such a dummy


 

LMichaels

TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
So last year my buddy and I built a new deck on my house. I wanted to get it stained a few weeks after but my bro said oh no wait a full year, so did a painter my daughter does work for in her job with Office Depot/Max. So wait a year I did. I bought top of the line stain here recently from Amazon Sikkens Cetol transparent oil stain and yesterday a nice new Wagner Flexio 3000 sprayer. It's turning out nicely and I settled on that sprayer because they said little to no over spray. Well, I didn't count on the breeze. I didn't cover the Wolf (since it's too large to move off the deck) thinking over spray would not be an issue. WRONG! Went out just now and realized the Wolf is coated with over spray. :eek:
I gotta find a tarp to put over it before continuing. As it is I'm gonna be washing that thing down with thinner til the cows come home
 
I did the same thing a number of years ago with spraying Thompsons water seal on my deck. It was windy and got on the stuff in my yard (from the deck) including the non weber disposable grill I had at the time. It even got on some of the house windows. What a mess! Lesson learned for me and I'm sure you as well.
 
You're not alone Larry. When I was cleaning the fire box on the skyline I made a big mistake. I usually take the box out in the driveway and go at it with the angle grinder and wire brush. Well it was in the afternoon and my garage faces west and it was 99* and 100% in the sun. I decide I would just do it in the garage. After I finished I looked around and the whole garage was covered in dust from the grinder.
Our white refrigerator was black along with my tool boxes, rollaway, work bench, cabinets, saws, everything.
Took Barb and I three hours the next day to get it mostly cleaned up, what a mess.
 
Recently I had the shingles replaced on my house. The roofers left a bit of that black debris on my patio table which I forgot to wash off with my garden hose. Last weekend, I decided to finish putting the CV back together but I wasn't entirely happy with how clean the inside of hood was so I took it off and laid it down on the patio table. Big mistake!! End up with a few deep scratches on the hood. Felt like an idiot.
 
Larry, let me know how that stain works. I stained my deck for the first time several years ago. I got what was supposed to be good stuff from Menards. Two years, that was it. It is mostly peeled off now. I have been neglecting to redo it, but I need to. But, if I have to strip it and redo it ever two year, screw it. I would think they would make something that lasts longer than that.
 
Will do. It's normally real expensive stuff (about $90 per gallon) but I found a place on Amazon selling it in 5 gal container for $219 delivered! Could not pass it up. It is oil based transparent stain. I am using that type as it soaks into the wood and in time simply fades or wears away but will not peel. I sure am glad I was not the only one with those oh darn slap myself stories LOL
 
Yah, regular stains are more like paint. I originally thought about just going with a wood preservative that soaks in but everyone said....Oh, you have to go with a stain or you don't get UV protection. No one told me that means you will be stripping it and redoing it every two years.
 
When we built our first house here I had them use Timber Tech a synthetic deck material. We lived there for 10 years and absolutely no maintenance at all and it still looked like new. Sure glad I did that after hearing all the horror stories from my neighbors who had wood decks.
 
The vinyl planks are interesting. But if I remember right they cost about 4 times what treated lumber costs.

Our treated wood deck is almost 40 years old and still looks pretty good. I do treat it with clear water seal (like Thompson's) every two years. It does have a roof over It which protects It somewhat from the elements.

It doesn't look new and I have replaced some of the floorboards and lattice but it's completely solid looks pretty darned good for a deck that old.
 
I thought about going with a synthetic deck material i.e. Trex (or other derivatives) but the deck would have cost me about $8000 to build as it was using treated it was still about $2k. And I would still have needed to do maintenance on the staircase, rails and spindles and such as you need the extra structural strength there since I have an elevated deck. So I don't know if would have saved much on maintenance. Especially since it will be the actual deck surface and stairs that take the brunt. They're the easiest to do anyways
 
Mine was an elevated deck also, but no staircase. The house was built on the side of a hill so you went out on it at street level from the living room or bedroom. There was another concrete deck directly below it that's one of the reasons I went with timber teck, I didn't want any stain or sealer to drip down onto the lower deck.
Cost wise it figured out to just under three times the cost of wood.
 
Yeah I hear ya. So this Sikkens product requires 48 hours dry period prior to and after stain application. So I did the biggest part of it yesterday with the knowledge the weather is supposed to be warm sunny and dry next 5 to 7 days. So what happens last night (actually VERY early AM)? We get dense drippy fog. Woke up to deck completely wet. Called Sikkens tech support they told me worst case I may have to strip the entire deck and reapply. I am so mad I could spit nails. He said if I can touch it though and stain does not rub off on my fingers I may have dodged the bullet and can finish once it dries again. I went out (I am sure much to my neighbor's angst) and started blowing it off with my yard blower. Thing in my favor is water was beaded up and tech said it's a good sign. This is not fun
 
Larry, I hoped you dodged the bullet also the composite stuff has come down it used to be Trex was the only game in town and to be honest reading some recent reviews not what it used to be.

My deck is 22 years old pressure treated its getting to the end every time a nail pops I replace it with stainless deck screws not cheap and besides that has to be sanded time to time so you don't rip your foot on the flaking or whatever you call that. I had to redo my bay windows a few year ago all PVC and cement board so it will never rot again a lot of that stuff was from the same company that makes these deck boards. Really good warranty and if its 3 times the price so be it.

Will get it thru the winter then get some quotes tired of having to stain the damn thing every 2 years cause Atl is hard on decks also. 8k sounds high don't know how big your deck is mine is decent size I think it should be about 3 times the cost of the wood but here is the thing if your buying from the big box stores that is going to be more money than getting it at a lumber yard or whatever the contractor will get way better prices than that I am just going to pay a contractor its an easy job to do mine get some quotes in the winter when they are slow should get a better price.

https://azek.com/products/decking?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqfvszYe03QIVTLnACh26WgJlEAAYAyAAEgJpsfD_BwE
 
I think I did dodge the bullet. I put down the last of the stain though it does not look that nice because the Wagner Flexio 3000 sprayer malfunctioned today. What piece of junk. $140 mistake. Chinese all plastic. Very heavy and awkward. I think in retrospect I shoulda bought the Graco 360 airless. I guess we'll see next time. This was one awful experience. While I am sure that stain is an excellent product I think it's not meant for rank amateurs like me. In the end maybe spending 4x more for synthetic decking would have been better
 
If I ever do have to rebuild my deck i would certainly consider the synthetic stuff. Yes it's much more expensive but the maintenance free aspect sure is appealing. I get really tired of stripping and resealing mine.
 
How do you strip it BTW? I may have to strip the main surface and redo it thanks to that stupid sprayer malfunctioning
 
Larry, I don't use a sprayer when I do my decks have always bitten the bullet and brushed it on with a wide brush. What about trying to brush on a final coat is the stain inconsistent because of the sprayer the brush might even it out.

Curious about how Greg strips it also must be a beast of a job.
 

 

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