Stain and laquaer treated pine deck

[multivits]

Hi Forum
I am thinking of giving our greenish looking treated pine deck a face lift. We are trying to get a nice deep reddish colour like jarrah / rosewood. I was thinking of a plain stain first and then using same colour with a stain/laquear combined product for the second coat. This is an outside deck.

The decking planks are a bit rough looking in places and I will prepare them by filling in the hairline cracks with a stained wood filler and screwing down any loose boards.

Has anyone got any tips, ideas or suggestions on my approach?


TIA
Multivits

[FletcherP]

Hi Multivits,

I had the same situation - not really a fan of the treated pine look. Using a dedicated decking stain will probably give you the appearance you are looking for. I can't see the need for using a lacquer or varnish, and I'm not even aware of one suitable for both outside and foot traffic.

After a really good clean with a pressure washer and oxalic acid deck cleaner, I used 2 coats of waterbased Merbau stain (Intergrain Natural stain) , and when I show people photos, they think it is a Merbau deck. Good thing about deck stains is that they last longer than decking oil.

Hope this helps,

Cheers
Fletch

[multivits]

Thanks Fletch that gives me confidence I will get a good out come.
I researched decking stains and found there are so many brands.

Does anyone have an outstanding best vs cost option, I am going with Redwood colour on treated pine. The deck is 45 square metres.

Here are the contestants:
Intergrain Natural stain
Floods Spa N Deck
Cabots
Wattyl
Feast & Watson

TIA
Multivits

[FletcherP]

Hi Mulitvits,

Ask ten people and you'll probably get 12 opinions.

I do know that you can get sample pots of the Natural Stain, and I would strongly suggest trying out your proposed colour before going to the trouble of coating the whole deck and finding out you don't like the appearance (I found this out the hard way.

Hope it helps,

Cheers
Fletch

[gyropilot]

For my latest outdoor project I'm using blackbutt, so I took a sample into my local Bristol shop and they tried a few samples on it to see how it looked...
I came back a few days later and viewed the results......
I suggest you could do the same.... nothing to lose... free...

Geoff

[Master Splinter]

Over in the Renovate Forums the Spa and Deck seems to get a lot of thumbs up from people.

ultradeck or spa-n-deck? (http://www.renovateforum.com/f196/ultradeck-spa-n-deck-105435/)