Hi Blake, Keep that pressure-washer AWAY from the deck! Just kidding...somewhat! Seriously, a p/w can do more harm than good if not used right. Use a good deck-cleaner & scrub solution into deck. Let sit per instructions and rinse with the p/w. NOTE: * Dial down the pressure to ~ 500 psi, and keep the tip 1' away. * Any closer and you're just crushing wood fibers, which won't hold stain very long. * If tip is held too close, &/or pressure too high...you'll have a clean deck, BUT it'll basically be ruined as far as absorbing & holding stains. To BEST hold stain & look even, sanding is by far the best prep!! This removes degraded wood-fibers and leaves a good strong open cellulose-structure to absorb & hold stain. There's a difference between a "clean" deck, and a "well-prepped deck"! Regards, Faron

Jeff Man,you post is perfectly easy to get to. Anyway the only way to get cwf off so you can refinish is with md80, just google it up, sanding wont do it,normal strippers will not do it.Spraying away the flakes will not do it. cwf is amoung the many outdoor finish products that should not even be made much less sold. If your not in your comfort zone using what will work,just put somemore cwf on, and live with it. John Mon already said no more finish questions,,, ghesssss OK this is the last one!!

Stains in So. Ca. stink!! I used Behr couple of yrs ago & 1st used a foam brush on 2 post uprights on fence. Looked awful so got a very good quality Purdy brush out & did 2 more- ugly so I took the can back & said it was disgusting. They said another stain by Behr was better. Brought it home & let other dry couple more days & lightly sanded them as looked like kid had played in paint with their fingers, so uneven. Used good brush again & went over the same ones & 1 more & all were awful, wouldn't want anyone to know I had done it. I've painted my trim on house 3 times & inside of house, refinish furniture especially antique pieces,using old oil stains, have done redwood redos every couple of yrs & gates were redwood stained too so not an amateur. So they still aren't done. Got a redwood "stain" at Wal Mart & did a potting bench & built in bench but while it looked nice I knew it was paint not stain, couldn't see any grain but nice color-been a yr now & needs redoing. Got some stain by McCloskey,100% acrylic latex deck & siding stain 7956 redwood is the color. Brushed it on couple of posts but its night & haven't looked at them lately. Dad had a stroke so mind is on him. It went on better than Behr but don't know that it will hold up. I used to use Behr oil based & only had to redo everything about every 2-3 yrs. Good Luck, it's a real battle these days. Even spray paint doesn't hold up more than a season. So many regulations.

Hey everyone, I have a 2 year old cedar deck which had been stained a fairly ugly dark brown color. We stripped it off with Olympic deck stripper and cleaned it off. Its now a very dull color that somewhat resembles the original cedar but looks more like birch. Oddly enough when its wet, its the exact color that we want it to be stained. I have put pictures of the fascia and surface when dry and wet. Please tell me how I can get my deck to look the same color that it looks when its wet. I don't care about the shiny aspect of it or glossiness, I just love that color and have no clue how to get there. The first two pictures are wet pics. Thanks for any help.