It’s summertime, is your wood deck ready for all the summer activities? I want to share how to clean and stain a wood deck to keep it in top shape for many years of entertaining and family enjoyment.
My deck is 17 years old and is still in great shape due to the fact that we clean and seal the deck EVERY year. This is a big task to complete every year when you have a 700-square-foot deck.
This is how my deck looked on May 22nd. I live in Ohio, so we are lucky to get the deck done before Memorial Day. We have 3 HUGE maple trees surrounding the deck and we have to wait every year for the red seeds and the helicopters to fall. I love the trees for shade, but we despise the maple trees for how dirty they are.
We had a beautiful weekend over Memorial day, so we were able to get the deck clean and stained. Once we cleaned up all the debris on the deck, we were ready to power wash. The first step was to wet down the deck in small sections and apply the Thompson’s WaterSeal 3 in 1 Wood Cleaner.
You can see the difference in the above picture between the clean side on the right and the nonpower-washed side on the left.
I wanted to show this short video on how you can see how power washing makes a difference. It was hard to hold the phone in one hand and a power wash wand in the other. I have to use both hands to control the wand’s direction.
Now we are ready to stain. This is the first year that we are using the sealer with a transparent stain. We have only ever used the clear sealer. Mr. DD. was less than thrilled about my wanting to use a transparent color and I thought the deck was starting to look worn without adding some color back into the wood.
The first step was to spray on the stain.
We used a 4-inch old paintbrush to help spread the stain after spraying it on. Make sure to work in small sections since you need to reach the work area to spread the stain evenly. We opted for a brush instead of a roller. We have used a roller in the past and it seemed to push the stain and the roller absorbed a lot of stain in the roller.
Here you can see the difference between the stained area and the clean power-washed area.
I wanted to share how the treated wood repels the water on the left and the untreated wood absorbs the water.
For the rails and fence, we used a paintbrush and applied the stain with the brush.
I am thrilled with how fresh and new the deck looks by using Thompson’s WaterSeal Waterproofing stain in transparent Acorn Brown.
I am so happy with the way the deck looks. Mr. DD has concerns about how the color stain will hold up and what it will look like next year. The Thompson’s WaterSeal Waterproofing stain makes it so easy to stain your deck, not adding the color at the paint desk and having the can shaken. It is ready to go, just open it and pour. It also has built-in protection that offers more resistance against scuffing and peeling and provides more protection. You can also watch this video.
We spend a lot of time outside on our deck, so we want to make it look the best and keep our investment lasting for many more years. Remember this deck is 17 years old, would you have guessed that by looking at this picture?
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[…] Last year was the first time we used a transparent stain on the deck. We used Thompson’s Transparent in Acron Brown. I loved how it brought the deck back to life and we received so many compliments on how great the deck looked. Mr. DD was very worried about how the deck would look a year later and what we would have to do differently since we used a colored stain. You can read how we transformed the deck last year. […]