Prepare and Apply Initial Stain Coats

Lights, camera, action. Come on. This is Grace the Idaho Painter. This video we're going to show you how we go about staining a deck. We're actually using a semi-transparent stain. This is an ironwood deck that they had just built. We let it set for a couple months to dry out completely so it'll accept the stain. And now we're applying our semi-transparent stain. And we're using brushes, just throwaway brushes, so we can brush it down into the cracks and get it on the sides. And then we're applying the stain with a 4-in roller over the top and then wiping it off with our rags. And it's extremely important to wipe off the excess after you let it soak in just a little bit to wipe off the excess. If you don't wipe off the excess, if you walk on the deck, say a couple days later or so, it actually will still stay tacky if you don't get the excess off. And it could stay tacky for several months and collect dust and show footprints. So, make sure you apply it and then wipe off the excess stain with clean rags.