Complete deck restain help needed

Hello Readers!

I am new to this forum but hope to be of some help in the future.

Situation:

I live in Central NY state and have a front (8x10) and back deck (16x14) which i have stained twice in the past 3 or 4 years. no matter what i have tried i can't seem to go a year without the stain peeling and looking terrible. The spindles and other NO traffic areas hold up just fine though. Mother nature is HARD on us here. With below zero temps and 120+ inches of snow a year. While our summers are moderate as well as a very rainy spring (normally).

what i'm asking is what steps to take to get this done correctly and last more than a few years. I'm willing to spend whatever the price for products.

should i powerwash the decks, scrape, prime, and stain?
primer or no?
primer/stain combo?

ANY HELP.

I thank you =)

 

Welcome to the forums.

The math doesn't work any longer as prices have gone up but there used to be a rule of thumb that if you paid $10/gallon for your stain, you'd be reapplying every year. $20/gallon and every other year while $30/gallon would get you every third year. The idea is, the more you pay for the stain, the more likely it is to hold up for a longer time.

I clean the deck by spraying it with water, then a 50/50 bleach/water solution, scrub it with a stiff brush and rinse it clean. After that's dry, then new stain.

You shouldn't need a primer before a stain and your power washer can substitute for the scrubbing I do.

Finally, a solid body stain will tend to give the longest lasting result but it also hides the grain the most, almost like painting.

 

Deck stain rarely needs primer and 3-5 yrs is on the upper end of how long a deck stain is expected to last. Generally [along with proper prep] the better quality stains last the longest ... as opposed to the cheaper stains.