My neighbor's deck stain job made me rethink my whole approach

Last Saturday I was helping my neighbor Dave scrape old stain off his deck in Tulsa and he said something that stuck with me. He said why do you always go for the expensive brand when the mid range stuff works just as good if you prep right. I used to think paying more meant better results every time but he showed me his $35 gallon of Behr holding up better after two winters than my $55 Sherwin Williams coat did in one. He spent three full days sanding and cleaning where I always rush through that part and blame the product later. It hit me that I have been skipping the hard work and expecting the expensive stuff to cover for it. Now I am wondering how many of my DIY fails were really about me cutting corners not the tools or paint. Has anyone else realized they were blaming the wrong thing for a bad outcome?

3 comments

3 Comments

gibson.seth20d agoMost Upvoted

Wait, are you trying to tell me my $80 gallon of paint isn't going to magically sand and clean the wood for me?

christopherwilson20d ago

18 dollars of that is literally just the tinting machine fee and the name brand markup @gibson.seth. I mean yeah good paint matters but I've seen people slap that premium stuff on top of old peeling layers and wonder why it looks like garbage after six months. Prep work is like 80% of a good paint job no joke. You still gotta sand down the rough spots clean off all the dust and grease and use a proper primer if the surface is tricky. The paint can't fix a dirty greasy surface or fill in giant cracks by itself. I learned that the hard way after wasting a whole weekend on a project that failed because I skipped the cleaning step.

singh.wren20d ago

Magically sand and clean the wood for me" - yeah, you're right to expect that. If you paid eighty bucks, that paint better be pulling double duty and then some. I've slapped cheap stuff on properly prepped wood and had it fail, while expensive paint on a quick wipedown held up fine for years.