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Topic starter
28/02/2015 4:47 pm
Hi everyone,
I hope you can help so I'll try and keep it brief. I have attempted to attach a couple of photos also.
We paid people to stain our old deck about four weeks ago, they had previously painted the exterior of our home last year and did a good job, not so much with the deck.
They pressure washed it with a clorox bleach solution (which I now see is not recommended) one week and applied the stain the next week, they used Farrell Calhoun Exterior Latex Stain.
The stain is flaking off (not peeling) pretty badly on the floor of the deck, and especially so this week after we had two days where it was covered in a sheet of ice, that's when I first noticed it. There is some new wood out there, the steps down to the garden are new and the stain is flaking off that too a little, but it's not nearly as bad as on the older boards. My initial thoughts were that perhaps the wood was still damp from when they pressure washed it, but that wouldn't be the case for the steps into the garden. I also wondered if they applied enough stain as it's very thin where it is flaking off, but I don't know how much they should have applie
So I want to have them come back and fix it at no charge which I think they will do, but it's clear they are pretty clueless about the best products to use and so on.
What exactly should I ask them to do to fix this, is it now beyond redemption for this year?
01/03/2015 10:31 am
It could be many reasons why it is failing so quickly. Poor prep, poor stain, etc. I would suspect the stain itself. Problem is that it is only 4 weeks and most likely will get worse because the stain never was able to penetrate into the wood and create a proper adhesion to the wood. I would have them apply a stripper to the wood and pressure wash off as much as that will come off. What does not strip off most likely will be a solid foundation to apply another solid stain on top. Concentrate on the horizontals as any verticals should be okay. Also you might want to wait until it is warmer as curing is key and the ice on top could be the culprit as well.
BTW, thicker is not better so that is not the reason. Also new wood does not take stain very well. That is supposed to season and dry out.
Topic starter
02/03/2015 5:57 pm
Thanks so much, that's very helpful. Does it matter what stain stripper they use, are they all much the same?
03/03/2015 11:26 am
They are not all the same as far as strength. As contractors we like to use powdered strippers. This allows us to mix the product stronger/weaker based on the project. We use Restore-A-Deck Stripper or HD80 for this. I would be interested in seeing a picture of how much comes off after the stripping.
Topic starter
03/03/2015 5:13 pm
Thanks, I will recommend that to them and try and take some pictures and post them here, you've been very helpful.
