We are having a new screened porch installed as part of a new construction in coastal Maine and are receiving mixed advice as to how and when to stain/protect all new surfaces. Hoping for some clarity here.  Flooring is Alaskan yellow cedar, vertical posts and ceiling rafters are hemlock, and ceiling boards are pine. Screening is yet to be installed, and that installation will make access to some adjacent surfaces harder. This will be a heavy traffic area. Climate includes humidity, salt air and extreme temperatures. Vertical and exterior facing surfaces, as well as edges of flooring will be water and UV exposed. Contractor wants to get a stain on all surfaces ASAP but advice on this website is that we need to wait for wood to age. During rainfall, water does soak into floor boards vs beading on surface, and there are already water marks on periphery of floor surface. Regarding ease of application, getting something on the surfaces before screening goes up would be ideal, but this is all “new” wood and has only been in place for two weeks. We would like to use a semi-transparent low VOC water based stain for protection. Is there a product that can be applied to some of the new wood surfaces that will be more accessible without screening? Do we need to wait on all of the application for wood to age a bit? What product do you recommend? Thank you for the advice!

Kristin