The deck has been fully been prepped. Sanding is complete, and so the only thing left to do is the most satisfying step: finishing with your colour of choice for protection, and that undeniable beauty that only a true penetrating oil stain can provide.

There are a few different ways you can tackle this. To save you time, here is how we recommend doing this, and how we have served happy clients for years in our own business. This is is especially important to know, because you’ll be able to get away with stain reapplications without sanding again for years (perhaps forever) using the these tools, techniques, and products.

NOTE: The process for finish staining pressure treated wood is the as staining cedar—however, the prep is very different. If you have pressure treated wood, check out our post 5 Reasons You Should Never Sand Pressure Treated Wood here to make sure you do it right the first time.

This article is far more than a product comparison. We at Sand & Stain have been using the Sherwin-Williams SuperDeck Transparent Penetrating Oil as the main product in our business for over 10 years. It’s a huge part of the reason we have been able to keep our #1 promise to our clients (also our slogan): Never Peel Again.

Suffice it to say, it came as a shock in the summer of 2020 that this exceptional product was reformulated without so much as a notice or warning. Not even the local Sherwin-Williams store managers knew this was being rolled out (at least not in any of my local Ontario or Quebec stores.) Staff simply re-ordered more product as normal, and in came the new SuperDeck. Aside from a brown strip on the bottom of the can and slightly difference literature (left vs right in pic below), it’s practically an unnoticeable difference.

Until you open the can…