Deck Staining

Madeline Bedard asked 10 years ago

My deck has always been stained with Cabot redwood. I went to get more last summer they told me they don’t make it any more. They gave me another type of Cabot stain. After I put the new stain on it was very sticky for 2 weeks. Now its all worn off and the deck is covered with MILDEW, never had this happen before. I have restained the deck many times. What went wrong and how do I fix it. The mildew is not coming off with Tilex or bleach type cleaners. HELP PLEASE

1 Answers
Crowder Painting answered.

Most likely this is caused by the "new" formulation of Cabot stains. All manufactures are now going green and coming out with zero VOC products. Results will be mixed for the next few years until all of this is figured out.

For now you need to start over by getting rid of all products you used in the past and expose good clean wood. Sanding is the only way to do this right. Bleaching products and pressure washing can be used for to remove most of the mildew. Sanding will take care of the rest.