New Cedar Deck Staining Problem Advice?

[Bob_M]

Last summer I had a new large (850 Sq Ft) deck built using White Cedar lumber. Its beautiful wood but I did not want it to weather and gray.

After much research I treated it with Sikkens Cetol® SRD stain. I waited about a month and also after 4 dry days then applied the first coat of this product. After drying the look was great.

About a month later and again after waiting for 3-4 consecutive dry days I applied a 2nd coat of the same product. Again I was very pleased with the overall look. Great!

Being located in New England (Central CT) there were quite a number of snow storms resulting in standing snow on the deck for weeks/months at a time.

Now that spring is here, the snow melted and warm days ahead I noticed that there are now quite a number of areas of peeling of the stain. It appears that both coats have peeled exposing the bare cedar.

First of all, has anyone experienced this and what might have caused it? More importantly I am seeking advice as to how to repair/treat these areas to both blend well and hopefully prevent the same thing from occuring next winter.

Please share your deck sealing/staining tips and guidance?

Thanks a million.

B

[Jim R]

I'm not familiar with SRD, but I've used the Sikkens DEK base/topcoat system on my cedar porch. It looks great but I've also experienced some flaking after the winter snows melt. Couple thoughts: moisture is the culprit here, Sikkens recommends coating the undersides of the deck boards, too - this wasn't a practical option for me so there is some moisture that's able to enter from underneath. Also, every little break in the finish - screw holes, scrapes from furniture, splits as the wood ages, etc. are water entryways and will probably cause peeling.

So every other spring I take a scraper and RO sander to scrape and feather out the peeling spots. Reapply my DEK base to the bare areas and recoat the whole shebang with topcoat (name of which escapes me right now). It really looks beautiful, but it's an awful lot of work. In retrospect, I probably would've avoided a film forming finish.

Obviously you'll want to consult the good folks at Sikkens to get their take on the situation. Good luck.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

I've had the same problem with a Cabot stain. It is in great shape on all the vertical portion, but the decking went to hell after one season and it is coated on the bottom also. The original PT wood is not all that smooth. I figure water is getting in their and a couple of freeze/thaw cycles are causing it to flake off. One a tiny gap starts, the rest follows quickly. Ed