Deck Painting and Staining
Mayda Painting offers deck painting and staining. Start with how much wood grain you want to see and the colour change you have in mind, then consider the existing coating and timber condition. Deck boards, steps, rails and vertical faces should be listed separately.
Planning the scope
Share overall and close-up photos, any known damage and the maintenance history if available. Confirm cleaning, existing-coating preparation, repairs and finish selection in the estimate. Painting and staining are discussed together here, but the chosen treatment remains explicit in the project scope.
How we plan the work
- Assess the surface. Discuss the material, existing condition, access and the areas involved.
- Agree the preparation and treatment. Put protection, cleaning or repairs, the selected finish and responsibilities into the scope.
- Carry out and review the agreed work. Confirm suitable conditions, check the scope together and discuss the actual product’s drying and return-to-use requirements.
Can a different stain go straight over the existing finish?
The old coating, new product and preparation requirements need to be assessed first. Colour preference alone does not determine compatibility.
How Mayda does this
A new deck waits about a month. Fresh timber needs roughly a month for the oils at the surface to work their way out before a coating will sit properly.
New decks usually take semi-transparent stain. It lets the grain show, which is the point of a new deck, and it holds for about five years.
Recoat at the first fading, not at the failure. When the surface has only just started to lose colour, another coat of the same semi-transparent goes straight over it. Kept up this way, a deck stays looking right indefinitely.
Four years is the sensible interval on this coast. Wet winters and strong summer sun are hard on any exterior coating.
Leave it six or seven years and the choice narrows. Once the timber has greyed and the finish is patchy, semi-transparent will not cover it and will not look good. At that point it is solid stain: half soaks into the wood, half sits on the surface. Some grain still reads, but not the way it does under semi-transparent.
A deck that was painted stays painted. Where there is paint already — as on many stair treads — the choice is porch and floor paint, which covers completely and wears well. Its weakness is adhesion over time: all four faces of a board are very hard to seal, so rain gets in, evaporates in the sun and works the coating loose. Solid stain resists that better.
The direction is one-way. Start with stain and you can move to paint later. Start with paint and paint is what you have from then on.
Discuss your project
Tell us your city, the areas involved and preferred timing. Mayda serves Greater Vancouver, including Vancouver, Richmond, Burnaby, West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Coquitlam, Langley, Surrey, White Rock, Delta; confirm your location and arrangements when you contact us.
