Deck: Power washed, primed & stained

It took five days in total but, we finally completed our modest 10' x 12' deck.

Kudos to Cabot's for answering the phone on a Sunday afternoon... and having a U.S. English speaking person doing the job.

My loving Wife pressure washed... what a trooper!
I taped off the parts we didn't want stained.

... and then we started with Cabot's oil based primer.
Two gallons and we still didn't get everything primed the recommended two coats. However, I did make sure all the horizontal surfaces got two coats.

We both worked on the final coat (Cabot's Solid Color Acrylic Stain - Chestnut Brown).

















A few take aways:

1. Don't waste your money on Wagner's DeckMate...total waste of time and money! Didn't do what was claimed on the box.
2. If you have to go back for more stain...bring the label. Apparently, Cabot's makes several different versions of the same color... we learned. Thankfully, we didn't get too far into the newer can that we realized we were mixed the wrong color.
3. The railings were a killer! We now see a value in composite decking.

Add Cabot's to our list of good companies still employing U.S. Customer Service personnel.