Deck painting tips for your wooden deck requires some basic knowledge of wood types, paints and stains. After that, we can delve into actual deck painting tips for applications. There are several deck paint products available on the market today, most of which are premium quality except any plain “Water Seal” I would certainly stay away from. Remembering any paint, deck, stain, Acrylic, Alkyd, Epoxy, coating is only as good as the substrate it is covering. Going a step further on this subject, various wood types perform better than others being exposed to the outside elements, especially in

Colorado. No matter where you live, hopefully these deck painting tips for your wooden deck can be some great value to you.

Deck Painting Tips

Knowing Your Wood Types:

Knowing your wood type is very key, especially if you are in the planning stage of building your deck. Most wooden decks are built out of either Heart Redwood, or Western Red Cedar. Some imported hardwoods are being seen, like the Brazilian Walnut and others which are holding up quite well. For the person who wants a deck, but buys the cheapest, Pine is suggested and purchased. Some Pine can be treated at the lumber mill, referring to as Treated Pine. Either Pine lumber will not hold up in extreme weather conditions for a long term, no matter what deck paint or stain is regularly applied. Pine tends to curl, warp, check and crack under different temperatures, so this type of wood should be avoided at all costs. Redwoods and Cedars prices have drastically increased over the last 10 years along with everything else, making Pine much cheaper and cost effective for the short term. What is an eye opener is after say 5-6 years, your looking to replace that wooden deck with either a higher grade of wood or more expensively a man-made product such as Trex™. Making perfect sense to either wait till you can afford the Redwood or Cedar, or buy it from the get-go, as now you know your wood types.

Knowing Your Deck Sealants:

Knowing your deck sealants is key element of deck preservation knowledge, determining what look you are trying to achieve, along with your continued long term wood deck care maintenance. There are basically two types of deck sealants, one being a deck paint, and the other as a deck stain. Both deck sealants protect exterior wood surfaces under various weather conditions, but both have opposite  characteristics protecting the wood’s surfaces which must be expressed.

Solid Body Deck Paint – Stain:

• Solid body deck stains, commonly known and referred to as deck paint.
• This product soaks into wood usually about 50%, leaving a paint mil of the other 50% on top as paint finish.
• This covers all wood’s natural grain, and is easily allowed to touch-up, adding additional coats in subsequent years.
• This product should say “Deck Stain”, and not just any Acrylic paint, as Deck Paints have better bonding primers to horizontal surfaces, which makes this product more expensive than regular exterior paint, and performs much better under various conditions. So don’t cheat your deck by applying regular Acrylic latex house paint on your deck surface, or you’ll be subjected to a rude awakening months later.
• Solid body deck stain or paint generally is easier to administer, as this covers up blacken, gray wood deck surfaces, and therefore no need to clean wood using a wood brightener or cleaning agent. Power washing is still recommended, removing older wood’s top layer off with a forceful water jet spray usually at a 2500-3500 psi using a commercial grade power washer.
• Most portable $150.00 rinky-dink power washers you may find at your local Lowe’s™ or Home Depot™ is only good to rinse off your sidewalks, and cars. Once cleaned, it is now ready to dry back out over a 24-48 hour period, before any deck paint is applied.
• The drawback using a full fledged deck paint is it can check, crack, and wear off depending on the foot traffic, pet’s nails, and furniture sliding across the surfaces. Solid body deck stains or deck paints can crack, chip, and flake off if snow is left on painted surfaces over a long period, such as over two days or more. Snow must be shoveled or swept off the horizontal deck surfaces, ideally on the same day, so this will not happen.

Semi-Transparent Deck Stain:

• Semi-transparent deck stains are typically linseed oil based, however some paint manufactures have developed a water borne type.
• In either case both allow the natural beauty of the wood’s grain to show through. If you have used a Solid Body deck stain or paint in the past, you cannot use a Semi-Transparent stain, unless all portions of this solid body stain is removed.
• This type of stain will never crack, chip or peel, but tends to need additional coats more often, say every two to three years depending upon weather conditions and foot traffic.
• Once all the ugly black mold and mildew is cleaned off, using a wood brighter and cleaner, along with a mildew cleaning agent, this should be the last time the deck will need this extensive power washing and cleaning.
• Keeping up the additional coats of semi-transparent wood oil finish, all that is needed from then on is a garden hose rinse, letting dry, applying additional sem-transparent wood oil applications.
• Careful not to apply these coats too heavy, as this is a linseed oil based product, and only so much linseed wood oil can soak into the wood grain at a time. Any residue will be left on top as a gummy mess which will need to be scraped back off. Therefore, using a spray and back roll method is best, applying a uniform wood oil film.
• These products usually take several days to dry enough to walk on the deck, careful not tracking any residue back into the home and carpet. These Semi-Transparent stains tend to look more professional and protect the wood’s grain much better. If you see water not pooling up, it may be time to re-apply a deck stain wood oil coat.
• When using either stain, water borne or oil, all rags, sponges, applicators must be allowed to air dry, as these rags wadded up can and will ignite causing a fire.

For more tips cleaning your deck, check out Best Deck Cleaners for Decks and Cedar Siding. Tips for saving your deck finish, check out Deck tips saving your deck finish. For best deck stains, check out Best Deck Stains. If you live in Colorado, and wish having a professional Deck Cleaning and Staining project accomplished, look no further than Painting Contractor, Cal Phillips and Eco Paint, Inc. Eco Paint and transform your wood deck to a more sustainable deck staining finish, so contact us today! Call Cal at 303-591-4978. If you have enjoyed reading these Deck Painting Tips as much as I’ve enjoyed writing, drop me a comment below, and or bookmark it of your choice at the top of this page.

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Painting Denver for all areas of Interior Painting or Exterior Painting has been a hobby and business for Cal Phillips. Starting back in 1977, putting himself through college was the perfect part-time job, enjoying all areas of home improvement. By 1982 and graduating with 2 degrees, Cal decided to specialize in one facet, being the best the industry had to offer, continuing today. Changing company name in 1993 from Cal’s Home Improvements to Eco Paint Specialist’s, first coining the phrase Eco Paint, long before Green Eco Friendly Paints became available to the retail market. The term or acronym Eco meant back then as it does today, Ecological as well as Economical.  After 10′s of 1000′s of satisfied customers, Cal’s love and inspiration comes from providing superior results and accomplishments bringing new up to date interior painting and decorating ideas to the home, while protecting his local community from harsh climate conditions. Giving more than expected is Cal’s primary objective, providing superior quality and craftsmanship Painting Interiors and Painting Exteriors, the Painting Contractor leader, who all else follows.

Interior Painting includes;

• Drywall Textures and Repairs
• Wall Paper Removal
• Custom Paint Decorating
• Tenet Finish
• Wall and Ceiling Painting
• Garage Floor Paint Coatings and Epoxy Finishes

Exterior Painting includes;

• Siding Repairs & Replacements
• Minor trim Replacements
• Power Washing, Pressure Cleaning
• Caulking and Weather Proofing
• Priming
• Painting Exterior Walls and Siding
• Lead Abatement and Encapsulations
• Deck Stains and Finishes

Interior Painting

Interior Painting Denver Colorado Springs

Exterior Painting Denver Colorado Springs

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Best Cedar Cleaner

Making Aged Wood Look New Again

Eco Paint Specialist’s Painting Contractor of Denver/Aurora, painting the Front Range of Colorado with over 32 years exp. recently learned something new & exciting wishing to share with all.

Not only painting, but cleaning, power washing, pressure cleaning decks, fences, and Cedar Sided homes is a key area of expertise with most painting contractors, especially in the Colorado market. Many homes in the Colorado market have some portion of wood treated with a  Semi-Transparent or Solid Body exterior stain. Stains protect decks, fences, cedar siding homes, and of course log homes. Leaving untreated, this wood will grey and blacken to later deteriorate over time, in that order. Getting grey out of the wood is and has been quite easy over the years with a wide variety of deck and wood cleaner products available on the market today.

Most wood cleaners cost an average of $12.00 per gallon, some being concentrate, making 5 gallons of wood cleaner which can be sprayed out of a garden sprayer, or as we’ve administered, out of our power washers using a low pressure siphon. All products require a bit of elbow grease, after applying, scrubbing into grain, leaving on to penetrate and clean,  then by pressure washing with cleaning pressure around 2500-3000 psi.

We contracted with a homeowner in Littleton Colorado recently, doing the same thing. Our customer informed us they ran off and fired previous painting company, as they could not get cedar siding clean enough for the owner’s acceptance. Walking the exterior, I could see uncleaned portions, and others extremely clean, where the homeowner told me the very clean lower, small sections, testing out Oxi-Clean. Somewhat embarrassed seeing a homeowner doing a far better job than a paint company, he told me the other company refused to use what he had suggested. Suggesting Oxi-Clean, I too thought, we’ll give it a try if all else fails. Not coming out short handed, we brought out a full array of wood cleaners from Sherwin-Williams to Behr. Power washing 3 and 4 times, nothing would clean near as good as one time with Oxi-Clean. Applying as normal, then scrubbing into wood with a large floor sweep broom, letting it stand, you could watch the black oozze out of the pours of the Cedar, then hitting with high pressure washing,  like no bodies business. Homeowner called me after work the first day with extreme pleasure and gratification.

This cedar home, quite large is a great undertaking no matter what type of exterior work is involved, being well over 4500 sq. ft. Thinking how much money was saved on cleaners, bleaches, labor hours, and other chemicals getting the black out of this Cedar Siding is anybodies guess, we used approx. 8 boxes of Oxi-Clean ($9.99 per.bx) Detergent over the complete exterior over one day, making this like a brand new cedar sided home, ready for stain, after allowing to dry for 72 hours.

Oxi-Clean states it has 101 uses on box, being very “Versatile”, one of them cleaning decks and fences. This was not known until now, wishing to relay my findings to all in the cleaning of decks, fences, and cedar siding getting the black out, making like new once again, with the least amount of effort and material costs.

Inspecting after cleaning, we f0und a small section of siding that was beyond repair, having curled up, leaving gapeing holes where snow, ice and rain could find it’s way behind siding, next to roof line. Replacing a section approx. 12′ X 12′

Letting this home dry back out over 3 days, we applied a Sikkens SRD Translucent Cedar Stain, spraying and back brushing into grain for an even uniform finish. Keeping up the maintenance with a re-coating of stain on a regular basis, this Cedar will never undergo an intense cleaning again.

This exterior below, was totally black with mildew aged over 20 years without any protection. Cleaning 2 applications with Oxi-Clean, saving days if not weeks trying to clean with typical cleaners listed above. Also note, homeowner did not wish we clean deck, as it will be replaced very soon. Some boards having holes as big as your foot through the floor, showing previous homeowner did not take any care protecting exterior wood surfaces.

Cleaning Cedar Siding in Littleton Colorado

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As winter quickly approaches, one area that gets overlooked is the back deck. The most valuable time spent shoveling snow is off the deck surfaces.

If deck has solid body deck stain, this will typically lift up and crack much quicker if snow is left on surfaces to naturally melt over days or weeks, being in shade or not.

If deck has semi-transparent stains, the finish will not lift and crack, however will diminish the stains protection, needing to re-stain much quicker.

Normally, a quality deck stain such as Behr, Cabots, Superdeck, Deckscapes , or Sikkens will last between 2 to 3 years depending on foot traffic.

However, with normal snowfalls in Denver and the Front Range of Colorado, not sweeping snow off deck surfaces will result cutting life-expectancy in half for which ever product used. Taking a large shop broom, a 2′ foot of snow can be easily swept off deck, much easier than snow blowing driveway, having a Translucent Deck Stain by Sikkens. This stain offers a high build hard slick finish, which makes re-coating much easier, using far less product on secondary applications.

Below, is a Deck that needs to be swept off after recent snowfall. Deck Stain is a Sikken’s Cetol 1 & 23 product in Mahogany color. Deck has had 3 applications, 2 coats each, which is undoubtedly the Best Deck Stain on the market, making the wood bullet-proof using this product multiple deck stain applications.

Remove Snow asap, Protecting Deck Stain & Finish

Which ever product used, don’t forget the deck, although it’s far too easy to sit back down coming in from the driveway. Stay warm and Good Luck.

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