How SOON After Pressure Washing Should You Stain Your Decks?

Deck maintenance can be tough! From frequent cleaning, properly sealing and staining - one needs to take care of every single aspect to make their wooden decks look neat and clean.

Some homeowners even take help from online PDFs and tutorial videos to know how to maintain their deck after pressure washing.

To put those homeowners out of their worries here’s explaining how soon should a deck be stained after it is pressure washed!

Preparing The Wooden Deck Surface!

Power washing is one effective mode of cleaning old decks. But at times, it takes more than this to prepare the deck for its staining.

The usual drills include ridding off the old stain from the deck surface and then jet washing it thoroughly. In this way, they get ascertain that the new coat of stain will properly adhere to the wood and last a fair-length-of-time.

A deck stain stripper is also applied to the surface to break up the old stains and prepares the deck surface for a jet wash. And the step that follows is applying a deck brightener to restore the pH levels in the wooden surface. It also helps open up closed or dried grains, thus making sure the stain gets inside the wood and mixes with its grains.

How Soon Should You Stain Your Decks Post Jet Cleaning?

Once the existing stain is removed completely, and the surface has been washed thoroughly, the next step involves applying a fresh coat of deck stain.

But how soon should it be done?

As per Joseph Kaiser- a licensed and experienced deck cleaning and staining specialist in Perth:

"This greatly depends on the weather conditions. However, its best to stick to a 48-hour timeline post its pressure wash.

But there is no hard and fast rule. If someone wishes to give it more time to dry, then they can stain the deck surface after 72-hours."

He Further Points out 3 Important Questions (In This Context):

1."How To Know If Your Deck Is Dry Enough For A New Stain Treatment?"

Joseph continues opining :

"There a way to determine if the wooden deck surface is appropriately dry for new stain treatment.

Measure the moisture present in the wooden deck with the help of a moisture metre. One should take probes in different areas of the deck. And the reason being, parts that are exposed to the sun tend to dry off fairly quickly.

The appropriate reading for a dry deck should be between 12% to 15%. And if one notices a higher reading, then its best to give it another day to dry off."

2."Is It Alright To Stain A Wet Deck?"

Joseph states:

"One most certainly can, but the better option would be to kill more time and allow it to dry off more. Wooden surfaces, if not completely dried, can lead to mould formation, rotting occurrences, etc."

3."What Should Be The Congenial Temperature To Apply The Stain Coat?"

According to Joseph here:

"The temperature outside should not be too hot or cold. A moderate climate is what one should consider as an apt time to stain their wooden decks. More specifically, the temperature should not be more than 35 degrees.

Another condition is not allowing too much of sunlight to fall on the surface. It will dry off the seals too quickly and prevent the wood from absorbing any of it."

Thanks to Joseph here; one now has a clear picture of how soon should they stain their deck surface after pressure washing it.

So, without delay, find a trustworthy deck staining specialist in Perth and get it done properly. Doing so will definitely add a few more years to the wooden deck surface.