A 14×22 cedar deck near Lake Cochituate, eight years old, never re-stained since install. Boards had gone uniformly gray from UV; the railings still held some color but were splintering at the top rails.

The challenge

The previous owners had used a film-forming solid stain on the railings — peeling now — but the deck boards were raw under their gray surface. Two different prep approaches on the same project. Plus the lake-side site adds humidity considerations to the curing window.

What we did

  • Chemical-strip the failing solid stain off railings to bare cedar
  • Wood-brightener wash on deck boards to lift UV-graying
  • Floor-sand boards with 60-grit, hand-sand railings to clean substrate
  • Replace 3 soft boards near the steps + retighten 40+ deck screws
  • Two coats Cabot semi-transparent in Cordovan Brown, applied within a 4-day dry-weather window

The result

Warm-brown finish that lets the grain read through, lake-deck ready for summer. We'll be back in year 3 for a maintenance coat — semi-transparent stains hold longer with light re-application than full restripping.

For Natick deck work, see deck painting in Natick or MA deck staining cost ranges.