My condo development has had problems with rotting wood siding on the
buildings. I'm told this was due to the quality of the wood being poor.
The Association has always been using solid colored stain instead of paint.
The stuff, to me looks like just like paint, but my understanding is that,
because it is classified as a stain, only one coat of the stuff needs to be
applied, and without any primer. For this reason, I'm wondering if the use
of a solid colored stain instead of paint might contributing to the wood
rotting.

Would properly applying one coat of a quality solid-colored stain provide as
much protection as if the building were properly painted (which I assume
would entail a primer plus 2 coats of quality paint). Am I wrong to be
suspecting that solid colored stain is being chosen as a means of saving
money....I'm imagining them saying.... "solid colored stain is great because
we can just apply ONE coat of stain and be done with it rather than having
to pay for the labor of applying....oh my god.... a primer plus....oh my
god.... two....yes two.....coats of paint."

Am I wrong to be thinking that the buildings would be better protected if
properly painted rather than stained.

J.