Ok here are a few pics of the decks all stained & sealed. Now all we have to do are the railings. ARGH :-x . We had saw the commercial on TV for Sikkens Stain-Sealer. My honey loved the look. Of course the wood they used in the commercial was new wood. Ours is older wood. So we bought 2 gal. of Sikkens in the color Teak. To the tune of 92.00 dollars. We had to stop and Menards for some wood filler and happened to see a product called NWP Stain & Sealer in the color Cedar. From the picture on the front of the 5 gal. pail it looked very similar to the Sikkens finish and after the rebate the total cost would only be around 25.00. I said that maybe we should take the Sikkens back and use that product. Knowing how my hubby like to save a penny I thought he would be all for it. Nope, my hubby had his heart set on the Sikkens because in the commercial the deck looked beautiful and highly varnished. So as we started to apply it he thought the color was a little dark. Because the deck sucked up the stain and there was no shine to be seen. I told my hubby that the deck needed another coat. After the second coat he really didn't like how dark the color was at all. I love darker wood. Even after the second coat it didn't looked varnished. Only the knots where shiny. Seeing we only had 1/2 gal. left and it would not be enough to do the lower deck. My hubby announced that he was going to Menards and pick up the 5 gal. pail of NWP for the lower deck. I did what any good wife would have done and said--I TOLD YOU SO! Upon opening up the pail he said that this was the color he thought the Sikkens was going to be. Since in the show room it looked a lot lighter. So he got out the roller and applied that to the lower deck. Oh Boy! what a difference in color. I guess this will be a good test to see which product last longer. Oh well, I got my darker wood color and he got his lighter. I think I'll do the spindles on the upper deck with the lighter color and on the lower deck with the darker color. I know, I'm a sucker for punishment and I TOLD HIM SO! All I know is I never what to do this again. Phew. Upper deck. ( photo / image / picture from Tooty2shoes's Garden ) Stairs from upper deck to lower. ( photo / image / picture from Tooty2shoes's Garden ) Lower deck in cedar color. ( photo / image / picture from Tooty2shoes's Garden )
He should have listened to you and saved himself a lot of money. Don't men realise by now that women are always right? Your decks do look good though. I like your idea of lighter spindles on the upper deck and the darker ones on the lower as it will tie everything in nicely.
Oh! That looks great. That must be a beautiful spot all year. I wish I could have a deck like that... Congrats on your big accomplishment.
Tooty, thanks for the comparison study. When we do our small wood deck (which I may just accidentally take the chain saw to) we'll try to find the NPK product. Your decks do look lovely, and your idea of doing the railings in a contrasting stain is great. When you recover from your efforts, you'll realize just how nice they look!
Eileen-- Yes you are right. But it is so hard on their egos. Thank you for the compliments. That was the only idea I had to tie the two colors together. Barb thank you for the compliments also. I'm not so sure you would want this type of deck. I would only go with the fake wood from now on. WAY to much work and so little pleasure as the wasps seem to love our deck more than we do. I hate those little buggers. Marlin it will be interesting to see which holds up the best. The one that doesn't, is out of here. That chain saw sounds like the ticket for deck removal. Thank you also for the compliments on the deck and our recovery time. I had researched which deck stain and sealer had the best ratings. There was one product called DEFY that was the top winner. But alas no one sold it around here. So the Sikkens was next on the list. We are having rain today so my back can recoup from al that stooping and bending. It's the pit's when one can't get down on ones knees.
Your decks look great. I like the 2 toned decks and the way you plan on doing the rails will really set it off.
Decorchic I would have gladly given you our decks when I was on my hands and knees with the electric sander for several days. The lower deck was actually bigger, but we cut it in half and removed the part where I now have two flower gardens. I am soooooo glad we did that. 2ofus---Thank you. The color scheme only happened because we didn't want to spend another 90.00 some dollars of another 2 gals of stain. So I thought that at least this color scheme would tie the two decks together.
