Big Deck Report: All Wet...

I think we can all agree that any rain is most welcome, so I'm not complaining or anything. But... I did just stain my deck yesterday afternoon thinking that perhaps we could go a full 24 hours without another downpour.

The goofy thing is, this little quick and easy project was a fiasco from the word go.

I zip down to Home Depot and grab a can of Thompson's deck stain with the idea that I would use my pump sprayer to apply a nice thin coat. Of course, I get the pump sprayer from the shed, fill it up with Thompson's, pump it up and commence to do nothing. I guess the sprayer part of the pump sprayer is jacked up.

If you own a pump sprayer, you know that once you pump it up, there is a lot of pressure built up. If you turn the handle too quickly, the stain or bug spray or whatever is in the pump will no kidding, spray everywhere, but mostly directly into your face. I know this from a previous experience.

So, I slowly and gently relieved the pressure, only receiving a slight misting along the bottom of my shorts and knees. That will give you a golden tan for sure.

Anyway, the stain can also be applied by brush or roller, so I busted out a bucket, grabbed a roller and commenced to rolling. The only problem is, I didn't have a roller screen or a tray to really thin out the amount of stain going onto the roller itself. This meant that perhaps a third of my stain went directly into the cracks between the boards and now the dirt and rocks under my deck also have a nice golden tan.

Oh, there was one other issue. As soon as I had rolled about three or four feet of deck, I realized that the "Natural Cedar Color" that I expected to be fairly clear, was actually no kidding, a color. And it looked sort of orange.

My wife was inside watching TV at this point in time, so I was hoping to work quickly and finish as quick as possible and not mention it to her until perhaps later in the evening.

And just about the time I had half the deck finished, I ran out of Thompson's. And that was about the time my wife walked out on the patio and gave me the look. Instead of simply telling me how horrible the deck looked, she told me how horrible it looked and offered to get the power washer to start washing it off! How thoughtful.

I assurred her that once the stain soaked in and dried, it would have more of a natural cedar appearance.

I made my way back to Home Depot to buy another can. Oh, did I mention that I had purchased the last gallon of the Thompson's Natural Cedar Color? Instead, there was a different Thompson's product that was just a few dollars more and it also was some form of Cedar shade. But as soon as I got home and opened it up, I could tell immediately that it was darker.

I also had purchased a roller tray so at least, I figured, I wouldn't be slopping it on so heavily - maybe that would make it lighter.

I finished the second half of the deck and immediately realized that in spite of putting it on thinner than the first gallon, this was clearly darker than the first. So what would you do? I quickly re-did the first half of the deck with the new color, and to be honest, I'm pretty pleased with the final color, even though it was not at all planned.So, 24 hours later, rain and all, here is the deck. I personally like the color. And my wife didn't bust out the power washer while I was at work today, so maybe she can live with it.