Staining Decks Made Easy? 3 Tips That Will Change the Way You Stain Decks!

this paint life tv i'm christy idaho painter in this video i'm going to give you three tips to painting your deck like a pro including what this handy little tool will do for you and how to make your deck painting process a lot smoother and easier so if you want to see this tool and three tips painting your deck like pro stay tuned for this video [Music] all right now i'm going to talk about this tool right here and i've recently discovered it and i call it a bender bar on the tag it's made by whiz it's a six inch handy painter but it makes painting in between the deck planks a lot faster and easier now over the years i've used a lot of different methods painting in between deck planks including stain brushes including spraying in between the deck planks with an airless sprayer and a 310 tip which makes it you know fairly fast and easy if you got wide gaps i've even used foam brushes to paint in between those planks now painting in between the planks is going to make your deck look a lot more professional and a lot more finished so you definitely want to do in between the planks it is you know hard and that's a tedious process doing but it will look like a professional data in the end so you need to paint in between it this little device it's a um i call it a bender bar and this will paint in between the planks i'm going to show you how simple it works and how easy it works and it does paint in between the planks on the sides a lot faster and more efficient and it gives you better coverage versus any of the other methods an airless sprayer is very fast and efficient but it doesn't give you as good of coverage and a coating as something um like this will the sponge brushes work really well but this thing is a lot thinner than a sponge brush and it's going to get in between thinner cracks and crevices the sponge brushes i've used for many years but they also you'll go through quite a bit of them on depending on the deck your the decks you're using because it'll tear them up pretty fast the brushes if you're trying to work it with the brush it just doesn't work as efficiently as these bender bars or a sponge brush does and it really it kind of messes up your your filaments or your bristles if you're really trying to work it down in there hard using a brush so i'm going to show you this thing right now and i'm going to show you how simple and easy it works there's a couple things about it also it's metal it's also got a peg hook where you can hang it from a peg hook so it doesn't get lost and it's easy to find let's get down here i'm going to show you what it looks like uh using it on some planks right here we're going to be redoing this deck again right here and i'm going to give you a demonstration how it works all right so we got this deck right here i'm going to show you you know how this thing you know works right here using our stain and once again you've got different methods and you can see this sponge right here this sponge is not going to work down in this crack right here very well some of these other cracks it won't work at all but yet this bender bar will fit down inside that crack very easily a brush right here a brush is not going to work on the sides of the edges very well another thing about the bender bars is it doesn't have a tendency to cause drips or spills coming down the sides of your edges but you can see you can get a little bit of product on here and it's got a it's got a mohair basically not material on the face and it's got a sponge so it holds on to your material as you stick it down in there now i'm just going to run it on my sides just like this and now i've got my edges stained if i get any build up right there i'm just going to just you know take that off with a brush a stain brush or a roller once i do all my cracks and crevices along these planks then i'm going to come back and i'm going to do the top of my deck you can see once again i'm going to just dip it in here wipe off the excess just so i'm just gonna look down in there stain the sides really well both sides i know this is kind of gonna it's gonna look a little bit tedious but once again if you're a professional painter you want this deck to look really really good like a professional did it you want all those cracks and crevices stained you know 100 percent protected 100 percent so there you have it it's the bender bar i guess one of the reasons why i call it a bender bar is the thing actually bends so you can bend it to work in areas that you need to have something that bends i guess so it's something that you can use for more than just a deck you can get any anything you need to paint or stain in tight places this is going to be a handy little tool for you that you can do that say like behind a toilet or something like that there you have it it's the bender bar now let's get on to two more tips staining the deck like a pro the second tip i have when it comes to painting a deck and getting results so it looks like a professional did it and that is actually painting staining your deck with the direction of the plank so when you stain you don't want to stain the opposite direction that the planks run one for one thing that's going to cause a lot of drips and spills to spill in between your your deck but it won't look natural and it won't look professional when it's all done you want to roll with the planks or back brush with the planks when i'm actually doing a large deck i i like to roll out my color as i'm working down the line but then i also back brush it so i'm going to roll it with the direction of the planks but then i'm going to back brush each plank with the direction of the plank and i'm going to brush it just like this moving down the line and back brushing it and that's going to give it a more natural look to the deck itself and it's just going to have a finish that looks like a professional did it so when you're you're laying out your deck it's just like a wall if you want good results you got to lay out your wall after you apply the product on a deck when you apply the product you want to lay it out if you're not rolling it with a roller and applying it with a brush the same thing applies i'm going to apply it with a brush and go with the direction of the planks at all time so and or the material itself if the the decking the spindles are going up and down i want to brush up and down this it's the railings running um horizontally this direction so i'm going to brush it that direction all right on to tip number three and that's having plenty of rags available if you're actually staining your deck with an oil-based product now i've got the question multiple times in the past you know on my social media platform that's my deck is sticky after applying my coating and your deck will be sticky applying a oil-based coating if you don't get all the excess up that's everything that hasn't absorbed into the wood you have to wipe that up with stain rags and get that excess up or it's going to stay tacky if you don't get it up and it stays tacky you're going to have to go back with mineral spirits and rub that whole thing down and get all that excess oil based product up to eliminate that tackiness have lots of rags available you're going to be applying your stain with the direction of your planks or however your deck is running i'm going to be applying it i'm going to be laying it out i'm going to let it absorb in but then i'm going to wipe off the excess if there's any excess now you're typically going to have excess if this is the second time coating or third time coating the deck and you haven't sanded it down and you still have um some of the deck coating that is not worn out and not allowing the coating to absorb into the wood now if you've got a fresh deck you're probably not going to have to worry about that unless you're applying a way too much coating or you're applying multiple codes but just look at the deck if there's any oil sitting on top of the wood excess oil you need to wipe that up another thing these rags when you wipe it up they do become a flammability hazard so they can spontaneously combust so you want to spread them out so they dry out before disposing of them or actually put them in a into a bucket of water so you don't actually start a fire that is tip number three wiping up your excess oil so your deck doesn't say sticky in the end all right there you have it three tips staining or painting your deck like a professional did it or how to get professional results if you're staining or painting your deck and a real handy little tool the vendor bar that's going to help you get your deck painted like a pro or in between the cracks if you've enjoyed this video don't forget hit the subscribe button hit the notification bell wherever it's at you got to hit them both subscribe and notify that way you get notified every time i come out with a new video it's free simple easy to do a simple way to help support us making these free videos teaching you how to paint and stain your house and don't forget if you've enjoyed the video give us a thumbs up we really enjoy getting thumbs up have you got questions or comments about this whole process or any other tips or tricks you want to know stay in your deck lead it leave them in the comments section below we love reading your comments or your own tips and tricks teaching us how to stain or paint out