# Forum Home Renovation Decking  Stain or Oil for Treated Pine Deck?

## pfuller

I'm ready to stain my new deck and i'd like e to get a merbau-like stain colour onto the treated pine to finish it off.  
My deck is fairly exposed to the elements, so i want to get something that has UV protection etc.   
Should i get a stain and then finish it with an oil? Or just use an oil with a stain in it? Can anyone recommend a choice of stain/oil to get a merbau type finish for treated pine?

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## OBBob

I used a cabots exterior deck stain on a TP deck. I only stayed for 2 years but it hadn't really deteriorated. Bunnings have colour samples on actual wood in their paint section.  
I only stained mine but I imagine if you want to be able to re-coat every couple of years without chnaing the colour then you should stain and use a clear oil.

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## pfuller

Thanks Bob. I've ended up going for a Feast Watson Merbau Stain. I've just put down one coat and it looks OK. The only problem is that the sides of each decking board are still unstained, and are the natural pine colour is visible through the gaps.  Has anyone got any ideas on a good way to get stain in between the gaps and stain the sides of each board? I used Cabiots lambswool applicator and its ran down the side of some boards, but most are unstained. 
Any ideas?

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## Larry McCully

Use  a brush that is about 5 mm thick and as wide as you can get. You will need to brush in each gap, wipe of the excess from the top as you go along. I have seen some deck builders coat the boards first before they install them. It is a time consuming job coating the sides this way, but it is about the only succesfull way. As you place the brush down inside the gap, the sides of the brush will coat the surface. Put heaps on the brush, dont wipe of the excess of the brush as you take it from the can. You want as much on the brush as possible, this will help coat the sides more efficiently, Just wipe of the excess of the *top* of the board as you go along.

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## jimj

I would concur with Larry's recommendation. I attach a brush that is 125 x 20 to a 1200 mm pole and I dip in my coating and then brush vigourosly up and down the length of the boards between joists. It does add a fair bit of both extra effort and time but the results look so much better. I restore many decks where the previous coating was only concentrated on the top and just left dribble marks that run down the sides. I usually will do the top surface coating first, then the sides which will leave a mess on the top which I finish off with a final wipe along the grain of the timber. 
Hope this explanation makes sense. 
   Jim J              www.restore-a-deck.com.au

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## pfuller

Gotchyas. Thanks guys. Geez this decking stuff can be time consuming...i can see why people pay out big bucks in labour costs. I've had fun doing this deck though, and its come up great for my first attempt at wood working. I've just installed some decking uplights today too and cant wait to see the ambience it will create after dark. All up, i've bulit myself a budget treated pine 35m sq deck with lighting for under $1500. Thats included $350 in escavation costs too, so i reckon i've done well. Its been well worth the scrounge i've done for materials. Thanks to everyone thats answered my questions on this forum along the way. Great forum, great people!

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## Loki429

> treated pine 35m sq deck with lighting for under $1500. Thats included $350 in escavation costs!

  hmmm...
$1500 - $350 = $1150 
35sqm deck = ~385 lm + 10% wastage = 423lm
At $3.50 per metre (?) that's about $1480!
Timber for the subframe = $? 
Was this an existing deck that you cleaned up / repaired? If not then please let this forum know where you are getting your timber from as there's a lot of people here that would love to be able to source timber at these prices! 
Congrats on finishing your deck. Got any pictures you can share with us? 
I'm interested to hear what you have done with the lighting too as I'm just finishing my deck and (funds allowing...) would like to install some fancy deck lighting too. Can you post some details and some pictures please? 
Cheers,
Loki

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## OBBob

> Has anyone got any ideas on a good way to get stain in between the gaps and stain the sides of each board? 
> Any ideas?

  Sorry ... I should have siad that I sprayed mine originally, that gets the sides.

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## pfuller

OK..i'll do a quick rundown of costs. As i said, i scrounged like nothing else and was pretty fortunate with a few buys.  
Escavations = $350 
90X90 Treated Pine posts and 35sq metres of Used Treated Pine 70mm decking = $200 (I got this out of the local newspaper. The dude had ripped up an old deck on his rental property, which had been installed with the reeded face facing up, the 'proper' side was clean with few blemishes. It had also been attached via 1-2mm nailgun nails, so had tiny holes in the wood...barely noticeble.     
Bearers and Joists = $200  (This was another lucky find. A local timberyard was closing down and was auctioning off all there timber. I bought a shipload of wood all for $300 - $200 is a gross overestimation! I was initially redoing my carport roof, and wanted to pick up some pine. I ended up getting more than enough oregon for the job, plus a stack of extra treated pine that i ended up using for the decking subframe.  I had to remill some of the timber - e.g Some sticks were 300mm X 45mm...and i cut them into three sticks of 90X45 for the joists etc. I painted the hell out of the whole subframe to seal all the timber, with paint i had lying around in the shed from the previous owner of my house.  
Cement Mix  = $80 - coulda got this cheaper at a bulk seller. 
Nails = $100 Price matched mitre ten to bunnings - ended up with bargain titadecks plus 100mm galvs for the frame. 
Gang Nails = $20  My old man bought a bucket of gang nails at a garage sale and had them lying around his shed...i'll chuck on $20 to the cost. (and should throw my old man a slab).  
Deck lights = $110 
Stain and applicator - 8 Litres of feast watson =  $170 ( should just bought a ten litre to begin with.)  
Extras - I had to buy an extra 90mm decking board that i used instead of a 70mm when i didn't estimate the gaps towards the end.  $10 for a pack of screws that i used to screw down a couple of planks i want to access underneath in the future. Facure boards were included in the bulk timber lot i got above.   
I cant think of any other costs..a lot of sweat, a swollen thumb banging in nails into the gang nails and a lot of hours...i'll round my total up to $1000, and i'm even happier with my efforts! 
I'm taking some pics tonight so i might post some pics tommorrow.

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## Loki429

Well done on the scrounging!
I wish I had your tenacity for a bargain  :2thumbsup:

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## pfuller

OK...attached are some pics of my new deck: 
IMG_5486.jpg - Is a daylight shot of my completed deck (still lots of cleaning, brickwork and landscaping to do) 
IMG_5491.jpg - Another daylight shot looking out from the deck (you can see my reserves of timber i still have under the carport.: )   I'm still deciding exactly what i want to do to this area. Any suggestions? I was thinking of blueboarding and rendering from the egde of the carport (back-left) over the brick peir and where that pine privacy screen currently is.(back-right). I've put an example of a corner seat arrangement i might put in, with a planter box in the corner.  Those cream bricks are currently just sitting at the edge of the carport, and i might brick up a small 4 brick high wall and run some wood slat screens from the top of the bricks to the roof of the carport. I'm not sure what i'm doing for ground cover yet..maybe just some crushed rock or sand with a few stepping stones.   I want some low maintainance plants too, to cool the area down, and add a natural feel.  Any suggestions welcome! 
IMG_5494.jpg - Is a shot of a couple of the LED's i've put in the deck. You can see the nailholes from the used treated pine decking...it really doesn't bother me...adds character i reckon ; ) 
IMG_5532C.jpg - The deck all lit up at night. 
deck5526B.jpg - A bit of a starscape. 
For the lighting, i used 8 X HPM 0.3 watt LED's. I've joined together a 12m and 10m 12V cable which runs under the deck and joins into the lights by poking up through pre-cut holes in the decking boards at around 2m intervals. The lights then have contacts which pierce the cable to tap into the power supply. The cable should be preinstalled and laid out in position before you nail or screw down your decking boards. I worked out the positions i wanted the lights to go, cut 30mm holes and then laid the cable, poking the cable up through the holes, and whacking a bit of decking offcut through the loop to keep the cable from falling back down. I then nailed on all the boards, and installed the lights.  If you've screwed down your boards you may be able to unscrew them and drop the cable under the deck, weaving under the joists as you go. Also try to cut the holes for your lights close to a joist so it doesn't weakedn the structure of the decking boards too much. The lights that i installed in high traffic areas, i also put addition chocs under the board, so a joist and my choc framed the light hole.  This way less pressure is applied to the hole which is a structural weak spot of the board.

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## The Case

Hi Fellas,
I have followed your contributions with interest as my next chore will be painting or staining my daughter's new treated pine deck. 
Can you offer any comments about treatment of knots before applying the finishing touches? 
I have asked this question elsewhere but being new at this sought of thing I could not pick up the thread 
The Case  :Confused:

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## hoidey

to do it properly, cut them out and replace as they will just become a problem later.

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## arsenic

> I'm ready to stain my new deck and i'd like e to get a merbau-like stain colour onto the treated pine to finish it off.  
> My deck is fairly exposed to the elements, so i want to get something that has UV protection etc.   
> Should i get a stain and then finish it with an oil? Or just use an oil with a stain in it? Can anyone recommend a choice of stain/oil to get a merbau type finish for treated pine?

  If you are working with pressure treated lumber, you should check it for arsenic, as this banned chemical causes cancer.  You dont want to handle, or expose yourself to arsenic repeatedly.  Check out www.arsenichometest.com 
Take care
Zach

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