Stained Deck


After three days of work spanning two weekends we have the deck finished. Day 1 was cleaning the deck, day 2 was the main deck, and day 3 was the stairs. We used Cabot preservative wood finish semi-transparent chestnut drown stain. It took 3 gallons of stain (we did only 1 coat). We also went through 1 gallon of mineral spirits, 2 brushes, 1 small roller (for the spindles), 1 large roller (for the main deck), a few tarps, masking tape, and a metal pan.

We really like the look of the deck. Hopefully it lasts for 2-3 years so we don't have to do it again for a while. The spindles were the worst part, but using a small roller helps - you can get the majority with a roller. On the main deck, the big roller didn't "run into" the cracks between boards very much. If we had known that ahead of time, we would have used a brush to get between the boards and then went over it with the roller.

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