Your Deck: To Finish Or Not To Finish?

​You can be taken aback by the variety of deck-finishing products that you’ll find at the hardware store or home center. But just like the 30 varieties of yogurt you find in the supermarket diary case, there really aren’t many variations in suitable wood finishes. In fact, you really only have three choices:

One choice is to apply no finish. This is a perfectly valid choice if you live in a relatively dry climate and you don’t mind the deck turning gray.

The most popular finishes for decks are clear penetrating wood finishes, sometimes called sealers. These usually darken the wood’s natural color in a way most people find pleasing. Clear finishes contain a water repellent—usually paraffin wax, as well as a mildewcide and ultraviolet stabilizers to slow deterioration from the sun. Clear finishes need to be reapplied each year. It’s easy—just use a paint roller attached to a pole for the deck boards and a natural-bristle brush for the railings and anyplace else the roller can’t reach. Use a roller designed for textured paint finishes—it holds the most finish.

If you want to change the color of your deck, you can use a semitransparent stain. The major difference is that the pigment in the stain provides more protection from the sun than a clear finish can provide. You’ll need to recoat only about every two or three years. To apply, use the same technique as for a clear finish.