I have a cedar deck that is approximately 7 years old. A few years ago, I had it stained and the company used an unknown type of stain. It looked great for a long time. The deck is in a shady area. This year we noticed some of the boards had some rot. I hired someone to pressure wash, hand sand and restain the deck, replacing any boards that looked as if they needed replacing. The work up until the staining was beautiful. The replacement boards look great. Then we had him stain it with Cabot semi-solid deck stain in mission brown. Here's where the problems start. It looked like he wasn't using a lot of stain but the deck dried with an uneven finish. It looks blotchy and there are shiny spots. On the new boards, he went over with the stain twice to darken it and now those boards are completely shiny. Any ideas on fixing this problem. I called Cabot the first time and the woman who answered recommending leaving the blotchy parts till next year and then chemically stripping it and reapplying the stain from scratch. On the shiny boards, she is recommending using mineral spirits right now and then leave it until next year. My husband called back and spoke to a guy who said " it's a wood problem, not a stain problem, there is nothing you can do". This is a 1400 sq. foot deck with a gorgeous gazebo and bar built right in. I really, really don't want it to look yucky until next year. Any ideas to help?? Sari
