Wood experts are no stranger to staining and sealing.
However, most people without expertise and experience in this aspect do not understand the difference between staining and sealing a deck.
Thus, keep reading this article to know the right answer, and you will have the best way to protect your wood decks.
Features of Wood Staining
Deck staining aims to color the natural and original deck finishes, helping to hide the stains attached to the wood.
This process can bring out more exciting and attractive solid deck colors while preserving the basic properties of the wood.
To stain your deck, you can start by preparing a bit of sanding for your wood finishes.
After that, wipe off any dirt, muck, or yellow solid stains, old paint remnants, and exterior stain left on the top deck by using deck cleaners.
That helps you assert a clean and uniform exterior wood stain. Finally, use a small brush to apply to the stains.
Make sure you apply evenly to every solid color stain. Do not create thick and irregular coatings. The finer and thinner the layer, the more natural and beautiful the wood surface will get.
Typically, you should perform the staining deck process when you want to change the natural color deck (lighter or darker).
At that time, you should choose the best type of wood stain to get good results.
Features of Wood Sealing
Wood sealing is a completely different process than wood staining. While wood staining aims to bring new natural beauty of the wood, deck sealers will provide strength and durability to protect the wood.
This is possible thanks to a waterproof material like polyurethane, which keeps the moisture from penetrating quickly into the wood through condensation to protect your deck.
Therefore, the wood will not rot, and it doesn’t cause cracks.
Especially in the winter, this issue is a severe and lousy problem. Water-based after infiltrating untreated cracks in the wood can freeze and spread to other areas.
That’s why you need to apply wood sealers to any wooden surface in your home to ensure it is safe from the weather (rain or UV rays).
You can carry out the wood sealing process on any surface, including stained wood.
Like wood staining, you need to use a standard paintbrush to apply sealers evenly to the surface. It is noted that wood sealers will darken the original wood gently.
Should You Be Sealing Your Wood before you Stain, or after?
As the general rule, it is quite straightforward you always stain and then seal. You should not seal the deck stairs before you stain because then you cannot stain again.
The point of the sealer is to fill in all of those pores and everything. So, you will have a beautiful smooth surface. Stain, on the other hand, requires porosity to soak into something.
Thus, to seal your wood before you stain, it’s like putting a piece of saran wrap over the top of a piece of paper and then trying to draw on it with a pen. It doesn’t generally work.
In almost perspective, you should stain first and then seal unless you are using a very specific at wood grain accenting technique on a particular type of wood (like pine wood).
Conclusion
In conclusion, you now have the complete answer to the question “what is the difference between staining and sealing a deck?”.
When it comes to staining, you will think of providing new beauty to your wood.
And when talking about wood sealing, you will get certain strength and durability.
In the end, every process is dissimilar, so make your choice to use wood stain or sealer according to your purpose.
