If you’re staring out at your pride and joy, your deck, and wondering, “Hmm… when is the best time to stain a deck?” 

Then I will not only show you exactly the best time of year but, I’ll also show you the best time of day to stain your deck so you have no chance of messing this up…

Here’s what you need to know…

The best time to stain a deck would have to be when the weather is dry for days on end, but it can’t be too hot either…

In order to apply a couple of coats of stain, your deck cannot be slightly damp or the stain won’t absorb into the surface. Hence the need for a long bout of dry days…

But here’s the thing, the surface of your deck can’t be too hot while you’re trying to stain it either…

If you apply deck stain right when the sun is blasting down on it, the stain will dry on the surface before it has a chance to absorb deep into your deck boards…

How about I dive in a little deeper so you know exactly the best time to stain your deck?

The best time of year to stain a deck…

Ok, so let’s start with the best time of year to stain a deck…

Well, it does depend on which country you live in and also which part of the country you live in as well…

You see, deck stain is veeery precious…

My gosh, you have no idea…

It can’t be too hot, or too cold or too damp or…

Forget it!!

You’ll never meet the demands of your over complicated deck stain…

The best you can hope for is clear weather with no rain…

So with that said, generally the best time of year to stain a deck would have to be mid to late Spring and early Fall or Autumn…

But you can also stain your deck in Summer, you just need to choose your days carefully…

Just be mindful that Summer in the USA has its highest rainfall…

So Summer could be a bad time for you to stain your deck…

Winter???

Uuhhmmmm!!!

Winter is a no go when it comes to staining your deck…

It’s just too risky…

Even if it doesn’t rain, the morning moisture that coats your deck is enough to stop any self respecting deck stainer…

So stick with mid Spring when the rains have stopped and the sun isn’t that blistering Summer sun just yet.

Spring is definitely the best time of year to stain a deck…

See this deck here…

I pressure washed it in the morning and 3 hours later, it was completely dry…

And it wasn’t even in the full sun…

That’s why Spring is so great for deck staining…

Autumn or Fall comes in second place…

With Summer coming in for the third best time of year…

And sadly, Winter comes in last place…

Don’t even think of staining your deck in Winter…

It’s a horrible, horrible time to stain your deck…

Don’t do it!!

Ok, we’ve established that Spring followed by Autumn and Summer are the best time of year to stain your deck but you still need to be careful during these seasons…

In Summer and Autumn you need to choose your time of day very carefully…

That’s why our next topic of discussion is…

The best time of day to stain a deck…

Working out the best time of day to stain a deck is criticall…

Get this wrong and you may as well be staining your deck in Winter…

The best way to work this out is to remember that you can’t stain a damp deck and you can apply stain with the sun blazing down on you…

So the best time of day to stain a deck would have to be early morning as long as there’s no moisture on your deck…

In early Spring, or late Autumn you might still have some of that early morning moisture on your deck…

In this case, you’ll have to wait for your deck to dry…

That could be by 12pm…

So the best time of day in Spring and Autumn would have to be around midday..

This would be the perfect time to stain your deck…

However, as the weather starts to warm up and you get closer to Summer, midday is the worst time to stain your deck…

The sun will be way too intense…

In this case, the best time of day to stain your deck in hotter weather would have to be early morning before the sun is in full blister mode…

Or late afternoon when the sun is less intense…

While everyone else is sitting down with a beer, you get into full deck staining mode…

Does that make sense?

So the best time to stain your deck really does depend on the time of year that you’re staining your deck…

I know people get confused by this all the time…

I know because people email all the time with questions about “When is the best time of year to re-stain a deck?”

Or “Can you stain a deck in the evening?”

And then I get the opposite of this question with, “Can you stain a deck in the morning?”

So I thought I’d just come out and answer these right here, right now…

Can you stain your deck in the morning?

Ahhh, so you’re a morning person are you?

Most people ease into the day before they decide to stain their deck…

But not you…

You wanna get right into it…

Well my eager friend, there’s good news and bad news…

Yes you can stain your deck in the morning, but only in Summer, late Spring and Early Autumn…

In other words, you can stain your deck in the morning as long as it’s dry…

In Summer and early Autumn and late Spring, that’s exactly how the weather is…

Warm and dry…

But if you’re trying to stain your deck in Winter, early Spring or late Autumn then no you can’t stain your deck in the morning…

It’ll be too damp…

If you wake up, walk out to your deck and there’s that early morning moisture, you know you can’t apply any stain…

For you, you’ll need to play the waiting game and wait for midday for that sun to dry your deck…

Make sense?

Now, how about if you’re more of a night owl and you want to sleep in and then stain your deck in the evening??

Well, this next section is for you…

How about in the evening?

Can you stain your deck in the evening??

And the answer to this very important question is…

Yes, of course you can stain your deck in the evening…

Although…

It does have to be dry…

And you’ll need a few hours of moisture free air for your deck to dry properly…

So it really does depend on the time of year that you’re staining your deck…

You see, if you stain your deck in the evening and then 1 or 2 hours later there’s a lot of moisture in the air, that moisture will settle on your fresh coat of stain and completely ruin it…

So again, you can stain a deck in the evening as long as it’s in Summer, early Autumn or late Spring…

Are you starting to notice a trend here?

Dagnamit!!

Let me just sum it up for you…

Whether you’re trying to restain your deck, or stain it for the first time, or paint it…

It really doesn’t matter…

The best time to seal a deck is anytime of year, or any time of day as long as your deck is dry and there’s no moisture in the air…

Generally that is in Spring, Summer and Autumn but never in Winter…

Early Spring and late Autumn you will be best off sealing your deck in the middle of the day and not in the morning or in the evening…

But in Summer, you’re best off staining your deck in the morning before the sun is too intense or later in the evening when the sun is still out but the intensity has dropped…

So it really does depend on the time of year and the country you live in but as long as your deck is dry, the air is not moist and you don’t have the hot sun pounding down on you, that is the best time to stain your deck…

Now that you know when to stain your deck, all you need now is the “how to”…

That’s why I’ve put together a short guide on the exact deck staining techniques that I use to make sure you get the perfect coat every time…

It’s called the Brush on, Brush off Technique and if you’re going tp be staining your deck, no matter the season, you need to know this deck staining technique…

Anyway, you can find out more about it by clicking here…

That’s all from me…

Peace,

Jason…