Deck Painting & staining throughout Bedford, MA.

Deck boards lie flat under snow and rain, take direct sun on their upper face, dry slowly in the gaps between them and carry foot traffic. That is why a finish wears through on a stair tread well before the same product would fail on vertical siding.

Detached single-family houses are 63.8% of the town's housing units, and on those houses the deck decision rests with one owner. The 10.9% of units that are attached single-family homes are different: a deck or balcony may sit beside a neighbor's, and an association may set the color or handle maintenance itself. Read the governing documents before choosing a stain.

Which finish fits which deck

From 1990 through 2019, 37.9% of local housing units were built. If a deck is as old as its house, its first coatings may be near the end of their life, and what comes next depends on the material:

• Pressure-treated pine: let new lumber dry until water soaks in instead of beading, then use a penetrating or semi-transparent stain
• Cedar: accepts oil-based and semi-transparent stains well; light solid colors need a tannin-blocking primer to avoid brown bleed
• Composite or PVC: cleaning rather than coating, unless the board maker approves a specific product
• Wood already under solid stain or deck paint: must keep a film finish unless it is fully stripped

Porches and older painted floors

At the other end of the range, 9.4% of units date to 1939 or earlier. An older house may have a covered porch with painted floorboards, railings and columns, which are scraped and repainted rather than stained. Under the top layers there can be decades of earlier paint, and 54.1% of the town's housing predates 1980.

For any home built before 1978, EPA's lead-safe rule takes effect outdoors once paid work disturbs more than 20 square feet of paint, and a porch floor plus its rails can easily exceed that. Testing first tells you which way the job goes; the lead-safe painting page explains the extra steps.

If the porch is on a house inside the local Historic District, keep in mind that the Historic District Commission's review list includes paint color other than white along with other exterior changes. Whether a particular porch or rear deck falls under that review is a question the town says to put to a commission member before work starts.

From cleaning to the last coat

A deck wash removes gray fibers, dirt and mildew; a brightener then rebalances the wood after the cleaner. Loose film is scraped, raised grain is sanded, popped nails or screws are reset, and rotted boards, especially stair treads and boards near the house, are swapped out before any coating goes on. Then the wood has to dry, often for a day or more.

Stain goes on in thin coats, worked into the board ends and between gaps, in shade or the cooler part of the day so it does not flash off before it penetrates. Rain within the cure window can spot or wash out the finish, so dates are set by the forecast. The paint vs. stain comparison and the post on how deck stain survives a New England winter both help with the product choice.

Sequencing with house painting

If siding or trim is also due, it makes sense to paint the house first so drips and ladder feet land on old deck boards, then stain the deck last. The exterior painting page for Bedford homes covers the house side, including color review.