Deck Painting & staining across Bolton, Massachusetts.

Out of 2,084 housing units in Bolton, 1,909 are detached single-family homes and another 67 are single-family attached, according to Census estimates. On attached units, check whether an association controls shared railings or colors; a detached house in a newer subdivision may still have covenants worth reading before a color change.

Horizontal boards take a harder beating than any wall. Snow sits on them for weeks, water pools along fasteners and board ends, and the top faces get direct sun all summer. Even a well-applied coating wears unevenly, with stair treads and the path to the door going first.

Reading the site: shade, water and open sun

Bolton covers about 20 square miles with very little open water, but the Bolton Flats Wildlife Management Area lies along the Nashua and Still Rivers, and the Pan district holds the town's two largest natural ponds, Little Pond and West's Pond, with the Great Brook running through its northern part. A deck near any of these, or under heavy tree cover, tends to stay damp longer and grow mildew and algae. One in an open field dries fast but takes the full force of UV.

The two situations call for different products. Damp, shaded decks do better with a coating that breathes and a mildewcide in the cleaning step. Decks in full sun need more pigment, because clear and lightly tinted finishes gray out quickly under UV.

Choosing a finish by wood type

Penetrating stains fade gradually and are recoated after a wash. Solid stains and deck paints hide more and block more UV but eventually peel, and peeling film has to come off before the next coat. The paint vs. stain comparison goes through the trade-off in detail.

• Pressure-treated pine: let new lumber dry until water soaks in rather than beading, then a penetrating or semi-transparent stain
• Western red cedar: takes oil-based penetrating stain well; light solid colors need a tannin-blocking primer
• Previously painted or solid-stained decks: stay with a film-forming product unless the boards are stripped
• Composite or PVC decking: cleaning, not coating, unless the manufacturer approves a specific product

Porch floors on the old farmhouses

Bolton was incorporated in 1738, and roughly 12% of its housing units (with a wide margin of error) were built in 1939 or earlier. On a house of that age the outdoor surface may be a covered porch with tongue-and-groove flooring, columns and railings rather than a back deck. Porch floors of that kind are typically painted with a floor enamel rated for foot traffic rather than stained.

Two cautions apply. Paint on pre-1978 porches may contain lead, so scraping has to follow lead-safe practices. And removing a porch may count as demolition: the town bylaw, as quoted by the Historical Commission chair, covers removing a building 'in whole or in part', and he reports that the Building Department refers all demolition permit applications to the Commission.

When to schedule deck work

Wood has to be dry for stain to penetrate, which means a stretch of dry days after washing and before coating. Late spring and early fall usually give the mildest temperatures, and the New England winter deck article explains how freeze-thaw cycles affect each finish type.