I had a contractor stain my small deck and fence yesterday, and he did a very poor job. I'm hoping someone might be able to tell me what my options are to possibly fix it.
I live in NJ, and the deck/fence are in partial shade. The fence is very old pine (10+ years) and the deck is new pressure treated pine that was laid last August. There are no mold or mildew issues, and neither deck nor fence had been previously stained. The stain used was ArborCoat Translucent Classic Oil finish in a cedar color, and it was applied with a sprayer. All wood had been power washed two days earlier.
The issues with the application are many:
- Uneven color from one side of the deck to the other. I think he may not have mixed the cans of stain before applying. He also used a little over 2 cans for 825 sq ft of coverage, which I feel is spreading a bit thin (I had provided 4 cans for his use)
- Dark marks of stain on the deck where he must have overlapped his spraying, which have dried into dark patches (and some mottled/splotchy patches)
- Splatter marks of stain on the deck that were not wiped and have now dried
- A spot where he sprayed over the power cord to his own sprayer and left a white line.
- Spots where no stain seems to have been applied at all.
Am I just stuck with the bad stain job, or is there some recourse to some or all of these issues? Would I be left with sanding the whole thing down and starting from scratch? Any help would be appreciated.
You cannot apply more to even it out with the Arborcoat. Strip and sand to remove and start over. Also you may want to switch brands. Arbor coat has had many issues with customers:
How soon can I strip/sand the deck to put down another coat? Do I need to wait any amount of time after the initial application, or can I do it immediately?
Do it now if you want. Strip off what you can then sand the rest off.