My deck stain report: Two years later

Disclosure: I purchased One Time deck stain for my own use, and I am writing about my experiences with it. I have not been compensated for this post. This post contains affiliate links. Read full Disclosure Policy.

In 2015, after a failed deck stain that peeled off less than a year after application, I heavily researched which product to use next on our weathered, treated pine deck. I chose One Time wood stain, a penetrating outdoor deck stain that is supposed to last seven years.  Its protective finish is “baked” into the wood via a UV activation process from the sun’s rays.

 The entire refinishing process (power-washing, orbital sanding, and staining) is detailed in this post. I was really happy with the way the deck turned out — it looked better than it had in years!

In 2016, I posted a one-year update showing how well the stain and color had lasted over the previous year. 

It’s 2017, and I’ve had numerous requests from readers asking for another update, as it’s deck-staining season once again. Several people have mentioned that they felt I didn’t post enough close-up photographs with the 2016 stain update and requested “many photos” this time around.  Certainly, the deck’s tones can appear different whether it’s in the sun, in the shade, wet, or dry.  So, here we go!

 

As you can see, these photos were taken this year in 2017. The deck is still a nice shade of chestnut brown, and I continue to be happy with the way it looks and is enduring. 

Let’s compare three years’ worth of photos:

Here’s the deck about three weeks after staining in 2015, when the stain finally cured. (It takes several weeks as it cures with UV light.)

Here’s the deck in July 2016, about a year later. We didn’t notice much change, if any, in the color during the first year. 

And, here’s the deck in June 2017. One thing I notice over last year’s update is that the stain has faded more in the knot areas of the wood versus last year’s photo.   (What hasn’t changed? Our dog still loves to lay on the deck.)

Here’s another view from this angle. I do want to point out that I did not wash the deck yet this year, so the dust and dirt on it is more visible from certain angles. Last year I did wash the deck prior to photographing. (I do wipe it down with water in subsequent photos to show the difference.)

Here’s a close-up of the wood — again, non-washed. The deck really does photograph differently in the sun and shade. We had clouds overheard off and on as I was taking photos, so you can see variations in each photo. 

 

Here, I grabbed a wet towel and wiped a portion of the deck down to clean it off a bit. You can see how much stain is still in the wood, especially when it is wet .

While the majority of our deck is the original wood (which is now more than 12 years old) I replaced this deck rail board after a portion of it rotted out where a shepherd’s hook was bolted to it. This piece of wood was new in 2015, so you can see how it has retained the color over the past two years. The far end is dry, and the near end is wet. 

I have noticed that when it rains, the water does not bead as much as it did last year. The One Time stain’s documentation states that it is still protecting the wood, even when the product no longer causes water to bead. 

 

You may remember that in 2015, I also stained our kids’ wood climber. We believe this climber is around 20 years old, and it had never been previously stained. The climber has really retained the color nicely over the past two years. 

The climber originally had plastic walls, and I removed those in 2015 and replaced them with vertical deck spindles. I stained these spindles in 2016 after leaving them unfinished to weather for a year. 

 

I’m including this photo as an example of one year’s worth of stain too. Last year, I built new side shelves for our grill, as the original plastic shelves had cracked after years of use. I used new, leftover deck lumber scraps from the rail I replaced on the deck and stained it with the same chestnut-color One Time stain I used on the deck and climber. This is what the shelf color looks like after a year outdoors. 

 

Lastly, you may remember that I left the spindles and sides of our deck green. I had stained these with a Thompson’s product back in 2013, which peeled off the flat surfaces of the deck less than a year later. This green stain is now four years old, and it’s beginning to peel off the sides. I would not use or recommend this particular product at all. The only reason I left the green up was that it was still in good condition two years ago, and (let’s be honest!) sanding, stripping, and re-staining more than a hundred spindles would be a lot of work. 

I’ll have to figure out what to do with these again at some point, but I’m still very happy with the way the One Time stain is wearing on the deck and climber. A big plus with this brand of stain is that if you want to re-stain the deck again with the same brand of product, there is no stripping necessary. You can wash the deck, let it dry, then re-coat right over the top of the existing One Time. 

If this post is your first introduction to the series, I’m located in the suburbs of Chicago, and the deck faces the west. It receives hot Midwest sunshine in the summer and is covered with snow in the winter. You’re also welcome to go back to reading the other posts in this series: 

• My quest to find a great deck stain (2015)
• A shepherd’s hook ruined my deck! (2015)
• My kids’ wood climber makeover (2015)
• My deck stain report: One year later (2016)
• My deck stain report: Three years later (2018)

Good luck to everyone tackling their decks and outdoor wood surfaces this summer!

Disclosure: I purchased One Time deck stain for my own use, and I am writing about my experiences with it. I have not been compensated for this post. This post contains affiliate links. Read full Disclosure Policy.