Can i paint or stain my existing deck?

my pressure treated deck is 2 years old. i live in a northern state, and get winter snows. which would be better, to paint my deck, or can i stain it after it was built 2 years ago. my deck is rather large. please advise. bigjoeCan i paint or stain my existing deck?
Do not paint your deck it probably will peel and won't last as long as stain or water sealer. Instead pressure clean it thoroughly with a chlorine solution or deck cleaner, being careful not to damage the wood. Let it dry for a few days and use a high quality solid body or semi-transparent stain, if you don't want a color use a water sealer. The type product that you will need may vary depending on the type of wood, sun exposure, ect. (your local paint store is the best place to go).





The benefit of this method is there is very little solids in most stains and it basically ';stains'; the wood. So you do not get the peeling problem of paint or at least not as severe.Can i paint or stain my existing deck?
You can do either. Be sure to sand it thoroughly before hand. Cabot makes terrific deck stains, that last long, and the colors are beautiful. They actually have teflon in some of their stains! If you use two coats, follow directions carefully. The second coat must go on within 30 minutes of the first, otherwise you pull off the first coat and it looks terrible. We did ours with this stain and it was beautiful. Painted decks are tough cause when the paint starts to peel they look really ugly. Stained decks just start to fade, not as bad in my humble opinion. Good luck!
I live in the north as well and restain my deck every two years or so. You need something to seal it after a couple of winters or the wood just dries up..


First you need to pressure wash your deck and then hope to find a day or two when it isn't going to rain. I use a Behr brand stain with pigment in it - kind of like paint - and use a paint pad on a long stick. It only takes about 15 minutes to apply it to a large deck. Forget about Thompson's Water Seal - (my opinion) - It doesn't work that well in my experience.
I would pressure wash your deck and then stain it with Thompson Water Seal.
I think stain is best as its easier to maintain %26amp; redo try %26amp; find one with a fungicide or something that stops moss or algea then it wont get so slippy.