Longest Lasting Deck Stain

If you’ve got a new deck, can it be stained? And, what’s the longest lasting deck stain you can apply? Find out, along with tips the best type of stain to use!

LESLIE: Tony in North Carolina is up with a decking question. What can we do for you?

TONY: Great show. Appreciate your great advice. I just had a deck built and the – my builder used a Minwax Wood Finish stain.

TOM: OK.

TONY: And his instruction is that I would need to restain it every year because it was oil-based. And I just wanted to know – I don’t have a whole lot of time like that but when is – is there another – is there something on top of this product I could use where it won’t fade and wash away with the weather?

TOM: Well, I mean it would be unusual for you to have to stain a deck every single year, especially a brand-new deck. But first of all, Tony, what I generally advise folks is to not stain their deck the first year because – is this made of pressure-treated lumber?

TONY: No, it’s not. He used a different type lumber and I couldn’t tell you right off hand.

TOM: Is it going to be cedar or redwood? It’s not composite, is it? It is wood and not …

TONY: No, not composite. It may have been redwood.

TOM: And you want to keep it clear? So you want to keep it with that red tone to it?

TONY: Right.

TOM: You typically need to restain or reseal on a regular basis but not on an annual basis. And when it comes to choosing that product, you’re going to use an exterior stain. There’s different porosities to them. If you use semi-transparent, you have sort of a little bit of colorant in there and sort of bring everything to the same tone. But it’s not going to completely cover it. Or if you have solid color, there’s more pigment in there and then it’s all very consistently the same tone. You don’t see the grain as much but it still looks like wood.

But a very good-quality deck stain like that, applied probably every three to five years, is what I would expect for maintenance but certainly not one that you would do every single year.

TONY: Right. That’s been my experience, as well: three to five years. And so I just wasn’t sure if I was actually being told completely the correct thing or if there was something else going on with that.

TOM: That has been my experience, Tony, so – listen, at this point it’s brand new. You’ve got a coat of stain on there. I’d just live with it for a year or two and see how it looks.

TONY: That sounds great. Great advice.