Protecting My New Fence: Paint a fence or stain your fence… Which is Best?
In order to protect your exterior wood, you should always use a good wood stain and seal product. Painting or staining a wood fence can help your fence last longer and look better. Either one will extend the lifespan of your fence by giving it some protection against rot, insects, wear, and tear. However, of the two we always recommend that you stain a fence rather than painting it.
Wood absorbs stain much deeper than it does paint and our wood defender oil based penetrating stains are specially formulated to protect your cedar privacy fence against the harsh Oklahoma Elements. The problem with fence painting is, as it gets old it starts to chip, peel, and appear unkempt, requiring near-immediate attention as soon as it starts to show signs of wear and tear. As soon as the painted surface has even the smallest cracks or peels, it begins to allow moisture to penetrate the wood which reinitiates the decay process in the wood. By contrast, a high quality oil based wood sealer or stain continues to protect your fence from moisture, mold, mildew and dry rot throughout is lifespan. Our wood defender stains cary a 2 or 3 year manufacturers warranty – 2 years for transparent and 3 years for semitransparent. Rather than pealing, splitting and or cracking the stain will simply fade over time while still providing your wood fence and your investment the protection you want.
Re-coatability?
If you chose to fence painting as your approach to seal the wood, when it comes time to re-coat your fence as the paint begins to peel and crack it will need to be pressure washed to remove the loose paint particles to ensure even application and coverage. This pressure washing a wood fence only further destroys your fence by actually stripping wood off the fence along with the paint. Staining your fence with an oil based fence stain on the other hand allows for easy reapplication as the color begins to fade. We can simply go over the old stain with a fresh coat renewing the look and the protection. This not only is better for the wood, it saves you the home owner hundreds of dollars by not having a bunch of expensive prep work done before paint.
But What if I Want Color?
You don’t have to give up colors if you stain a fence instead of painting it. There are stains in vibrant colors such oxford brown, sierra, saddle tan, redwood ( great for playlets), cape cod gray, clear, messy gray, coffee brown, sable brown, and more! If you do like the natural look and feel of wood you can just use a transparent or semi-transparent stain in a more natural color which allows you to see the grain of the wood.
What About Costs?
There’s always a lot of debate about whether paint or stain cost more in the long run. This depends on how you’re evaluating the costs. Gallon for gallon stain is less expensive than paint, but you will need more of it. On the other hand, the stain won’t have to be replaced as often, which means in the end you’ll still purchase less of it. The time you’ll take scraping and sanding away peeling paint so that you can paint a fence a second time will also need to be taken into account. You can simply clean an old stained fence and reapply the stain, making for a faster project all around.
Convinced?
If you have any questions about your current fence, or would like to arrange an appointment, please contact us.
