Your Opinion of Good and Bad Deck Coatings (Stain. Paint, etc)

[Paintedcow]

Some of you have coated a deck with some sort of coating. Whether it's a stain, paint, or something else. What brands have you found to be good quality, or maybe you have been dissapointed with some brands.

What brands and types of coatings have you used, and what was your opinion of them. If you used them on siding or trim, that also matters.

Please state the brand name, type (solid stain, transparent stain, paint, or other). Was this used on a deck, siding, fence, or something else? What kind of wood was it applied to (standard, treated, new, old, etc)? How was it applied? How long did it last, or NOT last, and what happened to it as it aged? Were you satisfied? If you want to rate them on a scale from 1 to 10, please do. (One of terrible, ten is excellent).

Please base your responses ONLY on personal experience, or that of someone else who you know. NOT on advertising, price, or what you heard or read about someone who you dont know.

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PAINTED COW

[trader_4]

I've used solid stain on cedar house siding. MAB the first time, that lasted 12 years. Used Benjamin Moore last time, that's been 2 years now. There was zero peeling, prep work was essentially just power washing it. I would favor using a stain on a deck, because less tendency to peel. The BM Arborcoat is a really nice produce, flows well, covers well. Overall I've been very happy with BM products.

[David L. Martel]

I've used Cabot's Driftwood Gray on my deck. It's a semi-transparent stain. Oil based so clean up is a minor pain. Other than that it goes on well and lasts about 5 yrs. This is in central North Carolina

Dave M.

[Ed Pawlowski]

I've not found any that worked well on the horizontal decking. The vertical surfaces never a problem with either Cabot or Olympic.

I finally solved the problem with the deck surface by replacing it with Tiger Wood (goncalco alves).

[Mayayana]

"Ed Pawlowski" wrote

| I've not found any that worked well on the horizontal decking. The | vertical surfaces never a problem with either Cabot or Olympic. |

I've been using Cabot's solid oil for years. I get

2-3 years out of it, but it's easy to recoat and looks nice. On the other hand, it's getting hard to find and the water-base deck stains are bad.

| I finally solved the problem with the deck surface by replacing it with | Tiger Wood (goncalco alves). |

|

I'd be wary of that in the long run. It looks great at first, but eventually it'll be gray. If that's OK then why not just use fir 1x4 with linseed oil? And how will it age over years? I have a customer with a purple heart deck. For the first few years it was gorgeous. He'd sand it every Spring and put clear sealer on it. But eventually that was too much work. It grayed. It swelled. I had to cut gaps between boards for him repeatedly. It eventually started to shred and rotted under his planters. Tough stuff, but it's only been about 15 years and now it's an ugly mess, which he's had to stain a solid, dark red in order to hide the dirty, uneven gray look. The problem with many new solutions is that they're just not time-tested. Purple heart is nowhere to be found now. It was a fad for a few years.

What I've been recommending to people who want a nice look is "mahogany" 1x4 coated with one of the wood-color stains Benj. Moore has come up with to replace Aust. Timber Oil. (Which is now water-base and bears no resemblance to the original product.) I'm planning to do such a job next week, replacing cracked PT decking that's become too weathered to hold stain. There is one limitation there, though. Many houses don't look good with a wood-grain deck. It's rustic. For solid color decking there just isn't an ideal solution.

[Di Hydrogen Monoxide]

Thanks to the environmental wackos, I'm not sure you can legally buy a decent deck coating. About 10 years ago I rebuilt my decks using HomeDepot's Veranda decking and vinyl rails and they still look new. Just give 'em a quick squirt with the pressure washer every 5 years or so.

[Ed Pawlowski]

It is pretty gray already. I can keep it looking good if I wanted to put the labor into it. I choose not to.

The first deck was fir and lasted five years. I built a larger deck and used PT. It lasted 20 years and needed to be stained frequently or looked like crap. The structure is still good, just the flat decking was going.

The tiger wood us supposed to last 50 years it nothing is done to it. If true, that is my last deck as I won't last another 50 years.

I have gaps as installed. I have no intention of sanding it every year and the gray is acceptable to me.

I built a bench with mahogany and it looks good with just oil every few years. I'm done with stain as it looks like crap after while.

[gfretwell]

I went with Ipe that will be here when my grandkids get old.

Honestly I should have just used PT if I was looking for something that would last 10 years (my statistic life expectancy).

[Frank]

That's right and anything that you loved 10 years ago reformulated to abide by VOC rules may now be crap now.