Solid stains can peel. When it becomes time to recoat, it is messier to remove old solid stain. Solid stains are a lot like paint. I used on on my last house siding to cover over cedar plank. If the plank were relatively new, I would have preferred a semitransparent to preserve more of the look of real wood. The solid stain used basically plastic coated(acrylic) the wood. It is durable and fine for a vertical surface where it can last over 10 years before a recoating is needed. Looking at the manufacturer's labels, claimed life of a stain job(which is always longer than real world life) is quite short on a deck or porch where the stain is subject to traffic. Thus the extra work on next recoat to strip off old coat is more significant than on a vertical surface. My current house has either paint or solid stain covering over a bad condition cedar deck. This backfired on the seller of the house because the house did not sell quick enough. By the time I bought it, the coating was peeling badly revealing the mess that awaited to either replace the deck of undergo a major repair and resurface job.

In summary, can be done but messier to recoat and hides real wood. If you do this, be sure to expend extra effort to prep wood since adhesion is critical to long life and labor of redoing/fixing is much higher.

Why would you have to strip the entire deck for a re-coat? I would think all you would have to do is clean it with a good product like Restore-a-deck and whatever remains with good adhesion could be coated over

Thanks Zver.

It's very hard for Folks deciding on an outdoor finish. Thus the many thousands of posts/questions/ anwsers there are to be found about it.

The differance between a deck board laying flat to the sun compaired to say sidding on a house is vast. Also what quality of finish after a few years, some would be pleased with not stripping a solid paint like finish completly and just puting something on top of it. Others would never go for that.

I have tried over the years to publish what has worked for my Outfit. Many diagree with my findings and find fault with my motivies far as the posts go. However TWP product is at least equal in value to any outdoor finish I have ever found after geting a lot of product from other brands sent to me to try out. WoodRich is also a good product my use/test of it have been very uplifting and I view it as good finish backed up by rare Customer service.

Thanks again for your insite Zver !! Please feel free to add on this site and Welcome !!!

John Hyatt www.deckmastersllc.com