This post is sponsored by Ace Hardware.
At last! The outside of our home is complete and we have hit our final project! This home has come so far and I’m so glad we were able to finally stain our front porch. It had been four years since AJ built our front porch, and the stain added so much life to it. AJ used the treated wood from a hardware store, and let me just tell you…never again with treated wood. Just spend the extra money and go with traditional cedar or the faux wood. Yes they are both more expensive but they will definitely be worth it. BUT, we live and we learn right?
So where to start…we were very thankful to partner with our local Ace again for a very important project for our porch. Why so important you ask? Well if you are from the Midwest you know the crazy weather we deal with, including the snow that just came this week (like what?!). We thankfully just got it stained in the nick of time so it could be sealed for the winter.
First we started by removing everything from the porch, including all of my nicely placed pumpkins. Once it was clear of pumpkins, flags, and our lights, AJ was able to power wash the porch. We got our power-washer a couple years ago and it’s been a great investment. From cleaning the cars to cleaning the concrete, it keeps many things clean over here at the Kozak home. AJ actually used the attachment on our porch that is for the concrete cleaning, and it worked so good! Got this deck back to as much of an original color as we could.
This is AJ and I’s first large staining project, and it was definitely a learning experience. First of all, treated wood is so different from the pine wood we are used to, and this sucker did just that. It was sucking up the stain pretty good and didn’t leave spots/streaks. Thankfully we had just enough to cover the whole thing, but I would definitely recommend purchasing just one extra gallon than you think you need. For the peace of mind and for touch ups.
We specifically chose the Superdeck Transparent Cedar Stain, and it was the perfect amount of color! We used 2 gallons on our front porch which is about 200 square feet. Since the treated wood was already a little red, this stain basically beefed up the color a bit to be a moderate cedar color. Honestly, I hate an overstrained deck, so it looks perfect for my taste. We ended up using the Ace Home & Garden Sprayer, which did pretty well with applying the stain and didn’t leave any splatter marks. Again, the wood soaked it up so I would suggest getting a little extra stain just in case.
The next step after power washing the porch was to remove all of those little metal poles. AJ did it all thankfully, cause those little stinkers are quite the joy to take out and put back in. We also wrapped the siding with some plastic wrap to ensure that brand new siding didn’t get discolored. We used Frog Tape to hold it up, which is some pretty sturdy tape and did the job even with the wind.
No matter where you are staining, we always recommend wrapping off the areas you don’t want to get stain on. If you don’t wrap it you will 100% get stain on something you don’t want it on. Trust me! I have gotten stain on so many things it’s ridiculous. You should just see our garage floor (whoops!).
Here is how the porch looked towards the end of AJ staining it. You can tell it’s quite dark in this photo, but that’s because it was just put down and the sun was giving it an evening glow.
This stain specifically says let it sit for 7 hours, but we actually let it sit for 2 full days before we put anything back on the porch. I didn’t really want to risk having footprints or chair marks, and it was only in the 50’s/60’s during the day with getting down to the 40’s at night. We both are super happy with how it turned out, and again the only regret would have been to get just a little more stain to do some touch ups.
Here are some photos of how the staining progressed!
AJ and I both agree that the porch just looks so much warmer, even with just being a couple shades darker. It is also now sealed for the winter! After 4 long years of being unprotected, we are so happy this beauty is finally covered. Now for an array of photos:
Ace Hardware was amazing as always to work with on this project! They make it such an easy process to pop in and get what we need. We have another project with them that I’m also super excited to do this upcoming weekend! They have helped us continue to craft our little starter home, and we have greatly enjoyed partnering with them each time. Head over to their website to get your winter products and let’s all pray we don’t have the same amount of snow as last year??
Thank you as always for tuning in, and keep an eye out for another upcoming project!