Good Deck Care Requires Common Sense

by Handyman on July 14, 2010

Each year while at the Minnesota State Fair, we see the standard booth that offers a five year guarantee on deck floors. Many makers put verbiage on their paint cans that advertise long guaranties. But when you read the fine print, we have not begun to find anyone that will back up a warranty on a typical deck floor in Minnesota. The best fine print on the guaranty is from one manufacturer that gives a 3 year guarantee, while the deck is re-coated annual!

The best stains are from Sherwin Williams, PPG, ICI, Glidden, Hirshfields, X-100, Floods, CWF, Deckscapes, Cabots, Sikens SRD, TWP, and others. All of them have good products, but there aren’t any sorcery products that last seriously longer than their competition. The most critical thing is to not put a coating on your deck that is non-compatible with the prior coating and keeping your maintenance costs as low as possible.

Consumer Reports is usually a good resource for many products but for protecting decks their advice isn’t good for Minnesota. They like to recommend employing a solid stain for best longevity, but you don’t wish to do that if you’re inthis is totally wrong for Minnesota. In Minnesota, we experience a big quantity of freeze heat up cycles. When deck boards get wet and then freeze, the water expands and pushes the coating off. If the coating is a penetrating stain that doesn’t leave a film, there’s little to no coating to push off. ( less is better for decks ) As a semitransparent wears away, it seems more rustic. If a solid coating is applied on a horizontal surface, it’ll peel and look unsightly. It doesn’t look rustic, it looks worn out and in disrepair. When it comes to making an attempt to make a deck lined with a solid stain beautiful once more, the cost of scraping and sanding before re-staining makes it much dearer than employing a semi-transparent stain instead.

Schoenfelder Painting is a deck staining Minneapolis company that paints or seals over 5 hundred decks each per year. We have spent years perfecting our deck finishing methods and have come up with definite preferences. We highly recommend employing a semi transparent stain on deck floors. It is a tiny harder to apply, but holds up as well as anything. More importantly it is good even as it wears away and it wIll not peel. Semitransparent stain is also the least costly to reapply in 2 years. It only must be washed and re-applied. Finally it is good even after many applications, so the long run maintenance is really economical. Semi-transparent also comes in many different tints.

The railings, spindles, bottom sides and skirts can be done with the same product and color. That is how I treated the deck on my home. With proper maintenance each other spring, it’s great year after year. We are proud to be your provider of interior exterior painting Minneapolis.

The sole consideration to semitransparent stain is that you can not use it over other additives or paint. If your deck was painted during the past, further prep is necessary. In these cases, we typically sand the decks down to the bare wood using floor sanders. We remove 98% of the present stain or paint from the floor, stairs and railing top. Our clients love the result. Your deck feels like new again. Sanding only costs roughly $1.25 per square foot and does not need to be done again for 10+ years. The feel of your well cared for deck floor, priceless! So just remember that if you need deck staining advice we are here to help.

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