7 Tricks For Staining Your Deck in Ottawa, Ontario

In the course of taking care of your home exterior, you may want to update the look of your deck, or just stain it if it happens to be not yet stained.

Of course, the staining of a deck is sometimes a complicated matter but if you approach it with care you can make it work and possibly look even better than it ever looked before.

With that being the case, let’s now look at and consider seven tricks for staining your deck in Ottawa, Ontario.

1. Testing The Stain First

Of course, you’re going to want to believe that the stain that you chose for yourself is the perfect one and that it’s going to look exactly the way that you want — but that’s not going to necessarily be the case.

To ensure that this doesn’t happen to you, you’re going to want to test out the stain before committing to it, either by applying it to some wood that isn’t connected to the deck directly or by staining a small area that is more inconspicuous and then seeing how it looks.

By doing this you’re going to know for sure that the stain you have picked up is going to look the way that you want.

2. Matching The Stain

If it happens that you’re not staining an entire deck but rather a smaller area — for example, if you find that part of the deck needs to be replaced, it’s a good idea to make sure that the stain you use for that area matches the rest of the deck.

Ideally, you’re going to have some stain leftover from the previous staining project but if not you will at least hopefully have the information about the stain — and if you do not, it will take a bit of detective work to match the stain best that we can get into in another blog.

3. Looking For Rot

Prior to staining your deck, it is wise to fully inspect the deck to see if there are any areas that are affected by rot — an unfortunately common thing that can happen to a deck even if it is well protected.

The thing is to catch the rot early on before it spreads to more of the deck — and so when you see it, you can clear it out of the deck surface and apply a filler that can then dry and be stained as well.

If the rot is sufficiently extensive of course you will have to replace an entire board and if this happens you will then need to stain it to match the rest of your deck as mentioned above.

4. Not Staining Too Soon

If you have recently built your deck, it’s possible you’re going to want to get right to staining it but this would be a mistake.

Indeed, you will need to allow time for your deck to settle and dry before you stain it — for otherwise, it will not go nearly as well in terms of how the stain looks after it dries.

5. Sweep The Deck

One of the first things you should do before you stain your deck is to sweep it clean, to get rid of any sort of debris that may be on it.

The reason for this can be pretty obvious, but if you don’t understand you should get that you aren’t going to want debris from the yard in the stain and the best way to get rid of it is with a good cleaning.

6. Remove The Furniture

Of course, you should realize that you’re not going to be able to stain your deck if you have furniture on it, but some people might not think to do this.

Even though your furniture may be large and difficult to relocate, it is well worth it to not have to work your way around it.

7. Re-Apply For Darker Stain

Lastly, think about the color stain that you are going to apply — and after you have stained your deck you can apply another coat of stain if you would like it to have a darker appearance.

If you need help choosing the type of paint and painting over wallpaper in your home in Ottawa, Ontario, our team at Millers’ Painting Company can help.

We offer free paint consultancy alongside high-quality residential and commercial painting services in Kanata, Nepean, Barrhaven, and Westboro areas of Ottawa, Ontario.

To get started with us, book a FREE estimate or call us on 613-979-5435

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