Should I clean my deck annually or stain?


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Old 02-03-16, 02:05 PM
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Should I clean my deck annually or stain?

I planned on finishing my deck with semi-transparent stain. However, I'm not so keen on the maintenance and re-staining every couple years. Spending an hour and $25 cleaning it every spring sounds much more appealing to me for something thats only used for a few months. I was just worried that cleaning and scrubbing it every year will damage the decking. Would it be damaging or should I just suck it up and stain it?
 
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Old 02-03-16, 02:20 PM
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A properly sealed deck will outlast an unsealed on although pressure treated wood will last a good while without stain. I'd clean annually and restain as needed.
 
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Old 02-03-16, 05:03 PM
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Going to just have to clean restain it every couple of years.
Just the nature of pressure treated wood.
Leave it unsealed and it's going to start cracking, curling splitting in no time.
Really want a low maintaince deck then bite the bullet and go with composit or IPE if you want real wood.
 
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Old 02-03-16, 05:09 PM
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Really want a low maintaince deck then bite the bullet and go with composit or IPE if you want real wood.
Who can afford IPE? The only place I know that uses it is Jones Beach in NY.
 
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Old 02-04-16, 11:44 PM
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Thanks everyone, I'll just go with staining it every so often. Does anyone know how long a semi-transparent stain would last and if I should use oil base or water based?
 
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Old 02-05-16, 02:37 AM
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A lot depends on both the quality of the stain and the environment it's exposed to. In the deep south oil base stains get ate up by the intense sun but as far as I know hold up well in the north. I'm partial to the waterborne stains as they seem to have better color retention than oil base. Some decks need restaining every year or two but some will last 4-5 yrs.
 
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Old 02-06-16, 10:16 PM
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Im on the west coast of Canada. It rains for 180 days of the year so its basically always wet out for 3 seasons but summers here are really dry and hot for a couple months on end. Just was wondering how it would hold up to being wet most of the time?
 
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Old 02-07-16, 03:29 AM
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Oil base stains seal the wood better than the rest but need the wood to be completely dry before the stain is applied. Severe weather is always hard on any coating.
 
 

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