On Sep 8, 11:13*pm, gwandsh wrote:
On Sep 7, 9:05*pm, Jason wrote:





As I mentioned in an earlier thread, I'm having a deck built by a
contractor that I don't completely trust. So when he gives me advice
that seems out of the ordinary, I tend to question it.

The floor of the deck is being built with Severe Weather deck boards,
and all of the framing is built with Severe Weather boards, too (with
the exception of the hand rail). These boards seem more wet than other
wood that I've used, and I don't know if it's the type of wood that is
more heavily treated, or just because it rained here last week.

Is it better to go ahead and paint/stain the wood immediately, to
prevent it from drawing up? Or should I wait until it dries out before
treating it? If I should wait, then how long should I wait?

TIA,

Jason

I'm on about my 6th deck, and although I'm not familiar with the
treated wood that you mentiuon, I have never had any luck with getting
a deck surface to take a stain until it has weathered for at least a
couple of months. *Last time we decided to stain before the wood had
weathered and the pores opened, we ended up sanding the entire thing
next spring and starting over.

Paint on a deck? *I personally wouldn't go that route unless I had no
choice. *If so, ensure it has a non-skid treatment.

Good luck, and keep your eyes on that contractor. *Sounds like a
"rounded corner" kind of guy.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Thanks for the advice, all.

I didn't think that too much detail was necessary, but just so that
there's no confusion... the contractor had actually flip-flopped on
his advice. At first, he said to wait until Spring so that the wood
would dry out, but then later he mentioned going to Texas for the
winter. So after my other concerns developed, I thought that he might
have suggested waiting just so that he could keep the contract. Then
later, he mentioned that one of the guys in his crew would be able to
come in October to stain it, which contradicted his earlier logic that
it needed to dry out first.

I could guess that you wouldn't stain WET wood, but I wasn't sure if
it would need to dry for a couple of weeks, or several months. Based
on your advice here, though, I think that I'll just save up to have
the whole house painted in the Spring, and then have the deck stained
at that time. By a different contractor, of course!

Gwandsh, I'm thinking about painting the framing, step risers, and
underpinning, but then staining the handrails, 4x4s, and flooring. But
of course, that might change by the Spring! My original plan, though,
was to have dark brown (not quite black) framing, risers, and
underpinning, then stained brown 4x4s and handrails that would be a
similar shade to the house trim, and then a lighter stain of flooring
that would be complementary to the house color.