At a crossroads on refinishing solid stained deck - replace boards?

[TomInKY 14]

Hello All,

First post on here, so I will be upfront. I do the majority of my home maintenance and small - medium projects myself. Nothing against hiring it out, and if time is tight sometimes I will hire work out to get it done more quickly; if I did this for a living I would starve because I am much too slow and methodical.

I'm in the middle of adding on to an existing PT pine deck, and I am at a decision point and need some professional advice. The deck was built with the house, circa 1992. We bought the house in 2002, and at that point the deck was already covered in some type of solid stain. I did a recoat of the horizontal surfaces in 2005 with Behr solid stain (yes, I now know to "run from the Behr", according to much of what is written). Surprisingly, this stuff held up pretty well over the years. Unfortunately, when I did the recoat I pressure washed it and got too aggressive with the water pressure and eroded (corduroyed) some of the deck boards - wish I had known better back then - now I do.

Two years ago, I built a very nice porch over a portion of the deck that attaches to the house. This current project started when I decided to expand the deck and tie the porch posts into the deck railings. Along with that, I added on to the deck and built a pergola over part of it - all PT pine. My original plan was to re-use as much of the original wood that was in good shape, and then simply restain the whole thing in the same solid color as before. That's before my better half got involved. ;) She suggested a color change, since she never really liked the original color. We would both prefer a semi-opaque stain on the deck boards, but this would require removal of ALL of the existing solid stain. With the severe erosion of many of the boards, I doubt if that is possible.

I have included a few pictures of the product, and I am looking for some recommendations. Since some of the original railings and ballusters will be retained, my thought is to go two-tone with a solid stain on the railings. I am probably going to have to replace most of the existing deck boards, but I will entertain other suggestions. Thought about flipping them, but that rarely works out very well.

What would be a good semi-transparent or semi-opaque stain that can be maintained every couple of years without a major renovation? Looking for a medium brown or chocolate brown, but a color that approximates the finish of the tongue-in-groove pine ceiling in the porch would also look nice.

Here are some shots:

Picture showing porch over deck, along with existing and new boards...

Picture showing deck boards with existing solid stain:

Picture showing "corduroyed" deck boards - will probably have to flip or replace...

New portion of deck with pergola...

Sorry for the long post, but wanted to provide some background. FWIW, the deck is shaded for most of the day, and obviously the part under the porch will see very little weathering, just foot traffic. I was really hoping to avoid replacing all of the decking because of the expense and the PITA factor, but that is looking like a foregone conclusion unless there is some type of solid stain that would look OK on them.

I very much appreciate any advice that can be offered. Thanks!

[bigchaz 157]

Hi Tom, welcome to the site. I'm not entirely sure what you are looking to do based on your post, but if it were me, this would be suggestion. You've already rebuilt a majority of the decking from what I can tell. I would finish replacing the remaining floor boards. I dont like how they go in different directions from the new and old portion but it doesn't look like you can really change that.

You could strip the solid stain and run a floor sander on the wood but even so your talking tons of work and almost the same expense as simply replacing the wood.

On the front where the stairs are, I would run an additional fascia board to cover the post and it will give you the added benefit of covering the existing solid framing where the stair stringers attach so you don't have to try and pull that out.

If you want to do do 2 tone, I always like white rails with a wood toned floor.

[TomInKY 14]

Thanks for the reply, Charlie. Yes, as much as I hate to think about it, I will probably have to replace the remaining deck boards. I was really hoping to avoid that, but it will at least allow me to get away from the solid stain for the deck boards.

Do you have any suggestions on a good semi-transparent stain that will give me a rich medium brown finish and still allow some of the wood grain to show through? I would like something that will hold up for a couple of years and be easy to maintain - i.e., something that won't flake or peel up, and won't require me to completely strip down to bare wood in two years when I want to add a "freshening" coat.

I really had no choice on the direction of the boards for the addition since it was spanning a basement walkway, and I would have had to make it step up and put an extra set of joists in to go the other way. And yes, I am definitely going two-tone. Any suggestions on a good solid stain for the railings? I was planning to probably go with an almond to match the siding on the house. I like white, but there is not any white trim on the house, and it might stand out too much.

Not sure if I completely understand what you are saying about the stairs. I guess I will have to remove the stain from the risers and the treads, or possibly go with the railing color on the risers. Kind of worried that that might show shoe scuffs easily.

[TomInKY 14]

I took a quick look at your website, Charlie - nice design, BTW! It looks like you prefer to use the Armstrong-Clark and WoodTux oil-based stains on your decks. Any noticeable difference in how they hold up? The WT is considerably more expensive than the A-C.

I did notice the WT claims that you can apply their oil based stains even over decks with high moisture content. This is stated in their literature:

"Wood Tux can be applied to wood even at very high moisture levels.

This means you can stain even if there is rain in the forecast for that day. As long as there is no standing water on the deck, Wood Tux will deliver a beautiful, rich high quality finish. Once applied it will take a light to moderate rain in as little as 15 minutes. You can apply to a visibly damp deck!"

This runs contrary to almost everything that I have read about staining decks. Has anyone put their claims to the test?

[bigchaz 157]

Yes, the WoodTux will work on damp wood. We only use WT on certain species of wood now but even when I used it alot I still let the wood dry before applying. If you are looking for a medium brown semi solid, wood tux probably won't be the closest option. I would probably go with Armstrong Clark Semi Solid stain in your case, but there are lots of great products out there so don't let me influence you on that count. There are different levels of opacity with AC stains, you have the transparent, semi transparent, and semi solids and each will provide a different amount of opacity to the wood.

For the two tone look we use Sherwin Williams deckscapes solid stain. On raw wood it usually needs two coats. They can tint it to different colors so you can do an offwhite or something to match the house trim.