How to Solid Stain Your Deck

When we looked at this house I knew we needed to buy it just for this screened-in porch. Yes it was outdated. Yes it had terrible carpet but it had so much potential!!! With a little bit of elbow grease I knew it could be a beautiful space for us all year long.

  • BEFORE
  • AFTER

Supplies Needed

Step 1: Clear your deck

Step 2: Rip up carpet and PRAY there is not damage to the wood underneath. Luckily for us there was not damage or paint underneath the carpet we pulled up so it was relatively smooth sailing.

Step 3: CLEAN YOUR DECK. This part is so important! In order for any paint or stain to adhere you want to make sure you give it a nice clean surface to work with. I tried two methods of cleaning. The @gocleanco method won again! I used hot water, powdered tide and bleach and mixed it up in a 5 gallon bucket then poured it over the boards and used my push broom to scrub it down. Let it sit for for 10 – 20 minutes and then rinse it off with water.

BEFORE
AFTER

Step 4: Let it dry. I gave our deck a day or so to dry. If it is wet or moist your stain will not adhere correctly.

Step 5: TIME TO STAIN! Pick a stain color you won’t get sick of that kinda hides the dirt and the dog hair but is also neutral lol! We went with this Solid Stain from Behr in Boot hill grey. We used a solid stain instead of a regular stain to match our out door deck. I hand painted half of this deck and used a stain brush for the other side. I have tried rollers using rollers with this stain before and the finish just wasn’t what I was looking for. Why in the world would I hand paint this large deck… well I am a little crazy lol but I also enjoy just sitting and painting and with a deck you have to get in the cracks which is challenging to do using any other method. Until I found this stain brush. Hands down best purchase I made it saved me so much time and gave me such an amazing finish. Mind you this deck needed 2 coats!

Tip: Use my taping knife hack on the edges so you don’t have to use tape!

Step 6: Let your deck cure before moving furniture back.

Step 7: Have a drink after all that hard work because DANG THIS DECK IS HUGE!

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