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Color Matching Deck Stains
Great site. I just found it.
My surface deck boards on my approx 15 year old deck need replacing, but
my vertical ones are in good shape. The deck was originally stained a
reddish stain and I'm concerned that if I replace the horizontal deck
boards and try to stain everything the same, the old boards will look
drastically different than the new ones.
Have you ever dealt with a similar issue? Any advice?
Thanks
Jeff L.
Color
matching of stains is a real pain. Even if you can find the exact same
stain, the old stuff will have faded. You can always try a sample on a
new piece of wood and compare. You might be able to re-coat the old
stained wood with the new color and get decent results. But that's IF
you can find the same stain.
With deck and house stains there is a sequence that people sometimes run
through. First they coat their bare wood with a transparent stain, which
gives them that beautiful rich real wood look... that has to be
re-coated every 2 or 3 years.
Then they get tired of that routine and graduate to a semi-transparent
stain, which has some solid pigment to it but still shows much of the
wood grain. These have colored pigments, so the effect is a washed-out,
weathered looking color. These can have a lot of character. I suspect
that your red is a semi-transparent stain. But these stains may only
last about 3 to 5 years.
Then people graduate to solid-tone stain. I "painted" a
cedar-sided house last summer with Rubbol Solid Stain from Sikkens. It's
supposed to last 15 years. It goes on like paint but needs no priming.
As it ages it's supposed to wear away rather than flaking off.
That same client bought some Rubbol Solid deck stain and applied it to
his front porch/deck. I asked him recently how well it held up. He said
it was fine except it peeled up where he shoveled the snow from the
deck. He used a metal-edged snow shovel (a no-no).
A solid-tone stain may be your best bet, but make sure it is recommended
for decks, and keep metal tools away.
You can also try a different color for the deck, to contrast with the
vertical wood. But I couldn't tell you what colors would be a good
choice. Take a sample of the red into a paint store and see what they
think.
Bruce W. Maki, Editor.
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