Wood Decks in Cold Spring, KY

A Cold Spring (ZIP 41076) household that puts a pale natural stain on a new cedar deck sometimes finds, a day or two later, brown blotches and streaks coming up through it. The stain has not failed. The wood has pulled its own color up into the coat, and it happens for a reason that can be avoided.

Cedar and redwood are rich in tannins and other extractives, which give the heartwood its color and a good part of its resistance to decay. Those compounds dissolve in water. A water-based stain wets the surface, dissolves what is in the outer layer of the wood, and carries it up into the coat as it dries, where it shows as brown marks. The paler the shade, the more obvious they are, and a first coat on fresh wood bleeds worst of all.

So the finish on tannin-rich wood is chosen for it. An oil-based penetrating stain carries no water into the surface and does not draw the extractives up. Where a water-based product is preferred, one made for cedar and redwood, formulated to lock tannin in, is used instead of a general deck stain. And fresh cedar can be left to weather for a few weeks, so rain washes the most soluble extractives out of the surface before the first coat goes on.

Where bleed has already appeared, a brightener made for tannin-rich wood lifts it, and the recoat goes on in the right product. On our visits the same finish goes back each time, recorded in the schedule, so a deck that started clean stays clean. Chosen that way, a pale finish on a Cold Spring cedar deck stays the color it went on.