allow this to dwell 15 minutes so the bleach can kill any mold or mildew spores, then using a push-broom scrub the surface to loosen dirt and rinse well.

7. You can repeat the cleaning process as much as necessary, sometimes pressure washing is necessary to remove the gray wood fibers, it is not a simple process and can damage the wood easily. I do not like recommending sanding because you must exercise dilligence when sanding wood prior to staining, most people will buy a cheap electric sander and 5-6 sanding discs and try to sand a deck. Uniform, consistent pressure and frequent replacement of the sanding media (must be 60-80 grit, no finer) is critical. If sanding is not done properly, the stain will absorb well in some areas, very poorly in others and this will show.

8. After allowing the wood to dry at least two consecutive dry days of weather, cover anything in the vicinity you do not want stain to get on (visqueen and tape) and prepare your application method. It is best to stain when air temperatures are below 80°, however it's not always possible, so in warmer weather, apply stain in the morning, stopping around 10:30AM and late afternoon staining after 6:00PM, air temp is one thing, radiant heat from the sun can heat the wood to the point any stain applied will dry too quickly and thus not perform well.

9. Apply your stain to the point the wood is saturated (oil base stain) and allow it to dwell on the wood for ~30 minutes, this gives the wood time to absorb as much as possible on the first application. If the wood appears fairly dry as time elapses, a second coat could be attempted in the same manner, removing any excess stain that has not soaked in during that time period.

10. Waterbased stains dry much faster than oil, and should only be applied in cool weather to improve their penetration of the wood and help eliminate "lap marks".

11. Most oil stains need 12-24 hours of dry time before putting the area into service, air temp and wind speed will influence this.

12 If you choose to stain your wood immediatley, be prepared for uneven coverage and a "blotchy" appearance; you will be re-staining in a year or so.

13. Every application is a bit different and sometimes adjustments need to be made to preparation, application and maintenance, reach out to the manufacturer of the stain for council, we do want to help.

Thank you for taking the time to post that!