LESLIE: Our next caller to The Money Pit is Dave in Pennsylvania who’s looking to do some work on his deck.
Dave, how can we help you?
DAVE: I have an 18-year-old deck that faces the full south.
TOM: OK.
DAVE: And I’ve just put composite decking down and left the pressure-treated railing up. And my question was what’s the best product to use that will complement the TimberTech decking that I used on the pressure-treated railing and stairway.
TOM: So you don’t want to change the railing to a composite railing?
DAVE: Not this year. I’d like to get a couple years …
TOM: OK.
DAVE: It’s really in pretty good condition.
TOM: OK, so what you’re going to want to do then, Dave, is you’re going to want to stain it. When you choose an exterior stain, it comes in different densities. You can get transparent – of course there’s no color; you can get semi-transparent which has some color; or you can get something called solid color and solid color has got the most pigment in it and lasts the longer and is going to give you the biggest number of options to choose a color that matches or complements the composite decking that you put down.
DAVE: There are companies out there that are actually making colors that are accessory colors to the different composite deck manufacturers.
TOM: You know, listen. It’s not that hard to find a color that’s going to match it. It’s not like it’s that unique of a color.
DAVE: OK.
TOM: So you shouldn’t have any problem whatsoever. I would concentrate on the product first and use a good-quality, solid-color stain. It’s not paint when it’s called solid-color. You know, a lot of people think it’s paint. It’s not. It’s a stain. You’re going to see …
LESLIE: It can look as heavy as paint but it’s not …
TOM: It does look – right, exactly. It still shows the grain through and it just lasts a lot longer.
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