I realize this is out of the ordinary but I hope someone on this board
Can give me some insight. I live in mobile zone 8b lots of rain and sun.
The problem is I had a situation after the deck was 3 yrs old. The joint or header rafter against the house started rotting which caused the ends of the deck boards to rot as well. We ended up having to replace about 60% of the boards. So now I have new boards which are very light and I pressure washed the entire deck but the older boards are much darker.
So from what I understand if I try to stain it the old will still be much darker,
I never planned on painting it and I don't want to replace the old boards since they are in good shape.
Has anyone had any experience with painting decks?
We had hoped to have a color that looks like wood but from what I am told at sherwin Williams that's difficult
Did you wash with bleach or deck cleaner? I would just use some Thompson's or similar cheap sealer. It only last's a year or so and should even out the color from sun/weather exposure. Olympic has some pretty good stains but high traffic areas will still be worn off. For painting I have had good luck on older decks with an oil base bonding primer such as Bin and acrylic latex or porch paint. I always use Z flashing on house ledger to shed the water. It gets trapped between house siding and board which can rot it.