Why is my deck turning gray?
A deck turns gray because the weather strips the color from the surface of the wood. The honey or reddish tone the boards had when they were new is still underneath. Deck staining in Fort Collins brings that color back.
Here’s what happens up top. Sunlight breaks down lignin, the natural glue that holds wood fibers together and gives new boards their warm color. According to the USDA Forest Products Laboratory, lignin makes up roughly 18 to 35 percent of wood by mass. Rain then washes the broken-down lignin away and leaves pale, silvery fibers behind.
It happens to every wood deck that sits out without a fresh coat of stain. Pressure-treated decks go gray. Cedar decks go gray. The shade runs from soft silver to a darker, duller gray, but the cause is the same.
Why decks go gray faster than the rest of the house
Decks go gray faster because they lie flat and take the weather head-on. A fence or a wall stands upright, so water runs off and the sun hits it at an angle. A deck faces straight up, snow sits on it, and the sun crosses it all day.
Around here that’s even more true. Fort Collins sits at about 5,000 feet, and UV light gets stronger as you climb. Estimates vary by source, but a common rule of thumb is a 4 to 5 percent increase for every 1,000 feet. It also freezes at night and thaws by afternoon for a good part of the year.
A deck in Fort Collins, Loveland or Windsor takes all of this at once:
- Strong sun that breaks down the surface fibers
- Snow that sits on the boards instead of sliding off
- Freeze and thaw cycles that work moisture in and out of the wood
The gray is at the surface
A gray deck has lost its color to the weather at the surface. Stain brings color back.
What brings the color back?
Stain brings the color back. We clean the deck, lightly sand the boards where they need it, and apply a penetrating stain that soaks into the wood. The color goes back into the surface the weather took it from.
A penetrating stain suits a deck. Paint and solid stains tend to peel on a surface you walk on, so a penetrating finish makes more sense underfoot. A semi-transparent stain lets the grain show through, so the deck looks like wood again instead of painted boards.
The color you get depends on the stain and on the wood. A pressure-treated deck and a cedar deck stained with the same color won’t look quite the same, because the wood underneath is different. Our team brings stain colors to the estimate so you can see them on your own boards.
Gray will come back
Gray comes back because a penetrating stain needs refreshing every few years. Semi-transparent stains typically last about two to three years on a surface people walk on, and oil-based formulas can run closer to three to five. The same sun, snow and rain that turned the deck gray the first time will keep working on it.
Each fresh coat goes on the same way:
- The deck is cleaned.
- The boards are lightly sanded where needed.
- The deck is stained again.
A penetrating stain fades instead of peeling, so recoating is usually simpler than starting over.
When it’s more than color
Stain changes the color of a deck, but it doesn’t change the boards themselves. A gray color alone doesn’t tell you whether a board is in good shape. When we look at a gray deck for staining, we also check:
- The boards, for splits and loose fasteners
- The railing, for wobble or loose posts
- The stairs, for soft spots or worn treads
Wood decks get replaced more often because the boards check and split than because of rot. If some boards have split or a railing has come loose, that’s deck repair work worth doing before a new coat of stain goes on, and we’ll point out anything we see. If the deck is sound and just gray, a cleaning and a coat of penetrating stain is usually all it takes to restore your deck color.
Ready to see what’s under the gray? Ask us about a fresh coat of stain and we’ll bring stain colors to your deck so you can pick from your own boards.
