Deck stain, changing color

AKBill

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AKBill
Well with all the good weather here in Juneau this summer I have been painting the house and decks. Yesterday I painted the rear deck with a semi transparent stain and don't like the color.

The stain turned out to red. It was a redwood semi transparent stain. Question, has anyone had luck changing the color by overlaying a different color stain?

I only put one coat of stain on and the directions call for 2 coats of stain. Hoping I can just get the right color and paint over the redwood stain I just laid down.
 
I dealt with semi-transparent from a prior owner for a decade. I didn’t like it, where it wore from weather...looked like crap when it started to degrade; withstood foot traffic well though.

I think you may find adhesion of a different color layer over what you just did to be an issue where the current semi-transparent is now latched on to the base wood. It’s meant to repel moisture. I think it’s kind of paint-like, so it may cover ok. Best you can do is buy a pint or quart and give it a try. If you have some of the older paint, and it can be tinted, see if they’ll tint some for your test.

I replaced all of boards last year and went with transparent stain. It wears evenly so it doesn’t look old like it needs to be stained again so soon (though it does need to be reprotected).
 
Oil or water base stain?
I believe oil would be easier to stain over.

Get a scrap piece and experiment.

In any case, composite decking is way better in the long run. We installed cevn decking and it's great.
 
I used Sikkens on log and it was way too dark. No way to fix that.
Finally after 15 years had someone sand it down to fresh wood and re did it, lighter color. Huge expensive job best avoided by extensive testing on scrap wood.
Sikkens Cetol btw, is like a plastic wrap once dried; it’s pretty amazing.
 
The first coat will have soaked in more in some places than others and now the more porous wood is sealed. The second coat will be blotchy as a result.
 
Some stains are film forming like the sikkens named above. Personally I like this stain:
20190221_200913.jpg
 
Well I put a 2 coats of lighter stain over the redwood stain. It did cover but you can still see a tint of the redwood stain. A darker brown stain or such would have been better I think.
 
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