I'm in the process of putting up a 6' pressure treated pine privacy fence.

In your experience, what are some good stains/sealers that arent A$$ expensive? It's about 250' long, so I'm assuming I'm going to need a few gallons of whatever I get.

I'd love a 2-in-1 product that stains and seals at the same time, but I'm not opposed to using two products if it makes $$ sense.

7/1/2013 2:29:18 PM

I'm using the Rustoleum Solid Stain for my deck redo right now. It is guaranteed for 25 years on a vertical surface and 10 years on a horizontal surface.

They also carry semi-transparent and tinted stains that have the same guarantee.

7/1/2013 3:04:48 PM

Scratch that....its Olympic.

Seen here: http://www.lowes.com/pd_23007-86-79602A/01_0__?productId=3026120&cm_mmc=SCE_gps-_-gps-_-gps-_-3026120&CAWELAID=1023690522

They also offer similar tinted stains and semi-transparent.

BTW, the Olympic Deck Cleaner was the bee's knees.

7/2/2013 10:45:39 AM

holy shit. So, 1 gallon covers a max of 500 ft^2.

My fence is 220' long, 6' high. And I'd like to do both sides. = 2640ft^2

I'll need 6 gallons of this stuff haha. $240! w00t.

Not trying to be a cheapass, as I want it to look decent, but damn I didnt think it would be this much. At least i'm saving about $4,000 by building it myself.

[Edited on July 2, 2013 at 11:22 AM. Reason : .]

7/2/2013 11:17:57 AM

^I've got about 700' I want fenced. I'd love to do it myself, but I don't know if that would be way too much. I figure about $6,000 in materials plus another $800 for sealer.

Ideally, I'd order a load of concrete to do the posts, but there's just no way to set that many posts (95 or so) in that time frame without tons of help.

[Edited on July 2, 2013 at 11:27 AM. Reason : .]

7/2/2013 11:26:40 AM

It took two of us about 10 hours to dig the holes (with a gas powered auger), plumb up the posts and pour the concrete, and build the 3 gates. That includes taking measurements, etc.

I anticipate it'll take another 8-10 hours or so to add the 2x4 horizontal braces, all pickets, and mount the gates with the hardware.

We finished the last post about 3 minutes before we got the monsoon rains on Sunday. Here's where I'm currently sitting with the project. Just waiting on the yard to dry up and let the concrete harden fully.



[Edited on July 2, 2013 at 11:38 AM. Reason : .]

7/2/2013 11:36:25 AM

for what it's worth, I used Behr semi-transparent stain when I lived in Kansas on my fence and got superior results to the Olympic semi-transparent stain I got when I lived in SC. Consumer Reports normally has their rankings on this too and is worth checking out. If I remember correctly, they pretty much strongly recommend an opaque or semi-transparent stain. None of this Thompson's water seal bullcrap...

And yes stain costs $texas.

7/15/2013 7:23:00 PM

I used Thompson's Water Seal with Honey Gold tint on both my back deck and my front porch. It's not a dark stain, but just enough to make the wood grain pop. I've been very pleased with the results. It's $17 a gallon at Lowe's, but they also sell it in 5 gallon buckets which would lower the overall cost.

You may be looking to go darker than Honey Gold though, and I'm not sure if Thompson's makes a combo product any darker than that.

7/16/2013 8:40:16 AM

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'd like to go a bit darker than Honey Gold, so I'm thinking about going with Flood. $89 for 5 gallons.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_124669-71-FLD420-05_0__?storeNumber=2778&Ntt=deck+stain&selectedLocalStoreBeanArray=%5Bcom.lowes.commerce.storelocator.beans.LocatorStoreBean%404c1f4c1f%5D&pl=1&productId=3374328&ipTrail=10.85.28.162¤tURL=%3FNtt%3Ddeck%2Bstain

Just sucks that I have to seal on top of this too.

[Edited on July 16, 2013 at 9:56 AM. Reason : .]

7/16/2013 9:55:50 AM

I also used one of these:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_113317-78071-20421_0__?productId=3333244&Ntt=tank+sprayer&pl=1¤tURL=%3FNtt%3Dtank%2Bsprayer&facetInfo=

It made the job a lot easier than using a brush/roller. Just make sure you mask off the house where the fence meets it. If you get any stain on the house, you'll have a hell of a time getting it off. (I learned this the hard way on my back deck.)

[Edited on July 16, 2013 at 10:54 AM. Reason : a]

7/16/2013 10:53:17 AM

Cool. I've got a cheap ($9.99) chemical sprayer from Lowes a while back...might try to use that.

Otherwise, my neighbor just bought a $700 HVLP sprayer he's offered to let me use. I just dont want to use it and break it

7/16/2013 12:41:39 PM

Could I use my round-up backpack spray with stain? or would that gum it up too much?

7/16/2013 1:07:40 PM

^ I wouldn't, unless you plan to only use it for stain in the future. It's pretty much impossible to get it totally clean once you run stain through it. I cleaned my stain sprayer really well with soap/water after I sprayed my back deck, but when I went to use it on the front porch it was still gummed up. I guess you could run paint thinner through it, but imo it's just easier in the long run to just buy a cheap sprayer that you'll only use for stain.

7/18/2013 9:28:04 AM