Vacation Projects ~ Deck

One of the projects that I wanted to work on while we were on vacation and I had the extra help with George being home was to stain the back deck.  The deck had not been stained on almost three years now and it was time to do it again!  It was much needed as you will be able to see in the pictures below:

I know that stain usually last about three years, but it seemed like after a year it started to look bad.  We were over at my parents one day and my dad had stained his front porch steps and I asked him what kind of stain he used.  He said that he used a stain that is a solid color.  I love the way that it looked and so I decided that was what I wanted to use on the back deck.

1. I prepared the deck cleaning it off with a deck cleaner. 

2. Then I used a sander and sanded some of the old stain and drip marks as well as the rough spots.

3. Then I swept the deck and washed it down.

4. Now, I had to wait for a good 4 days of no rain for the deck to dry, then I could stain the deck and then let it cure for 24 hours before rain.

I went and bought the stain the day before I was going to stain the deck.  One mistake that I made was that I did not have them shake the can before I left.  I opened the can the next morning and began to stir it with a stir stick and it was like sludge at the bottom. (***I should have stopped as soon as that happened, but thought it would be fine)

So, I started to start staining away and it looked great!  We don’t have a very big deck and so at the rate I was going I thought I would be done quickly.  Well, as I got closer to the bottom of the can I was getting closer to the sludge.  It was starting to get dark and I was starting to get tired and not even thinking what I should do.  I so badly wanted to get done I just kept going.  At that point the stain was really hard to apply and was really hurting my hands.  We were able to finish the deck but some parts defiantly looked thicker then others.

I ended up going back the next weekend with my second can of stain and fixing areas that were missed because we did not have enough stain as well as not be able to see in the dark.

Here is a couple pictures in the process. It’s kind of hard to see the difference because it was getting dark and the stain was wet.

And here is the end result:

Now I just need to get some flowers to add some color!

**One thing that my dad did tell me is once you go to a solid you can never go back!