#1 Deck Premium Semi-Transparent Outdoor Wood Stain and Sealer in One - Water Based Wood Stain for Decks, Fences, & Siding - 1 Gallon (Natural)

This translucent stain produced the most amazing transformation of our old dilapidated looking deck! We had used a Deck-Over type product to try to cover the ugly boards, which peeled, trapped moisture and worsened an already grungy looking deck. Last summer, in a last ditch effort, I sanded the entire deck down to the 30 year old bare boards, used a deck cleaner, and painted the railing black with house paint.THEN I applied this stain in Translucent Natural, exactly as instructed on the jug.It is a thin, watery consistency, but applies beautifully ( i used a stain brush on a pole). It absorbed and dried quickly, and one and a half jugs covered a 15 x 12 deck with 2 coats.I left the furniture and deck rug off for 4 days, then put everything back- and the results were astounding to me! Great coverage, no tackiness, beautiful color, nice transparency, water beaded after rain, and now that the snow has finally melted from the deck, I can say with 100% honesty and amazement- 6 months and one winter later/the stain STILL looks GREAT! No chipping, no peeling, beautiful! I am repurchasing to put another “maintenance” coat on later this spring, because I am so impressed with this product- and believe this will extend the life and appearance of my old deck! Great value! GREAT product! ABSOLUTELY recommend!!I will include before and after shots of our old eyesore deck that became everyone’s favorite hangout spot last summer, thanks to this product!

I purchased all three steps products to refinish the deck on the house we just purchased. It is 30' x 30', so I ordered 5 gallons of the stain. The cleaner and the brightener worked great, plenty of both left over for the future. The stain ended up just barely enough to cover, mainly because about 1/3 of the deck is protected from the weather by an overhanging roofline and required much less stain to cover. Some of the most worn sections really soaked up the stain/waterproofer, so depending on your situation you will need to adjust how much stain to order. It says 100 to 150 square feet per gallon for two coats. If your deck has a lot of wear, calculate about 75 square feet per gallon. It also says the finish is flat, but I found that it has some sheen to it, especially over the less weathered sections. Application is easiest when you follow the directions by doing the second coat within about 15 minutes of application of the first coat. It covers more easily and dries better. Used dark walnut color due the deck being previously stained and the darker color made the whole deck more uniform in color while leaving the woodgrain to show through the stain. Don't know how this will stand up to northern Alabama weather, but I am happy with it so far. The only downside was the Amazon shipping. It shipped via USPS, and I was notified by the post office that they could not deliver as the packaging was damaged and there was a lot of leakage, making a mess of their truck and building. Reorder was easy through Amazon, although I had to speak with a person as the online return/reorder page directed me to return the original order. Since it was damaged and leaking, I asked how I was expected to ship it back. The Amazon customer service guy over-rode those directions and made sure I didn't have to ship the damaged stuff back. When I got the new order, I understood how it could have been damaged and leaking. The box that the 2.5 gallon jug came in from the manufacturer was well labeled and had arrows directing to keep the box vertical. But when the two jugs came in Amazon packaging, they didn't bother to pack them upright and had no notice on the outside of the box that it was to be shipped vertically and also no notice that it was liquid. Plus, the box that the two jugs of stain came in was larger than the two boxes and no packing was included to keep it from sliding around which also contributed to the original order being damaged. Since I eventually got everything I ordered undamaged, I didn't take any stars off my review.

Looks great. Easy to apply

Bought this to stain my fence. A few things to help out others who might value this info as I couldn't seem to find any.How much will you need?I had 165 ft of brand new cedar fence (not sq ft) that needed to be stained on both sides (that would be 330 ft total in length). The fence is a staggered privacy fence that arches in the middle up to 6ft and the post are generally 4x4. I ended up buying 20 gallons of this stain to get the job done. Waited about 4 months to stain the fence after it was installed so I skipped the prep work and just power washed it and applied the stain. The fence would just absorb the stain. Note that applying this to a fence is no easy task and will take time, even with a pump sprayer + brush.Some tips to help using this conservatively and not wasting as best you can.If you wanna use this stuff as conservatively as you can like me to save money. I used a pump sprayer and found the best nozzle to use is an adjustable one. The recommended ones would just spray too much on there and a lot would drip off. At first 2 gallons would with two coats would be gone in just applying it to two sections of my fence. I switched out the nozzles to the adjustable one and cranked it down so that it would spray with a lot of mist and very slowly. This made it more conservative to apply and you use a brush anyways to even out the coat. I was able to get A LOT more out of 2 gallons for areas that I didn't care about as much like the outside facing parts. Less can be more with this stuff, you can really get into the perfection habit. The more you apply, the darker it will be and it might make you think the non darker areas you applied to before hand didn't have any stain there.Clean up / prevention tips.It is water based but don't expect it to just wash away like magic with water or soap. If it gets on your siding/concrete or something, it doesn't seem to come off easily with soap and water. Instead, here's a pro tip I recommend. Prep spray down whatever area you might get this stuff with a garden hose or whatever first. Just don't get the wood wet but try and soak that area. Then apply your stain and rinse that area as you go or afterwards and you'll see it just wash away nicely. I wish I figured that out beforehand as that made it SO MUCH EASIER! You can clean your equipment with soap and water yes but don't expect it to be like brand new. Your pump sprayer and brushes will be stained, it's similar to painting a house and your equipment will look used.The stain itself.Looks like there's two versions of this stain and I got a mix of the two. I'm guessing the older stain due to the bottle not looking as nicely as the newer one with better graphic design has a lighter more light brown color. This stain when poured looks like milk chocolate milk. The newer stuff, which I preferred is darker and looks more naturally when applied. It pours like dark chocolate milk and the wood looks better IMO. Yes you should combine all of these stains into one mix but I didn't have time and ordered as I went. So I used the lighter stuff for the outside fence and the darker for inside.All in all after all my research of reviews of other brands like TWP, ready seal, Defy, etc I chose this one due to the price, reviews, and water based to avoid mold/mildew. My neighbors used Behr which their outside had a lot of mold/mildew and the reviews for Behr didn't seem that good. If I'm going to do all the work, I want the best for the right price. Also, on one of my larger orders they included a nice brush which I ended up using over the one I bought.I applied this in September 2019 so please remind me to update/post pictures on how the stain has held up since then since this product seems newer and not many reviews or comments out there as to how it holds up. It seems to be close to Defy's water based product so I'm hoping for similar if not better results.