Two-Toned Deck Staining
Updated February 2020
Why Choose a Two-Toned Deck?
Two-toned decks are becoming more popular every year. With a solid color (opaque) deck stain on the verticals and a semi-transparent stain on the horizontal, two-toned decks look great and can ease the maintenance down the road.
If you have any questions or have done a two-toned deck restoration, please post the pictures below in the comment area with some tips on what you used and how you prepped the wood.
There are several visual and maintenance advantages of having a two-toned deck. Here are a few of the main reasons consumers have been switching to the two-toned look.
- The ability to color match the railings and vertical wood to blend with the color of the house by using a solid color stain. The most popular solid color stains are White, Taupe, and Gray but most brands can be tinted to any color.
- The deck floor/horizontal wood is stained with a semi-transparent stain so it still has that natural wood appearance. However, solid stains and paints do not perform well on horizontal surfaces such as decking and are prone to cracking and peeling so only use them on the vertical surfaces.
- Solid stains on vertical wood/railings can last 2-3 times longer or up to 6 years with little to no maintenance.
- Future coatings typically consist of cleaning and reapplying a semi-transparent stain to the horizontal floors every 2 years.
- Visually a beautiful two-color look to your exterior wood deck.
