Meghan

Perfect! That is exactly the information I needed. I know what I need to do now. Thanks so much, Rick!

Hi, I am having trouble figuring out what to do about staining my deck and fence and would really appreciate some knowledgeable advice. I live in a townhouse and have a pressure treated pine deck, and a fence which is part cedar, part pressure treated pine. The pine section of the fence is old (had already been there a while when I moved into the house six years ago) and the cedar portion of the fence is about three years old. The fence was unstained because the HOA only allowed clear, so I didn't put anything on it. The deck was stained with dark red ready seal about 3 yr ago. Now my HOA is allowing staining with a "semi-transparent wood tone stain," so I hired another company to clean the deck and fence and apply stain (they use ready seal) with the hope of having everything look at least reasonably uniform. I checked to make sure the company was licensed, bonded, and insured, and also used Angie's list reviews to vet firms. Unfortunately, I didn't ask the right questions when I got the estimate, and it's clear after the wash that the contractor is not up to the job and we are going to mutually part ways. The cedar fence is furred all over the place, and has white gunk on it that the contractor claims is dead wood (the contractor said that it happened because the wood was so soft and that nothing could be done to correct the furring). The pine portion of the fence is cleaner than it was, but it's still fairly dark and it's not clear to me whether that's what old pine should look like clean, or if the cleaning could have been better. The deck has a fair amount of remnant stain on the vertical surfaces, and the stain has mostly worn off of the horizontal surfaces. The cleaning didn't strip the ready seal stain. The contractor claimed to use either percarb or NaOH to wash. Basically, I'm left with three zones of wood that would need to be stained with the hope of getting them all to look close enough to the same color to keep my neighbors from cringing: the pine section of the fence, the cedar section of the fence, and the deck with ready seal. I've attached photos. I'm trying to decide between three options: 1. Hire another contractor that bid on the project who in hindsight was more knowledgeable and I'm pretty sure will do a hotter strip of the deck and fence (they use NaOH and claimed the ready seal would come off easily), and then have them apply dark walnut ready seal (they only use ready seal). Would this have a hope of turning out well?? 2. Find another contractor to apply or DIY a semi-transparent product that is not ready seal but would have the kind of pigment that could cover enough to account for the different woods, etc. Any good semi-trans products for this??? 3. Get some beer and pizza, round up some kind neighbors, and hit the whole thing with an oil-based solid. 4. I'm totally wrong and need to do something else. Sorry this is so long. Thanks for your time, and I'd appreciate any advice. Meghan