Is there an easy way to stain a large deck & 30-foot wheelchair ramp?

Hi Klaire. Have you tried paint rollers? We helped my son do his deck & it was pretty simple. For the floor of the deck we used one with an extender, like the one you'd use to paint your ceiling. For the rails we used the smaller hand held rollers, just be sure not to have the roller too saturated or you'll have alot of drips. Good Luck :)

That is too huge to expect: Simple, Easy and Fun. Do it little by little and reduce fantasy of your expectation to: Very Time Consuming. I assure you, you will get better results with realistic expectations than you ever will with Unicorns, Elves, Fairies and Rainbows.

Sorry to say..there is no "easy" way to do decks. Just take your time! We have two and I expected to finish them both this past summer. Reality? One done and one more to go. Prep is 99% of success. Do it right the 1st time or do it again way too soon! Behr failed me horribly and wound up redoing ours less than 1 year later. Australian Timber Oil for the win...no come on Summer so I can start the back deck!

Thompson's did not work for us either. I would suggest another product Maybe a darker stain that would still show the grain of your wood. Your deck is beautiful! Maybe you could just do the floor and leave the railings more natural. You have put a lot of work into this already.

Paint roller on a broom stick. Get a smoother finish. 4" paint brush for touch ups.

Hi, Klaire,

Did you use treated lumber for the project? If so, did it cure for a year before you attempted to stain? You can test for "cure" by dropping some water on the boards. If it soaks in, you can stain. If water beads up, wood has not sufficiently "cured".

I used paint gloves from Lowe’s. Worked perfectly. One on each hand got the job down fast and easy. Finish up with sponge mop on floor. Worked great for me. I do mine every other year. Happy staining.

I use a garden sprayer to apply and an old string mop to spread out puddles. Buy the best stain you can afford...do a google search and read reviews.

We've never has success with sprayers, they always over spray and make a bigger mess. Those spindles are rough, unfortunately, a brush is best. For the floor, I'd use a roller. I'd also use a semi transparent stain, that will give you a little color so you can see where you've stained. It helps so you don't keep going over the same spot and you can see where you've missed.

Paint sprayers are great for applying stain also which can be done in a hour or two depending on the size of the deck.

I think if it were mine, I would cover the walkway floor with a NON Slip rubber. That would be safer and less yearly work. Then I might leave the railings alone but stain or paint the top rail.

Wait at least 6 months and then stain and seal.