My husband has powerwashed our large and beautiful cedar deck and started applying a Sikkens (sp?) deck stain — so far he has only stained the front stairs entrance to our deck … it is an ugly orange to me, even though the color says “cedar” … what can we do to fix this?????? Is there any way to take the stain off, or cover it up with a better color? I’d prefer no color at all, or almost anything but orange! Help! He insists on waterproofing the deck and he used Thompson’s last year, which didn’t last … I’m willing to pay for new stain and even new wood for the front stairs if necessary … any solutions come to mind????
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Sikkens Cedar and Cetol 1 are a bit orange. If you don't like it, sand it off. Although Sikkens is a surface treatment, some does penetrate and you should test whatever you plan to use instead on a small area to see if the residual Sikkens makes it blotchy.
For transparent stains that offer good protection, people here have said good things about Penofin and Cabot, both of which come in several shades.
FWIW
I have used the Sikkens Cedar and the orange does tone down a little with age.
Hope that helps
Sikkens will deepen in colour with the next 2 coats(maybe try a samml area) and you could also apply a darker sikkens stain over the stairs.
We like superdeck cedar stain-it makes pressure treated look awesome and brings out the colour in the cedar.
silver
I'll give you my "artist's" reply that people here are probably tired of, but if there is a stain that has blue in it, you could apply that and it will tone down the orange and make it more brown. Even rubbing in artist's oil paint mixed with a clear stain will help reduce the glaring "orangeness." As always, test in an inconspicuous spot or on scrap and start with very little blue and add more if necessary.
View Image
Color - Natural Cedar
Purpose:
Use to protect new or weathered wood from premature graying, mildew growth and water damage, including splitting and warping caused by moisture absorption. Imparts a sheer, wood colored, matte finish in natural wood tones.
Product Type:
Water-base with Modified Oils.
Key Features:
Edited 9/15/2008 12:21 am ET by Jeff_Clarke
Deck stain saga redux ...
Thanks for all your replies ... although Sikkens makes a light natural stain that I would be happy with, my husband is fixated on having a darker colored deck (I don't know why, it's cedar after all and looks beautiful as is ... but to each his own) ... he's testing several samples right now ... so we'll see what happens -- compromise, compromise, compromise! Maybe there's a dark one that's not orange that I can live with ...
Another question about deck stain -- if it says to apply it when its between 90 degrees and 50 degrees, and the temperature goes down at night to below 50 ... is it still ok to apply it? Will it just take longer to dry?