The Accidental Farmer (Retired): The deck

Thursday, June 9, 2016

The deck

My deck is getting stained, as one of the last projects for spring/summer of 2016. We've run into a couple of snags. The contractor told me to buy the best stain, don't try to save a few bucks. In retrospect, I should have asked him specifically what brand to buy.

I got the best that Menard's carries, and I got semi-transparent, per his instructions. It was a mistake. His employee, who applied it, complained about it, said it dried so fast that he couldn't get rid of drip marks, and anywhere there was an overlap, it was horrid. I complained when I saw what it looked like. He said all he could do was re-apply a coat to the floor. That would make it opaque, no wood grain showing through. I said no. So he said I would have to live with the drip marks on the vertical surfaces and spots of overlap on the flooring until natural weathering took care of it.

I am often quick to make decisions. In this case, I said, "Halt! I need to do some research." I'm glad I did. I called my contractor, Joe, and told him he needed to come out and take a look, that I wasn't very happy with the project.

I also went to a first rate paint store and picked the guy's brain there, showing him pics. He did say the application wasn't exactly A+, but agreed that the brand I bought wasn't the best for getting even application.

Joe was at the house when I got back from the paint store and agreed with me that it wasn't pretty. Joe, being the honest and good contractor I know him to be, said he would take care of it. He was back in an hour with a power washer and two gallons of stain remover. Four hours later, the deck was back to its starting point. I went to the paint store to buy the recommended product. Joe will be helping with the application of the stain on Saturday. There is a process called "keeping a wet edge" that I learned about during this exercise - not exactly something I was searching for, but now I know. This is how you prevent those horrid overlap areas, no matter how fast the stain dries.

Here are a few pics of the project, which is a work still in progress. I will publish another blog once the deck is done to my liking. Hopefully that will be soon!