Wednesday, February 26, 2014

How to prepare and stain your new deck.


Adding a new deck is one of the best investment to your home if you are thinking of ROI.  Last September, we decided to knock down our old deck and redo it from the scratch.  It took more than three weeks for our contractor to finish but we really liked how it turned out.  

I was not sure whether I should stain the wood or let it naturally aged.  Our previous deck was naturally aged and got so slippery whenever it rained.  So, this time I decided to stain.

After searching the best stain on website, I decided to use TWP 1500 Stain in Honey tone (yellow golden color. )  Our deck was made of redwood (not the best grade but good one.)  It took for a week to prepare the deck.  First, sweep dirt and dead leaves.  Then, use regular household breach to clean up. It made the wood super clean as below!  Then wash well and wait for at least 48 hours to dry.  It can be more if weather changes or there are lots of moisture in the air..... Patience.....


I waited for three days before staining.  It got sunny but not all day sunny.  It will not hurt to wait. But since we had a dog, I was most annoyed by her paw marks!!!

Staining is quite easy.  It needs to cover the surface just enough and if you put too much, it's better to wipe out so that it will not get sticky later on.  The size of the deck is about 500 sq ft,ft and stairs.  I probably used a little bit over 2 gallons. No need to stain twice. It took me about 3 hours to stain. then about 3 days to really dried.   (My daughter tells me that she prefers non-stained wood.... Yeah, it actually looked nice but I don't have time to make it nice and clean every week!!!)  Here is the color after staining.


Then today we had a first rain after staining.  It seems working very well.  The water does not soak into the wood.


いつもお世話様です。イーストベイの不動産の事なら、津守弘子までよろしくお願い致します。(510.409.3472, hiroko@sfbaymodern.com)

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