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Deck Stain Questions and Answers
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Topic starter
24/02/2013 4:29 pm
Question about finishing a playhouse for the kids. We bought one of these from Costco for the backyard:
It comes from the factory with a water based stain/sealant on it, and the manufacturer recommends using a water based sealer on it each year (Thompson's). I know Thompson's is thought to be a horrible product, so I wanted to use a better stain/sealant on it before we build it.
I was wondering if anyone had experience with the Olympic Maximum SOLID stains (
This will be in a hot summer / wet and cold winter location (NW).
To do this, I would have to remove the existing coating, and I was thinking of using the Olympic premium stain stripper (
Does anyone have experience with that? I did a water test with the factory coating, and after 10 minutes most of the water was still puddled, but there was some discoloration of the wood, so I have serious doubts about the longevity of the factory finish.
Thanks!
25/02/2013 11:12 am
Are you sure you want a solid stain? Solids stains look like paints. If that is what you want then you do not need to strip, just clean and coat over top.
I would not use Olympic product. Flood makes a better solid stain and so does Cabot.
If it was me I would leave it alone for a couple of years then do the maintenance on it. The factory finish will hold up.
Topic starter
25/02/2013 3:35 pm
Quote from administrator on February 25, 2013, 11:12
Are you sure you want a solid stain? Solids stains look like paints. If that is what you want then you do not need to strip, just clean and coat over top.I would not use Olympic product. Flood makes a better solid stain and so does Cabot.
If it was me I would leave it alone for a couple of years then do the maintenance on it. The factory finish will hold up.
And when you say maintenance on it, what are you referring to? What the company recommends and putting a Thompson's water sealer on it? Or you mean clean and recoat with a semi transparent stain?
The reason I was going for solid stain was because of the longer life of the product. I was hoping that I could do this one time and get 5-7 years out of it with extremely minimal upkeep and then at that point we would be done with it since the kids would have outgrown it.
Also, everything I read says that if there is still a water protection layer (10 minute water test I mentioned) then you can't just use a stain over the top since the stain won't penetrate. Are you saying the cleaning (I'm assuming with a deck cleaner/brightener?) would be enough to get rid of that coating?
Thanks again for all the help.
26/02/2013 12:44 pm
Nothing lasts 5-7 years. Solids stains will not fade in color like a semi-transparent but they are prone to peeling as they film on top of the wood instead of penetrating into the wood.
Thompson water seal does nothing and it cannot be put on top of another stain. That is poor advice from the company.
If it beaded water for 10 minutes then yes it could hinder a stain's ability to adhere on top. I would still leave it alone this year. Next year a good cleaning should be enough prep to apply the solid stain.
