exterior stain for playset

[mook johnson]

I just built a playset out of pressure treated southern yellow pine. It looks OK but I would like to put some redwood stain on it to make it look nicer against the forest green slide and rockwall rocks.

I've looked at consumer reports ratings and they recommend Behr but I've read some horror stories about behr stain.

I went and bought a quart of Sherwin williams Woodscapes which looks good on the test piece of wood I did, but it came in dead last on the CR report and I read of class action law suits on Shwerin Williams due the woodscapes stain pealing after 6-8 months and requiring sanding to get it off to recoat with something else.

I'm looking for first hand expereince with stain that will last more thant a year or two and when it is time to refinish doesn't require massive effort to refinish.

This will be in Houston Texas weather.

thanks

[salty]

Whatever you use for a finish, bear in mind that splinters from pressure treated wood can be considerably more serious than splinters from wood not saturated with those chemicals. Several thick coats of paint might be a good idea.

[ransley]

I just googled for a lawsuit on SW stain and couldnt find any. Please post your link to one. I dont think there is one and putting together one wood be ridiculous. What I know is failures are easily made by homeowners staining when cold or with wet wood. Did you know PT can be to wet to stain for 6 months! PT is a treatment that under pressure forces in water to saturate the wood wet. Properly your set should be tested with a moisture meter. I would use oil stain, SW or any other name brand, I will bet any complaint-failure about stains is consumer ignorance related to temperature and the high moisture content of the wood. My only failure was staining to late in the year, on the last

55F day of the season. Your set if sold boxed and stored indoors should be dry enough, but only a moisture meter can confirm you are below the wet limit for staining, so where is that class action lawsuit you say is out there. Paint peels and is more affected by trapped moisture of new PT so stain is better.

[mook johnson]

Might not have been a lawsuit but someone else was asking about it here after they had bad experience with SW woodscapes.

[ransley]

So some idiot didnt follow directions, the stain peeled, as mine did when I stained at the minimum or below recomended temp, posts a complaint and you think its a nationwide issue, geeze. It isnt even An issue. I used to use alot of SW stain professionaly for many years, there is good reason SW is one of the largest paint companies. A quality product at competitive price, with service to back it up. Products fail because idiots dont read or follow instructions clearly printed on every can.

[salty]

So in a post where you call other people idiots for not following directions, you also mention that YOU didn't follow the directions, even though you were a "professional".

LOL!

[ransley]

I make mistakes, when its the last nice week of fall and you want a stained deck because you put it off, you try to catch a break in the weather. In the midwest here we just had a cloudy, wet, cold, October and now in November painters are finishing what they started in Sept. The difference is I know I screwed up my stain, I dont go falsely blaming a product as crap and falsely talk about non existant class action lawsuits.

[salty]

So... Just to be clear. Did you follow the directions, or were you one of those idiots that didn't?

[ransley]

I did, but it got cold right after so it didnt have time to cure in this shaded area.