Deck stain is a critical part of the deck-building process: If you leave the wood unprotected it will soon rot, warp and fade from the effects of humidity and sunlight. Deck stains can either show off lovely wood grain or hide unsightly building materials beneath an opaque coating. They also vary by type on how frequently they must be applied, letting you choose between a yearly chore or less-frequent reapplications. To get the very best comparison, take a scrap of wood from the deck with you to the store and ask to apply samples of each stain to it so that you can see what they look like.
Instructions
1. Check for transparency. Clear treatments have no little or no pigment in them, the better to reveal the wood grain beneath the stain, and usually have to be reapplied every year. Semitransparent deck stains contain some pigment but still let the wood grain show through and last a bit longer--two or three years on average. Opaque or solid-color treatments hide the grain of the wood completely but also last the longest, at least three years.
2. Choose a stain that's either solvent-based or water-based. Most solvent-based deck stains, also known as alkyd-based paints, must be cleaned with mineral spirits. Water-based paints, also known as latex-based paints, can simply be cleaned up with water.
3. Compare prices. An average price range for deck treatments is between 15 and 40 dollars per gallon. Divide the cost per gallon by the number of years you expect the coating to last and you get the price per year for any given deck treatment. You may discover that more expensive deck stains actually cost you less in the end because they don't have to be reapplied as often.
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