Wood Decks
Wood Decks
Finishing your deck with new wood deck boards is still a great option. Brown pressure treated or cedar decking is less expensive than composite decking, you can re-finish the surface if you want to change the colour, and you get that wood look and feel. We recommend upgrading to cedar boards instead of pressure treated as they do not twist, split, and shrink as much. New pressure treated lumber comes in a brown colour that looks great when installed, and is the most cost effective option in finishing your deck. To keep your deck looking beautiful, and to help protect from natural occurring defects in the wood as it dries in our harsh Canadian climate, we always recommend staining your new deck. We love to use a semi transparent oil base stain, as the oil soaks into the wood and protects for years to come. You can use semi transparent water based stains, or solid stains, but these products will require more maintenance.
Staining
DP Decks does offer a staining service for all new wooden deck projects once the pressure treated or cedar deck boards are dry enough to allow staining. New pressure treated wood can be stained once it is dry to the touch, or has less than 18% moisture content. We always recommend using a semi transparent oil base stain to finish. The oil stain really soaks into the wood, giving the best UV protection. Being semi transparent, it still shows off all the natural beauty of the wood. Most decks receives lots of heat, rain, and snow, so maintenance will be required. With a semi-transparent stain, every few years minimum you will have to clean the deck and re-coat to keep the protection going. There are options for a clear stain protection, but our experience is that these products need to be re-coated every spring to maintain the protection the deck needs. The benefit with the transparent or semi transparent stains is that a deck cleaning product, low setting pressure wash, and scrubbing will be enough to go ahead and re-coat the deck. If you decide to go with a solid stain to match colours on your house, there is more maintenance as once the deck finish flakes or cracks then you need to sand the finish before re-coating to bring back that smooth finish look.
