Deck Painting & staining for Dorchester, MA homeowners.

Outdoor wood in Dorchester is as much porch as deck. The Boston Preservation Alliance notes that Colonial Revival triple-deckers, built from the mid-1890s into the 1920s, introduced two-story front porches, and where a three-family has a back porch on each floor, they stack one above another. A detached house with its own yard is the minority case: single-family detached homes are 12.4% of units across the area's four main ZIP codes, with the highest share, 17.7%, in 02124.

Porches and decks take finish in the same way, but the work differs. A porch has a painted floor, columns, rails, balusters and a ceiling, often on more than one level. A deck is mostly horizontal boards and stairs taking direct weather.

Stain, paint and the existing coating

Decks are widely built of pressure-treated pine, sometimes cedar, and older porch floors may be painted fir or pine. Penetrating stains soak in and wear away gradually, so they can be cleaned and recoated. Solid stains and paints form a film that peels when water gets under it, and once a film finish is peeling it has to be scraped or stripped back to sound wood before anything new goes on.

For a porch floor that has always been painted, a porch-and-floor enamel over the right primer is usually the practical choice. For an open deck, a penetrating stain is easier to keep up. The paint vs. stain comparison for decks covers the tradeoffs.

• Washing, mildew treatment and wood brightening
• Scraping or stripping failed paint and solid stain
• Penetrating or solid stain on boards, rails and stairs
• Porch floors, ceilings, columns and balusters

Exposure: bay wind, sun and shade

The neighborhood's eastern side faces Dorchester Bay, and the Neponset River runs along its southern edge. A deck on the water-facing side of Savin Hill or near the Neponset can take more wind-driven rain and full sun than one tucked between houses inland, and on any exposed deck the horizontal boards are where stain wears first.

Tree canopy covered 22.4% of Dorchester in the city's 2014–2019 assessment. Where a deck sits under trees or in the shadow of the next building, it stays damp longer, grows mildew and dries slowly after washing, so drying time before stain goes on has to be built into the schedule.

Lead on painted porches

Where a porch is original to the house, it can be as old as the building, and 52.9% of homes across these ZIPs were built in 1939 or earlier. Porch rails, balusters, column bases and ceilings on those houses may carry lead paint under later coats. Scraping them is done under the EPA RRP rule, with ground covers, wet methods and chip containment so debris stays out of the yard and off the neighbor's side. The lead-safe painting page explains the process; a new pressure-treated deck has no such concern.

Working on stacked porches

Upper porches are worked from the top down, so wash water and drips from one level don't land on a freshly coated floor below. In a building where different households use each porch, every level has to be cleared and kept off until the finish dries. In a condominium, porches may be common or limited common area under the master deed, so check with the association before scheduling. For the rest of the outside of the building, see the exterior painting page for Dorchester, and our article on deck stain and New England winters explains the seasonal window.