What's the best way to stain between 5/4" cedar deck boards w/out leaving too much stain on top of the boards?

Question

Staining an old 2nd story deck that has 5/4" x 4" deck boards. The boards are spaced unevenly (guess the installer never heard of deck board spacers), from tight together to about 1/4" apart.

Been trying to find a good way to stain between them so the deck doesn't look like it has white stripes. Don't want to leave too much stain on top of the boards to show though when I stain the top of the boards (semi-transparent).

I've tried several experiments. Found a way to do it, but not a good way (sponge brushes - tears up the brushes and my fingers). But even that leaves a stripe of stain down both sides of each board which wll show through when I do the final staining.

Then I thought - hey, I'm sure someone else has had to do this and could give some good advice. So here I am. Any ideas would be appreciated!

Answer 1

Why not try a 9" roller use a 1" nap lambs wool roller skin, roll out a section then take a 3 1/2" sash brush and brush in between the boards, this will stop any drips, then roll it out a second time with a some what dry roller(Don't load it up with stain) roll the section out then move to the next section of the deck. Being that your on the 2nd story you'll need extension pole to do the under side of the deck.  Now there's another way but you have to do this on a day that you have NO Wind, just cause of over spray and you'll need to cover anything you don't want over spray on, but you use a garden sprayer pour your stain into sprayer then pump up the pressure then spray with sprayer set at fine mist then walk back and forth spraying evenly each board. hope this helps. Good luck

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