New wood vs old wood on decks

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

From time to time we have homeowners who ask us to replace floor boards, spindles, rail caps, steps, lattice and so forth on decks. In our many years of doing this, we have never seen new wood look like old wood after installation. We have never had new wood accept a stain at the same rate of absorption as older wood does. In our experience you can always tell the difference. What has your experience been on PT deck with wood say 12-15 year apart in age? What do you consider a normal result?

Beth

[Celeste 341]

It is ridiculous to even think that old wood and new wood would stain the same! You can't even truly guarantee that any wood isn't going to vary slightly simply because of age, exposure and the fact that not all boards are even cut from the same tree!!

If you laid 10 people out in the sun.....none of them are going to tan/burn the same. The same theory can be applied to wood.

[Guy B 70]

New PT wood is what I call "Green" natural oils and the pressure treatment chemicals are still fresh in the wood, therefore it will not accept stain in the same way an older weathered wood....would. Results will be blotchy at best and never come close to matching the older wood.

[bigchaz 157]

We've been doing a lot more wood replacement the last year and it's always problematic to get the wood to match. Anyone that expects their to be no noticeable difference between new and old wood (especially pressure treated) is insane. With any wood variety you have so many species and treatment processes that picking two boards off different stacks of lumber at the SAME STORE on the SAME DAY could be a risk let alone replacing a pressure treated board from 15 YEARS AGO!!! The pressure treatment processes are different, the type of tree varies by region and of course as Guy mentioned, the stain penetration is of course way less on new wood versus older wood.

I've even tried buying wood in advance sometimes to age it on my own property and install that before cleaning and staining the entire deck and it's still not the same.

To me the more important thing is making sure the deck is safe and the wood we are replacing is usually in such a condition that leaving it unrepaired is risky. If you have kids or pets or heck even for yourself, it's not worth leaving a broken a spindle or missing lattice or rotten floorboard or splintered handrails just because the wood may look different.

Initially it will be off but give it a few years and restain it another time or two and by then you barely even remember it was ever done.

[James 625]

New pt doesn't match up well with old pt. I save old pt from tear downs for board replacement. I let the new boards stay unstained until the next maintenance and usually get a perfect match. I keep cedar boards in my yard aging for the purpose of replacement and being able to stain and this works great. I used to do this for all types but got lazy! Mahogany matches up pretty well but the stain doesn't last.

[Ron Musgraves 240]

New pt doesn't match up well with old pt. I save old pt from tear downs for board replacement. I let the new boards stay unstained until the next maintenance and usually get a perfect match. I keep cedar boards in my yard aging for the purpose of replacement and being able to stain and this works great. I used to do this for all types but got lazy! Mahogany matches up pretty well but the stain doesn't last.

So your saying it might look right at first, it will possibly change after time passes?

Interesting allow them to age a bit before. This makes sense, I've finish some exotic cues before an the wood aged did always take the stain much different. Many times we stripped the lacquer off the them to redo them. We noticed the older wood had hardened an excepted the stain to last better. Cues of course not nearly as tough I imagine as a deck open to elements.

Wood is very interesting, I'll stick to concrete.

Ron ********** text me for

questions 480-522-5227 Pressure Washing Institute.com

[James 625]

I would rather clean stone. I have a 16000sqft paver drive way to clean next week.

[Greg R 82]

New and old lumber will never match up initially. When the times comes that the deck is due for maintenance (2-3 yrs from replacement) it will blend perfectly.

One thing we DO always do is replace the wood prior to stripping the deck. That helps but it's still several shades off.

[plainpainter 217]

The new wood is always much lighter in appearance after staining. I imagine you would have to 'burn' the older wood with a really high concentration of OX to get it to match better. It's not worth the effort to try in my opinion.