“Painting Vs Staining deck” which is better, it is the most common question of the people. Notably, people who had never worked with their deck get confused about choosing the right method.
Painting and staining are standard processes used for repairing your home improvement projects. Wherein, the staining removes the flaws and enhances the looks of wooden projects.
Conversely, the painting adds an external layer to enhance the object’s look. Not only that but painting a project also protects it from the external attack.
When repairing and maintaining your deck, you must apply paint or stain after a specific period. But, among painting and staining, which would be the best choice? Let’s know!
Advantages and disadvantages of Painting Vs Staining deck
Painting and staining are essential steps for you to repair external woodworking projects. But at first glance, you mightn’t say which one would be beneficial for you. So, let’s discuss the painting Vs. staining deck in detail.
| Differentiable factors | Painting | Staining |
| Thickness | Paint is thicker and needs only fewer coats when applying on something. | The stain is not as thick as paint. So, you might need to use more stain on an absorbent wood surface. |
| Color options | The paint comes with a lot of color options to choose from. | Although manufacturers have extended stain’s color options, some bright and vivid colors are still unavailable. |
| Texture | Paint comes with versatile shininess and texture, such as matte, glossy, semi-glossy, satin, and so on. Therefore, you have various options to choose from. | All the stains include almost the same texture and shininess. However, the oil-based stain is a little shinier than the water-based stain. |
| Durability | The paint is more long-lasting and durable than the stain. On an exterior wooden deck, the paint lasts five to seven years. Moreover, the painting lasts more than ten years on interior wood materials. | The durability of stain ranges 2-3 years on the wooden projects. |
| Easy to maintain | The oil-based paint takes 6-8 hours, and latex paint takes only 1 hour to dry. Within 24 hours, a painted object gets ready for recoating.
However, you can easily remove the debris, and dirt is left on the painted object once it gets dry. |
Whereas, the stain takes almost 24-48 hours to dry and a maximum of 72 hours to ready for recoating.
Moreover, the staining project needs a greater effort to repel the debris from the object. |
| Affordability | Unlike the stain, the paint is very expensive materials. | The stain comes at a more affordable price. Although the dense stain is slightly less than paint, it can cover a broader surface per volume. |
| Gives a transparent and natural look | The paint includes glossy ingredients that give artificial and shining looks. | The stain gives a more transparent and natural look than the paint. Even though the oil-based stain gives a little shininess, it looks very natural and solid. Get the top deck stain, to ensure the transparent and natural for your deck. |
| Application | Before applying the paint, the surface must have a wood preservative. Not only that, but you must also coat the surface with a quality premier after applying the preservative. Afterward, you have to apply a minimum of two coats of oil-based paint. As a final touch, a clear polyurethane sealer has to apply on the surface. | Both the stain and paint need well-prepared and clean surface before applications. After preparing the surface, you can directly apply the stain with a brush or roller. Wherein, you needn’t apply any additional coat on the surface if you choose a stain, including both the stain and sealer. |
Some relevant questions
Is it better to stain or paint a deck?
If you want to get a natural look, you can choose a stain for your deck. Conversely, you can choose the paint for your wooden deck, when you want a dramatic and bold look.
What lasts longer on a deck stain or paint?
Indeed, the paint lasts longer on deck than a stain. On the exterior deck, the durability of a quality paint ranges from three to five years. Conversely, it lasts more than ten years on the interior wooden deck.
But the staining on the wood doesn’t last so much long as paint. It hardly lasts 2-3 years on your wooden deck.
Is it cheaper to paint or stain a deck?
In short, painting deck is cheaper than staining it. Quality paint includes better elements and color options than the stain. Also, it lasts longer than the stain. Consequently, you can choose a long-lasting color for your deck matching with your house.
Inversely, the stain doesn’t last as long as the paint. Moreover, you will not find it in variable colors. So, it is obvious that quality paint would be costlier than the stain.
The Sum up!
Ultimately, when staining Vs. Painting deck, consider your preference and surface’s suitability. If you have a wood deck at your home’s outside, you better choose the stain instead of paint. That’s because the outdoor deck needs a natural look, which is possible with the stain.
Contrariwise, you might like some glossy or matte look for your internal home deck. So, you can choose the paint for your interior deck or woodworking projects.
Read Also:
Oil Based VS Water Based Stain (Which One Should You Choose)
Cabot Vs Olympic Deck Stain (In-Depth Comparison Review)
Deck Stain Vs Sealer
