Staining Outdoors this Summer
- , by Trudy Chuoke Trudy Chuoke
If you are staining a new fence, freshening up an older fence or deck this summer I would suggest you research who carries these products close to you. First let me give you just some simple tips on staining.
I am going to write about some products that I will not have on the website; however, they are great products. If you are staining a new fence, freshening up an older fence or deck this summer I would suggest you research who carries these products close to you. First let me give you just some simple tips on staining your first fence.
If you have never stained a fence, there can be a learning curve. For one thing, pick a day with very little wind. I stained a fence one year and the wind was steady, so when I went around the corner of the fence the wind blew the stain right back on me. Well, I smelled like fish by the time I finished the project, and I could not get the stain off my skin for days. So, pick the right day. That goes for rain too. Being in South Texas, we are probably over the rain for a while, but remember the sprinklers. Turn them off – or make sure you do this project on the days you can’t water because of water restrictions. Remember to put cardboard under the fence where you are staining so that the stain doesn’t stain your grass. I didn’t and thought – well the grass will grow, and my yard guy will mow it off….it did finally. But until that happened – the fence job just looked messy, and I was not very proud. Use a pump-up sprayer with a fan tip. Get a sprayer that you can place on the ground and still spray. They are called Stand and Spray Pump Sprayers. It gets heavy carrying around 2 gallons of stain when staining a long fence.
Ready Seal is the stain I would recommend for fencing. This stain is goof proof. You will get no lap marks, no drips, and no runs. It is an oil-based stain. I have found that this is the stain of choice in South Texas. It should run about $56-$59 a gallon. Which still puts it under Cabot Stains. Which is a very popular stain line. I have a customer that really miscalculated what he would need for stain for the fence and was thrilled that where he stopped blended beautifully with his new gallons of stain. But I recommend a different stain for decks.
When I bought my little garden home, my dad was with me. We looked outside and I said that I would like to tear out the deck. It looked terrible. They must have used so many kinds of stain and the total overall look was bad. But Dad said that the deck was sturdy, and it would be a waste to tear it out. So, I didn’t. After Dad died, I was really having a bad day so I thought I would do a project to get my mind off things. I picked the deck. I wanted to sand the deck and then use a semi-transparent stain on the deck, and I was going to use Cabot. Well about 2 hours into the project, I sat down and had a pity party. The sanding was not going well, and I could tell that there was no way I would get finished. I gave myself a Dad-inspired pep talk and then I went back to the hardware store and picked up a couple of gallons of Deck Correct by Cabot. I had it customed tinted (you can do that too) to match the wood flooring inside my house. I had that all that deck stained in 2 hours. I simply rolled it on and used a brush when I got close to the house. When you are looking at the deck – it just looks like an extension of the home. Whenever I use my deck, I am reminded that Dad was right.
Staining your fence or your deck is not hard. Just don’t get in a hurry and use the right products.
We are going to a new platform for the website. It should be so much easier than the existing site. It’s taken a while – but I think we are going in the right direction. But as always, if you’re not techy, no worries…just call the store for help. If I’m not there, just leave a message and I will get right back to you.