This wood fence staining job in South Daytona brought a weathered backyard privacy fence back to a warm brown. The boards had gone the silver grey that every untreated fence turns in Florida sun. The wood underneath was still solid.
The first photo was taken mid job and shows both states in one frame. The stained boards are on the left. The boards on the right have not been touched yet. The second photo is the finished fence, gate and black hinges included. You can find more backyard jobs on our residential projects page. South Daytona is our home base, so jobs like this one are right down the road for us.
- Location
- South Daytona, FL
- Property
- Home with a wood privacy fence and gate
- Surfaces
- Fence boards, rails, posts and gate
- Work shown
- During and finished
During and finished photos
Each photo is labeled with the state of the work, so you always know what you are looking at.
Is it better to stain or paint a wood fence in Florida?
Stain, for most fences. It soaks into the wood instead of sitting on top of it.
A fence lives outside in every kind of weather, with its posts in wet ground and both faces exposed to sun and rain. Wood moves a lot in those conditions. Paint forms a film on the surface, and when moisture gets behind that film it peels and flakes, which then has to be scraped off before the fence can be recoated. Stain soaks in. When it wears, it fades rather than peels, and the next coat goes straight on after a wash.
Paint still has its place. If a fence has been painted before, going back to stain means stripping it, and that is rarely worth the cost. Painting can also make sense when you want a fence to match the house trim exactly. For a bare wood privacy fence like this one, a penetrating stain is usually the better long term choice, and it is what we recommend.
What has to happen to a grey fence before it gets stained?
It has to be cleaned and it has to be dry. Most of the job is those two steps.
That grey color is the top layer of wood fibers broken down by UV. It is loose and powdery, and stain put straight over it soaks unevenly and wears off fast. The way we handle a fence, it gets washed first to take off the grey, the mildew and the dirt, but at a pressure low enough not to fur up or gouge the boards. Too much pressure leaves a fuzzy surface that looks worse after staining than before. Then the wood needs time to dry out properly before any stain goes on.
While it dries, we walk the fence for loose boards, popped nails and failing posts, and we cover the grass and anything planted along the base. You can see a drop cloth still on the ground in the finished photo. More on the washing side is on our pressure washing page.
Can an old weathered fence be stained or does it need replacing?
If the posts are solid and the boards are not rotting at the bottom, it can almost always be stained.
Grey is cosmetic. Rot is not. The place to check is the base of each post, right at the ground line, where water sits after every storm. Push on it. If the post moves or the wood is soft, that section needs repair before staining is worth doing. Boards that have split or cupped badly can be swapped out one at a time, and a stain coat blends new and old wood far better than you might expect.
A fence that passes that check can look close to new again for the price of cleaning and stain, which is a fraction of what a replacement costs. If you are not sure which side of the line yours is on, Color Masters Painting can come look. We also do full exterior painting in Daytona Beach and South Daytona, and there are more backyard jobs on our residential projects page.
Has your fence gone grey?
We will check the posts, tell you honestly whether it is worth staining, and give you a written estimate. Call Robert or send a request.