Home Improvement- Staining our Deck Days Two and Three

On Saturday and Sunday, it was time for the main event- applying the stain. My husband picked out a redwood color and bought two cans based on the square footage of the deck. However that didn't take the railings into account so by the end of the project we ended up purchasing four cans of stain- unfortunately an overage on our budget.

The Behr stain
 

On Saturday, we tackled the railing and spindles. I didn't count the number of spindles, but it took most of the day. My husband was on a ladder on the outside and I was on the inside. It was a great opportunity for some deep conversations!

View from on the deck

View from the yard- partially complete

On Sunday afternoon it was time to finish the floorboards and the flower boxes and benches. We finished everything but a couple of the flower boxes and two benches.

Complete deck and some of the flower boxes. Still have to take blue tape off of the lights.

Completed deck!

So, all-in-all a successful and pretty thrifty project when you compare to the cost of hiring people to do it for you. Here is the equipment needed. We already had everything except the cleaning chemicals and stain.

- Pressure washer
- 1 container mildew cleaner
- 1 scrub brush for cleaning the deck
- 1 container pre-treater
- 1 tall ladder
- 1 large paintbrush attached to long stick for applying stain to floorboards and large areas
- 2 to 3 smaller paintbrushes for spindles and detail work
- Blue tape for taping edges against house and outdoor lights
- 4 cans deck stain
- Sheets and other drop cloths to keep stain off of house
- 1 weekend's worth of time