Our 4th Annual RAD Wood Restoration Contest is open! You can see prior years here:
The RAD Wood Restoration 2021 Contest is closed!
First Place
Jay Greene (Page 1)
First Place = $500 + 5 Gallon Pail of RAD Stain of your choice!
Second Place
Cindy Kieneberger (Page 2)
Second Place = $250 + 2.5 Gallons of RAD Stain of your choice!
Third Place
Rory McCall (Page 2)
Third Place = $100 + 1 Gallon of RAD Stain or 1 RAD Prep Kit of your choice!
Thanks to all the entries this year! All entries were excellent and that made it very hard to choose the winners!
We will be contacting the winners via email.
Restore-A-Deck 2021 Wood and Deck Restoration Contest Details
- All Restore-A-Deck Prep and Restore-A-Deck Wood Stain must be purchased first from this online eCommerce site (Restore-A-Deck.com) between January 1st – September 6th, 2020.
- The Restore-A-Deck 3-Step Process must be used.
- The deadline for entry is September 19th, 2020.
- The winners will be decided by September 30th, 2021 by our team.
The RAD Contestant Winners will Receive
- First Place = $500 + 5 Gallon Pail of RAD Stain of your choice!
- Second Place = $250 + 2.5 Gallons of RAD Stain of your choice!
- Third Place:= $100 + 1 Gallon of RAD Stain or 1 RAD Prep Kit of your choice!
How To Enter Contest
- Enter by September 19th, 2021.
- In the comment section below, post a short description of your deck/wood staining project, the Restore-A-Deck products used to prep, and the Restore-A-Deck Stain Color used. Was the Restore-A-Deck Stain applied the same day as the prep? Yes or No?
- Examples of wood projects that can be entered: Decks, Fences, Wood Side Homes, Log Cabins, etc.
- 1-2 pictures before the prep of the wood. You can still enter if you do not have the before pictures.
- 1-2 pictures after the prep of the wood using the RAD Prepping Products. You can still enter if you do not have the after prep pictures.
- 2 pictures after the staining using the Restore-A-Deck Wood Stain must be included.
- If having trouble uploading the pictures, please make your picture(s) size smaller (below 3 MB).
Any questions or issues posting, please ask in the comment area.
We look forward to all the entries!
*Disclaimer: All products must be purchased from Restore-A-Deck.com. The contest is not open to products purchased from other online dealers or from physical stores. All 3-Steps in the Restore-A-Deck system will need to be used to win 1st, 2nd, or 3rd Place: Step 1: Restore-A-Deck Wood Cleaner or Restore-A-Deck Stain Stripper. Step 2: Restore-A-Deck Wood Brightener. Step 3: Restore-A-Deck Wood Stains.
What is the lowest night time temp allowed for water based semi transparent stain for a dock
Apply no lower than 50. Cannot drop below 40 at night.
Hoping I can still be considered for the contest, just wrapped up my project tonight!! For my deck I have used almost all of the RAD products. Stripper w/ Booster and Gel Additive were used to remove the blue Cabot stain from previous owner on the main deck and pergola. When applied following the instructions this previous stain just came off like nothing with the pressure washer. Once stripping of all surfaces was complete I applied Brightener to all surfaces prior to applying the solid color stain. My father, who managed our deck as kids for numerous years said he has never seen a product strip a deck so well, and stain cover as well as the RAD Solid Color Deck stain!! Your products have truly been amazing! Results are astounding!
Wow! Restore-A-Deck saved me thousands of dollars. I had a company that specializes in decks come to my home and they quoted me at the minimum, $7000 to replace a few wood boards, clean/strip, sand, and stain my deck.
I decided to do my research and stumbled across your product. I started by giving my deck a good power washing and used some mold and mildew remover. 2 days later, I replaced three bad boards with reclaimed wood. I then sanded a few rough areas. on day 3, I used your stripper and brightener. I followed up the next morning (6am) on the rails with your classic solid white stain. This took me two days to complete as I paid close attention to detail and making sure each part of the railing received 2 coats. After 2 days of working on the rails it was time to do the floor which I did in your semi-transparent Walnut. The entire project took me about 15 to 20 hours. I couldn’t do it all in one day alone with work and family obligations. The finished product came out amazing and I even added solar lights for an added bonus.
My deck looks brand new and my neighbors now want me to do their deck. Going with the two tone does take extra time but it looks awesome! Look at how dark and dirty my deck was in my first picture.
Hey Jay, did you use the light walnut or the dark walnut? Your deck looks absolutely gorgeous. Great job!
We moved into our home 2 years ago, and our 300 square foot deck had been neglected prior to that. We had never had to maintain or repair a deck prior to this, and this whole process was new to us. The surface of the deck had been painted with a solid deck paint, and we thought the spindles and rails had been stained with a semi-transparent stain. When we undertook work on our deck this summer, the paint was flaking badly off the deck surface and there were a number of rotten boards.
Originally, we thought to refinish the deck in a solid polymer coating, but it became apparent upon further reading that this would require yearly maintenance and may contribute to moisture problems. We learned about the Restore-A-Deck system and thought it would be a good option for us – more time-intensive the first year but then easier to maintain over time.
After removing a portion of the deck that was unsafe and in extremely poor condition, we were ready to tackle the rest of the deck. We replaced a number of boards, built a new staircase, and filled remaining gaps with wood filler. We spent a long time power sanding the deck floor to remove the old solid paint, as we knew the Restore-A-Deck stripper was not designed for this. As an additional note, we know that the Restore-A-Deck team recommends 3 to 6 months of weathering prior to application of stain to new wood. The repairs, and removal of solid stain took us ~3 months, so we felt OK applying stain to the replacement boards.
Once the deck surface was down to bare wood, we setup to use the stripper/brightener combo kit to remove any residuals on the deck floor and strip the spindles and railings of what we thought was semi-transparent stain. We applied the stripper with a 1 gallon pump sprayer. We mixed the stripper solution and thickening gel in a contractor bucket prior to adding it to the sprayer. We applied the stripper solution to the entire deck, refilling the sprayer as needed. We waited the recommended time, and then scrubbed at the surface with the Restore-A-Deck deck scrub brush to help loosen things. Unfortunately, as we went to spray the stripper solution off the deck with a high pressure hose, it was then we realized that the deck rails and spindles had also been coated with a solid stain. The stripper did remove some strain, but it was very clear that we would be doing much more power sanding.
We applied the brightener solution to neutralize the stripper after we rinsed the deck well with water. This does deviate slightly from the Restore-A-Deck recommended course of action with solid stains (strip, power sand, brighten), but we really wanted to make sure the stripper was neutralized prior to more sanding. We applied the brightener using the same gallon sprayer. We rinsed the sprayer well with water prior to adding the brightener to it. We also used the same contractor bucket, after rinsing, to mix the solution before adding it to the sprayer.
The brightener is serious magic. It did an amazing job bringing the old deck boards back to life, and helped to match the old and new wood. As we applied the solution, we were literally watching the magic as we worked. It was one of the best parts of the process! After waiting the recommended time, we rinsed the deck thoroughly. The rinsing took ~45min. The bottle recommends rinsing until you see no more soap suds. As we rinsed, we just kept producing suds. Even after we felt an area was OK, we would come back and hit the area again and more suds would come up. Our advice is, just keep rinsing the suds will stop eventually.
The stripping and brightening process had taken us ~5 hours, and knowing that more sanding was required, we called it a day. The remaining sanding took us 2 additional weeks (it has been hard to find solid blocks of time with 2 small children). Following the sanding, we debated doing another round of cleaning and brightening. We ultimately decided not to go through the full process again. Our logic was that the deck floor still looked clean and bright following a thorough rinse and scrub. The spindles and rails were also clean (having just been sanded) and the tone of the wood matched the deck floor.
We chose the Restore-A-Deck semi-transparent light walnut stain for our deck. We liked the look of the light wood, but wanted something a bit darker to even out the new and old wood. We purchased 2 gallons of the stain, and mixed both into a contractor bucket to ensure even stain color. We mixed the stain in the bucket several times during the application process. We started with staining the spindles and railings. To do this, we used a stain pad. The pad is honestly the best way to apply stain. We had a brush on hand, but never touched it. Applying the stain the spindles and railing took ~3.5 hours. For the deck flooring, we used the Restore-A-Deck stain brush attached to a threaded pole. We would dip the brush in the contractor bucket, wait for some of the excess to drip off, and then spread the stain across boards. We worked a few boards at a time, and we were careful to try to not pause in the middle of boards as we spread the stain. The application of stain the deck floor took an additional hour. A single coat of the stain, over freshly sanded boards looks like it will serve us well for a few years.
The end product is nothing short of stunning. The before and after pictures really show just how great the Restore-A-Deck stain has our deck looking. This whole process has left us scratching our heads as to why anyone would want to hide the natural grain of wood under a solid stain or paint. We are so glad we chose to go this route, even if it was the most labor intensive.
I realize that I didn’t post all the photos for my project. Here are some more.
I switched over to Restore a Deck products 3 years ago and was very happy with the way the deck turned out. I live in Massachusetts so I we don’t get as much sun as some of the Southern States which may explain why my deck lasted a full 3 years before needing treatment again. My upper deck is fully exposed to the sun and gets snowed on during the winter. My upper deck is almost 800 square feet so I went ahead and ordered a full 5 gallons of the light walnut semi-transparent product along with the cleaner and brightener for the 3 step treatment. I was hoping to do the whole project in 1 day but didn’t calculate how much time each section would take to complete. I admit I also tried to eyeball each section for the cleaning and brightening treatment, but since I didn’t mark them out with tape it got hard to keep track of where one section ended and the other began. I’d suggest dividing up your project into 200 square feet sections, so you can make sure each area is completely treated with the cleaner and brightener in the suggested time frame. The cleaning and brightening steps take a while to complete as you need to walk back and forth to keep the deck moist. It’s much easier to keep track of if you finish both steps for each section sequentially, rather than trying to start a new section while the previous one is between cleaning and brightening. I used two pump sprayers, one for the cleaner and one for the brightener. I then used a pressure washer to wash the cleaner off. I tried a tampico brush as well but the pressure washer was more effective, so I used that to clean the majority of the deck. I was able to put on the first coat of stain at the end of the day for most of the deck but quit when I lost the light. I got up early the next morning and finished applying the stain. Luckily it had 13 hours to dry before the rain started and I’m very happy with the overall results.
Our decks were replaced three years ago, so we did the cleaning/staining process two years ago for new wood. This past summer we did the full process again, but did two coats of stain.We’re in San Francisco, where we don’t have wildfires, but we certainly get a lot of the ash from wildfires in other parts of CA. Last September we had the infamous “orange sky” day, so the decks had a lot of ick on them.
Due to our work schedules, we were only able to work on the decks in the afternoon, so it took three days per deck.
Upper deck: 327 sq feet of horizontal deck surface, 56 linear feet of horizontal railing, and 104 vertical posts and rails
Day 1: Cleaning. We used sprayers to apply the cleaner, then scrubbed all the ick off the wood (my husband has dubbed the ick “Satanic Goo”, and hosed with a high pressure nozzle on the hose (not pressure washer).Day 2: Brightener. Again, we used sprayers, and a high pressure nozzle on the hose.Day 3: Two coats of Semi-Transparent (Natural) stain. The vertical posts and rails received only one coat.
We took a few days off before tackling the lower deck.
Lower deck: 356 sq feet of horizontal deck surface, 58 linear feet of horizontal railing, and 112 vertical posts and railsDay4: Cleaning. Same process as the upper deck. Once again, we started with the rails, but it seemed to take a lot longer than the upper deck, so we did not manage to clean the horizontal deck surface on the same day.Day 5: Cleaning of the horizontal deck surface. Brightening of the entire lower deck.Day 6: Two coats of Semi-Transparent stain in the Natural color. The vertical posts and rails received only one coat.
Just like two years ago, we’re thrilled with the outcome, even though the process is exhausting. Being able to use a product that doesn’t need days to dry between each step is a huge bonus, as the weather in SF nearly always foggy, and if we have sun it never lasts for more than two days.
Sadly, about two weeks after we finished the deck staining process, wildfires started in several spots in CA. We covered both decks with tarps to protect them from the ash, which I understand is especially acidic once it mixes with water (fog). We’re looking forward to removing the tarps and being able to enjoy our beautifully stained decks very soon.
I just realized the photos of the completed lower deck didn’t upload, so here they are. Ignore the weathered looking patio furniture – that’s a project for another day, and the thoroughly brown backyard – we’re in another drought so we stopped watering.
Our deck is old enough at this point that it was probably a candidate for a solid stain, but I really love the look of a transparent or semi-transparent stain. So I took the gamble and went with RAD’s semi-transparent light walnut stain. After digging through as many articles I could find about who makes the best deck stain, I landed on RAD’s product. It seems smart to package the prep and stain together, and the payoff is there with semi-effortless work. I’m glad I went with the 3 step cleaner, brighteners and stain from RAD and took the gamble on a semi-transparent stain for an old deck. This deck has probably been unpainted and unstained for over 10 years. I didn’t have to remove the previous stain because it was all gone but I did have to get rid of a lot of mildew. I took 2 days to do the project prepping day one in the morning and staining the second day in the morning on wood we lightly misted with water. I may have been able to complete it in one day but our deck was so dirty that the cleanup process took a bit more effort then I think most would. In the end I think all the prep and the final result was worth it. I used a sprayer and backed brushed on every board. Could not have been easier.
The research for this fence protection project started right after the last nail was shot in the fence 11 months ago. I’m 20 miles south of Louisville Kentucky and I’ve maintained my pressure-treated decks for years. I’ve tried several products offered in the big box stores but I’m never satisfied with the longevity. Cleaning, brightening, and staining this fence last week turned out to be a whole different animal!! See this post; https://www.restore-a-deck.com/RAD-Brightener-Only.html?comment_id=13243 where I got excellent advice! We used the RAD cleaner, brightener, and semi-transparent Cedar stain purchased in August. There was NO WAY we could do this wet. There’s just too much fence front & back to spray and back brush! The heat and humidity stayed low so the day after brightening we got to work. We’re very pleased with the results.
UPDATE: This past winter I bought a fixer-upper. The deck is important to me and having it restored was #1 priority this summer. We live in Maine and the winters are harsh. Planning projects around the seasons is important and my dream is to have a clean, well maintained deck to enjoy. After researching I decided to try Restore-a-Deck. Not having any history on the deck, I went with the stripper, brightener and semi-transparent stain in Light Walnut. The upper and lower decks are connected and over 350 sqft total. It’s been a 45 hour labor of love and I’m so happy with the results! The stripper and brightener have removed all the gray, dirty, mold from the wood and removed years of dinge. The color is beautiful! RAD is impressive. Here are before and after shots.
We are in Northern Indiana with a direct West exposer to our desk. Our pergola and Deck Railings are cedar. the deck flooring is pressure treated. We had used Armstrong Clark a few years prior but let it go for a few years. This year I stripped the entire pergola and deck using the RAD stripper and a power washer and followed up with RAD Brightener. I finished the Pergola and Railings with RAD Semi Transparent Dark Walnut Stain and finished the Deck floor with RAD Brown Oak Solid stain. Being water cleanup was so much nicer that the oil base and so far there has not been any fading with the direct sun exposure. We are extremely please with the results and performance!
This past winter I bought a fixer-upper. The deck is important to me and having it restored was #1 priority this summer. We live in Maine and the winters are harsh. Planning projects around the seasons is important and my dream is to have a clean, well maintained deck to enjoy summers on. After researching I decided to try Restore-a-Deck. Not having any history on the deck, I went with the stripper, brightener and semi-transparent stain in Light Walnut. The upper and lower decks are connected and over 350 sqft total. It’s been a 45 hour labor of love and I’m so happy with the results! The stripper and brightener have removed all the gray, dirty, mold from the wood and removed years of dinge. The color is beautiful! RAD is impressive.
We live in the NC piedmont in a heavily wooded area where summers are pretty hot (upper 80’s and 90’s) and very humid (70%+). We have a 16′ x 24′ old deck built in 1975, with original wood (46 years old). It is about time to upgrade and replace the boards for sure , however with other expenses and necessities I decided to try Restore-A-Deck to hopefully buy us a little more time in order to afford a deck overhaul. I used the 3 step Restore-A-Deck method and products, ( cleaner, brightener and stain ). This process I did in two days, first day (applied cleaner and cleaned and then applied brightener), then second day applied the dark walnut stain using the Restore-A-Deck brush. After completion the deck looks so much better and actually if things hold up, it looks like this may buy us more time than I was thinking before investing in a deck overhaul. Bottom line is I believe Restore-A-Deck system is well worth the money and time and if it works on this old deck I believe it will do a great job on about any existing deck.On a side note (see last picture ) , the deck looks so darn good, I redesigned our bird feeder so that it swings out and away from the deck to keep bird seeds and squirrels off the deck.
~ 1300sq ft deck refinish project. 2 tone, cedar railings and mahogany decking. Used RAD 2 step stripper and brightener to prep, AC semi-trans cedar on the rails and AC semi-trans hardwood formula in mahogany for the deck. This was a big project and my first time doing it myself. Very happy with the results.
Some pictures did not upload with last post.
We used the Clean, Brighten, Stain 3 Step Process to stain our deck at our cottage. The deck was 3 years old and never stained. We did this over 2 days as we were enjoying the beautiful weather. We picked a Dark Walnut stain. We could not be more pleased with all products supplied.Pictures attached of various stages abd the final result.
Challenging project as we applied a cheap Behr stain a few years ago and it could not stand up to a Minnesota winter and began peeling up. We had to have some boards in the porch replaced so the whole thing looked lousy.
1. Porch before. “New” boards had turned nearly black as we couldn’t match the old Behr stain we used the first time around.2. Day 1 – Took a chance that the RAD stripper could pull all of the old stuff off but it didn’t get it all. I hand sanded the whole porch which pushed the project back a day. 3. Day 2 – wetted the porch, applied RAD Cleaner, waited about 30 minutes and then applied RAD Brightener. I could have stained same day, but I was gassed from the prior day’s sanding and decided to stain the following day. The “black” boards were the same as all the rest and looked beautiful.4. Day 3 – stained with RAD semi-transparent wood stain cottage gray. Used the RAD 14″ wood staining brush and the 6″ crack and grove tool. The brush was a great time saver and really allowed the stain to penetrate into the wood.
Overall, this was a great experience. If I hadn’t bought poor stain the first time around I could have avoided killing myself with hand sanding. However, I learned my lesson and I’m thrilled with how the porch turned out. On to the deck…
Sorry all my pics didn’t post this is in addition to post below
I’m a 47 year old woman who went at this project alone.
1). I stripped old stain but made the mistake of applying the stripper connected to the Sun Joe power washer hose. The solution diluted too much to work effectively. This caused me to have to re-apply the stripper with the spray bottle pictured as the old, stubborn stain didn’t come off as I’d like.
2). I did not apply same day as you can tell I worked into the night cleaning and stripping old stain.
3). Here’s the biggest time waisted. I only own a hand sander. By golly that took me a long time to finish by hand. But I didn’t want the kids to get splinters and wanted a smooth finish. So yes, I painstakingly sanded the entire porch one inch at a time. Then I didn’t own a leave blower so I blew the wood dust away with a hairdryer. What can I say, I was determined and resourceful.
4). The next day I applied the stain w/some Home Depot brand pads. I wish I had gone with restore-a-deck angle application brush because I had to paint inside planks by hand with a separate brush. That took time I could have also eliminated.
5). After all my trial and error, the porch turned out beautifully. The family enjoys it daily now.
6). I had leftovers for a second wear and tear application.
The color I used was light walnut semi transparent
We installed our cedar deck last August, and after reading for several months, my husband and I went with RAD products. Here is the before and after of the steps 1-2-3. We choose Semi transparent Cedar color for our just under 200sf. I was happily surprised to see all it went down and how easily it was to apply the stain. I have to admit though that after scrubbing a 1/3 of the deck after the cleaner I switched to our 1600psi pressure washer. My arms were getting tired and oh was it a great idea. The job got done a lot fast. We will definitely reapply next year to keep our deck happy. Thanks again! Now let’s brace for hurricane Henri (We’re on Seacoast of NH)
Full treatment on a New England 738sf deck that hadn’t been treated in 7 years. Very little of the old stain was remaining.Used full RAD treatment: Clean, Strip, Brighten and TWP 1500 Stain 5 Gallon in 1503 Dark Oak. Powerwasher used for rinsing and stripping. Really can’t believe the results. This was a severely weathered deck and on the morning after Brightening, just before staining, some could be fooled into thinking the wood was newly installed.
Full treatment on a New England 738sf deck that hadn’t been treated in 7 years. Very little of the old stain was remaining.Used full RAD treatment: Clean, Strip, Brighten and TWP 1500 Stain 5 Gallon in 1503 Dark Oak. Powerwasher used for rinsing and stripping. Really can’t believe the results. This was a severely weathered deck and on the morning after Brightening, just before staining, some could be fooled into thinking the wood was newly installed.
I used Restore-a-Deck Stripper (with thickening and boosting additives), RAD brightener, and semi-transparent stain in light walnut.
I had ZERO experience with anything relating to deck maintenance and the original condition of my deck proves it. The RAD products were super easy to use for a first timer. I did use a power washer to assist with the rinsing of products. It worked a lot better than using a garden hose.
I cannot be happier with the end result, RAD has a new lifetime customer. Their customer service is top notch too!
We’ve had our swing set for 2 years and the factory stain was looking terrible (not surprising, it receives direct sunlight all day!) With all the different surfaces I knew this was going to be a tedious project, I did not want to cut corners and be in the same boat next year! I removed all the hardware I could and then on Day 1 used RAD Stripper and a power washer and applied RAD Brightener. By Day 2 I could see all the nooks and crannies that I had missed the day before (so many!!!), so I did another round of stripping and brightening. On Day 3 I started staining. This had to be done over several days. I would do segments during the mornings and evenings when it was cool (swing beam one day, rock wall another, etc.). I used 1 gallon of RAD Dark Walnut stain and applied 2 coats using a brush. All finished, it looks beautiful!
We are first time homebuyers AND first time deck stainers and we could not have done this without RAD! After watching several YouTube videos and reading a ton of comments on the website I felt totally confident ordering RAD so that we could have the deck of our dreams. As you can see in the before picture there were remnants of old stain from the previous owner so we used the RAD stripper with booster and then brightener with powerwashing. On multiple occasions I posted questions on the website and got straightforward and informative responses which put me at ease. Because of the weather we waited until Day 2 to apply the stain. We used semi transparent Cedar and are blown away with the results! Thanks to the whole RAD community, I honestly don’t think we would have dared to take on this project if it weren’t for all of the resources and support. (sorry, repost because one of my pics was missing!)
We are first time homebuyers AND first time deck stainers and we could not have done this without RAD! After watching several YouTube videos and reading a ton of comments on the website I felt totally confident ordering RAD so that we could have the deck of our dreams. As you can see in the before picture there were remnants of old stain from the previous owner so we used the RAD stripper with booster and then brightener with powerwashing. On multiple occasions I posted questions on the website and got straightforward and informative responses which put me at ease. Because of the weather we waited until Day 2 to apply the stain. We used semi transparent Cedar and are blown away with the results! Thanks to the whole RAD community, I honestly don’t think we would have dared to take on this project if it weren’t for all of the resources and support.
28 year old 5/4″ x 4″ cedar covered porch. Looking to get a few more years and a new look. Prepped with a little wood filler, some sanding and Restore-A-Deck cleaner followed by brightener. (Also used stripper on one (aged) new board before the other prep to help remove mill glazing.) The stain is Restore-A-Deck Expresso Solid. The premixed color is fantastic and we love the new look. Thanks for a great product.
Two tier cedar wood deck, installed in 2010, never stained before. Once a year power washed. To restore it, I used the following process:Day 1
1. Wet down2. Applied RAD cleaner – wait 15’ or so3. Wash it clean 4. I then let it dryDay 25. Sand it lightly with 60/80 grid6. Apply RAD Brightner – wait 15’7. Wash it thoroughly Day 38. Apply RAD semi-transparent cedar stain9. Let it dryDay 410. Enjoy the new decks!!
In retrospect, the sanding was a bit of an overkill. Except for a couple of areas that were pretty wrapped, and some places where I had to add wood filler, I don’t think that the rest was necessary.
Also, I did not apply the stain the same day as the brightner only because of laziness on my part. It could’ve easily been done.
Overall, a great project and very happy with the RAD products.
Description of photos, in order:1. and 2. Before3. Wet down4. and 5. After cleaner, sanding and brightner!!!6. and 7. During staining8. Stained9. All done!!!
I wanted to add a few more pics of our barn before and after just using the Cleaner/Brightener to show how well the product worked in cleaning and prepping for the stain.
Old barn from the 1960’s. I don’t think it was ever treated with anything, and dirt was the only thing protecting the wood from our intense Florida sun. We used the Cleaner/Brightener and Light Walnut Semi-Transparent Wood Stain Kit. Wet down, applied Cleaner/Brightener with pump sprayer, rinsed well. Husband started applying stain on a ladder with a brush working top down, while I used a brush and worked from bottom up. Re-wet each section before applying stain. Went right back and applied second coat. First 6 pics were taken before, after Cleaner, then after Stain.
Not all of the after pictures posted yesterday. Here are the rest.
That’s a lot of work, Cindy. Great job!
Our deck had not been stained in about 10 years. And when that was done they just put cheap stain right over what was there. I used power washer, RAD Stripper, cleaner, and booster and thickener and then used sold cottage gray and white stains. I am impressed with how much was stripped away with the products. The coverage of the stain also surpassed my expectations. Because of the size of deck and it was just me primarily doing the work, it took much longer than a day.
We bought a pool used during Memorial Day 2020 and put it up to enjoy our family time with teenagers during a pandemic. We hired a local “company” off a Facebook recommendation to build a deck (which was a nightmare! They used rough pine boards, not intended for decking). After obtaining cedar boards ourselves and finishing the project (so stressful!) we had a lovely little staycation in the backyard. Our local lumberyard gave great advice about letting the cedar decking weather for a year. Now ready for summer swimming in 2021, I knew it was time to stain the deck. It had become alarmingly gray and I thought staining would take care is that. Thankfully I found a great blog about deck restoration that taught me otherwise. The RAD restoration kit was the decks saving grace. The gray was gone in one treatment, cleaned and brightened. After more research and some sample colors, I ordered the Dark Walnut stain and applied the last step about a week or so later.
Amazing results. BeforeCleaned/wetCleaned/brightened/dryDuring stain After
Moved into a new house a few years ago with a redwood deck. I was unsure what was used before or when the deck was last treated, so I went with the RAD 3 step system. First I used the cleaner/stripper with booster and thickener. Then brightened the wood on day one. The next day I stained with 2 coats of the semi transparent light walnut.
All photos didnt load. One more before photo
I live in VT and purchased a home where the deck had not been stained since about 2008. I have never stripped or stained a desk before so this was a new experience for me. Restore-A-Deck made the process easier than I ever expected! I used the Restore-A-Deck Stripper, Booster & Thickener to remove the old stain. Once the stain was removed I used the brightener prior to staining with the RAD Dark Walnut Stain.
Oops, I meant RAD dark walnut
Oops, not all the photos loaded
We live in southwest Michigan. We have a two tier deck, top was built almost 2 years ago, and the stairs and the platform are just under 1 year old. The top was graying while the new part was not. I used the RAD cleaner and brighter on all of it and you couldn’t even tell they weren’t aged the same. It was an amazing start. We didn’t not prep and stain the same day and we went with the two deck. RAD doesn’t sell black solid color stain, unfortunately, so that is not a RAD product, but the stain was the RAD walnut. We couldn’t be happier!
I have two more photos that didn’t upload about stripping and staining my deck. Here are the photos.
Our deck (about 260 sq ft surface + railing, spindles, and 8 steps) was installed in 2007. Since that time, I’ve stained the deck with different products, the most recent last year with Thompson’s Water Seal. The deck just became more gray each year. This year the deck looked terrible – almost like the wood was no good. Two photos show the deck before any work with RAD was done. I had to replace two boards before beginning the RAD process, and replace about 100 nails with deck screws. You can see the two replacement boards in the photos.
I found out about Restore-a-deck after some internet searching, and decided to give RAD a try. The temperature was about 80F and partly cloudy. I used the stripper (without additives), applying it with a pump sprayer. Once the stripper sat for 20-30 minutes, I used a pressure washer to rinse the solution off the deck. I have a small electric pressure washer which seemed to work just fine. This process went fairly well. Although, the spindles took a long time to strip!Two photos show the deck after stripping. I used 4 gallons of stripper.
After using the stripper, I applied the brightener, which was easy to apply with another pump sprayer. I let the brightener set for 10-15 minutes, then rinsed it for 20-30 minutes. The deck was looking pretty good at this point. I was very pleased with the results. I started at 8:30 am and finished about 3:00 pm. I decided to wait until the next day to do the staining.
The stain I used was the Natural Semi-Transparent. I started about 9 am and the application went well. The weather was the same as the day before. I used staining pad to apply the stain. I worked a section at a time, going the entire length of the deck. Then, waited 20-30 minutes and applied a second coat. The railings and spindles again took along time to stain. I used about 3.0-3.5 gallons of stain. I finished about 1:00 pm, After I finished staining, I spilled some stain on the steps. I wiped it up, but the next day the steps were sticky. I asked the Restore-a-Deck folks abut this stickiness and was told it will cure over time.
Anyway, the deck looks great! See the last two photos of the finished surface. It looks like we a have a new deck! I highly recommend Restore-a-Deck!
P.S. We live in the mountains in western North Carolina where we get a lot of rain. It will be fun to see how well the RAD stain holds up. Maybe I’ll post an update next year.
Background: I have a 700+ sqft deck including 2 large flower boxes/benches. I live in the NW, where rain is a common occurrence, but intense sun over a couple of months each summer would also hit the deck all day. I tried pressure washing the deck last summer but it did virtually nothing. The old, failed stain didn’t budge and it almost “locked-in” the weathering. So I started doing research and concluded that the Restore-A-Deck system would be the best for my situation.
Process: I started one afternoon with the stripping. I got about 3/4 of the way through spraying it on and realized I had forgotten to add the gel and booster additives! Aaargh! I was disappointed because I figured I’d ruined the attempt, but when I started pressure washing the old stain and weathering was coming off! To be clear, I was really pressure washing, holding the wand a few inches from the decking, but it was working! I then added the brightener and could see it working almost immediately. Also, it really neutralized the stripper – you could see that the “soapy” sudsing when spraying was gone. At this point it had been about 5 hours of staining/brightening and it was too late to start staining. If I would have remembered to put the additives in the stripper I believe I would have saved a majority of this of time.The next morning I starting staining. I chose the semi-transparent cedar stain. I applied it with a stain pad in most places and a paintbrush in others. If I had to do it over I would have used one of the stain brushes from Restore-A-Deck. I think the brushes would apply the stain easier as well as get into the grooves between planks a lot easier. The staining of the deck, flower boxes/benches took me about 4 hours.
Overall: I’d say that overall this process worked really well – even though I forgot the put in the additives 🙂 I am super happy with the process and results, and I highly recommend Restore-A-Deck products!
For some reason Pic 2 and Pic 6 didn’t post
We live in Camrose Alberta and built a new 600sqft brown PTP deck in May 2020 that has full sun all day. We did a lot of stain research over the long Canadian winter, including the very good resources at deckstainhelp.com. In March we ordered samples from AC, TWP, Defy and Restore-A-Deck to be able to see the colours and judge between oil and water based application. We finally decided to go with Restore-A-Deck because of the one day prep/staining application and we really liked the Cedar tone (Lt Walnut was a very close second). In April we ordered the stain (Cedar tone) cleaner/brightener combo kit along with the RAD staining brush, the 6″ wooster brush and the crack and groove tool. Finally at the end of May it was warm enough to start the project. Ended up with a nice clear day with the temperature at 15°C (60F) when we started at 9:00am. Pic 1 is the deck prior to prep, well weathered and most of the brown pressure treatment faded. Pic 2 is at 10:30am after applying the Restore-A-Deck cleaner and rinsing with the pressure washer. We were amazed at how much dirt/grit/grime came off our new deck. Pic 3 is at noon after applying the Restore-A-Deck brightener and thoroughly rinsing with the pressure washer again. Couldn’t believe how much the deck brightened up, it almost hurt the eyes to look at it.Pic 4 is at 2:30pm with most of the standing water dried away and ready to stain. By this time the temperature has risen to 23°C (74F) and my wife and I got started staining the stairs. Application was easier than I anticipated, using the 11″ stain brush to apply the stain to the deck boards and then finishing with the 6″ wooster brush. The crack and groove tool also worked very well at getting between boards. We ended up using a small foam brush for boards that were too tight for the crack and groove tool. Pic 5 is just after 6:00pm with the entire 600sqft stained. I was impressed at how easy and efficient the application was (helps to have the right tools) and that we had done all the prep and staining in one 9 hour day. Pic 6 is 9:00am two days after staining. The deck is totally dry and looks amazing. We love the Cedar tone colour, in the morning the stain has a beautiful red cedar tone and as the sun climbs it takes on a golden yellow hue.As the deck is only a year old we did one coat. We plan to do a maintenance coat next spring. So far we are totally satisfied with the product and application. As I mentioned above, I couldn’t believe how much stuff the cleaner removed and the brightener left the deck very soft and ready to take the stain. Applying the stain was easy as well and coverage was better than expected. We ended up using between 3-4 gallons of stain for the deck and stairs.We are feeling very confident that the Restore-A-Deck product will protect our investment and look great doing it.
Time to do the fence! 🙂
Oh believe me its on the ‘honey do’ list
A few more photos of before and after cleaning and brightening.
We’ve lived in our home for five years and have yet to find a stain that could keep up with our full sun/snow ravaged deck with lots of traffic from little feet. Not knowing the upkeep to the deck prior to our ownership, we’ve tried various products that would be peeled and worn away after a harsh Cleveland winter. This spring, our deck was our project–after stumbling upon a great online resource, we opted to purchase RAD’s cleaner, brightener and solid stain in brown oak.
I cleaned and brightened in one day–then a random late spring snow cause a delay and the deck was stained over a few weeks as time and weather allowed. It looks great and the coverage was amazing.
We live in Cornwall Ontario Canada and build our deck in June 2020 about 350 sq ft including the deck panels. In May of 2021 we applied the RAD cleaner, brightener and natural stain to the deck panels (skirting) in one day and was very pleased as to how they turned out. (The skirting mentioned was removable panels and we kept them off when we did the main deck) The following Saturday we cleaned and brightened the remainder of the 350sq ft deck and stairs with a brush and rinsed well. We did not try to apply the stain the same day due to time constraint and weather forecast. On Monday as the weather forecast was perfect we first brushed on the Natural RAD stain to the railings (protecting the deck boards with cardboard). We tried to use the wet on wet application with the first couple of railing sections but found that the wood was not absorbing the product so we decided to only apply one coat. Once the Railing was complete, we used a deck stain pad for the floor boards, (four at a time), followed by a brush for the cracks, ending with using the pad once again to ensure an even spread of the stain. The outcome was wonderful, we are extremely pleased and we have enough product for a second application when needed. We live across from a small city playground and the number of people who stop and take pictures and look at the deck is amazing.
Our deck is about 5 years old and is positioned so that it gets a lot of direct sun all day. Since it also sits in the corner on the back side of our house, it doesn’t get a lot of wind. This can be both good and bad depending on the temperatures, but since we live in NC, the deck is pretty uncomfortable most of the year because it is just too hot with no way to get much shade. We finally decided to purchase a gazebo but then decided the deck looked terrible and needed to be cleaned and sealed before the gazebo arrived.
We had previously sealed the deck with Thompsons about 3 years ago. Needless to say it was grey and not very attractive. We originally thought we were just going to pressure wash it and reapply the same sealer but after learning that we weren’t going to have any protection against the greying effect, we decided to go with a stain with some UV protection. In researching our options, we discovered RAD. Of course, this was after we had pressure washed the entire deck.
We weren’t sure what color we wanted to use so we purchased the sampler kit and decided the Light Walnut was the closest to our desired color. We then purchased the Stripper, Brightener and Light Walnut Semi-Transparent kit. We applied the stripper on Saturday; re-tightened screws, sanded and applied the Brightener on Monday and finally, we applied the stain on Tuesday. The stripper took about 3 hours, the screws, sanding and Brightener took about 4 hours and then the stain took about 7 hours. We applied the stripper and brightener using a pump sprayer and rinsed with a pressure washer. We applied the stain on the rails using a paint brush and used a combination of pump sprayer, deck brush and paint brush for the deck boards. It was a lot of work, more than we originally thought when we considered just pressure washing alone, but now that its all over, we are so glad we found RAD!
We think it looks great and can’t wait to enjoy our new gazebo on our “new” deck this summer.
Our new cedar deck had weathered for two years prior to the Restore -A -Deck process.
Did perform the Cleaner, Brightener and stain as directed, you can see the results below. We are extremely satisfied with the end result. Used five gallons of Cedar semi-transparent with two coats. Power washer was a good call.
We just purchased our house last year and the deck was so dark that we could not even see any wood grain. I prepped and stained my deck with the 3 step process and was able to stain the same day with the light walnut stain. The one photo shows cleaned deck in the right, the left side is not done. Amazing results.