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!

Look at drip marks on railing.


Ugh! And UGLY!

Very uneven.



Deck washed down, stain removed, ready to start over!


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