finish / stain for fir posts

[mighty_fine_sawdust]

Hey all,

we are building a home and are thinking about the finish we want on the fir posts that make our back deck on the house. My wife and I don't really like colors that are anything more than natural or earthy type colors.

We have also considered no stain and no finish and allow them to weather over time.

I'm attaching a picture of a cutoff piece of one of the fir posts in case it helps but our questions are these:

how do you apply a finish to such a rough surface?

How often would the finish need to be reapplied given that the posts will get afternoon sun?

If we did go with some sort of stain before finish, does fir take stain well?

If we chose to do nothing, in your experience would you say we would later regret that decision (because I'm assuming it would be a lot more work to later decide to apply a finish coat.)

Thanks.

 

[Henry W]

All exterior finishes, especially clear finishes, will require upkeep = re-coating.
On decks, with foot traffic, furniture, sun and rain - that is true x 5.

Pigmented finishes - solid stains - are the most likely to be 'satisfactory' (unless you like re-coating), meaning the least maintenance. They of course may not provide the look you want.

Looks like a higher nap roller would cover that roughness.

 

[mighty_fine_sawdust]

We are definitely looking for less maintenance since the periodic application would require scaffolding or a ladder.

Sounds like you’re saying a pigmented stain would last longer.


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[Henry W]

Sounds like you’re saying a pigmented stain would last longer.

Absolutely.
My predictive powers are only so-so, but in this very narrow regard I am quite confident.

 

[John Jimenez]

I highly recommend spraying or rolling with thick nap sikkens or Cabot solid stain and sealer for the posts or rails…..I’d recommend the semi-transparent stain and sealer for anywhere there will be foot traffic. Send some pics when it’s finished!

 

[mighty_fine_sawdust]

This picture is actually of an area that will be a screened porch but the deck continues around the back of the house. The deck flooring material is Duxxbak Composite decking so I'm not expecting to have to do anything with that. But we'd like to take care of these posts and what I like about this photo is that you can also see the ceiling material. We were thinking of using the same stain on the ceiling as the fir post.

 

[tvrgeek]

I would make up a trough and soak them in preservative. The old solvent based kind.

 

[Henry W]

The deck flooring material is Duxxbak Composite decking so I'm not expecting to have to do anything with that.

Ahh well that changes things somewhat.
If the parts of the deck are 'only' vertical posts and the ceiling (and to be fair, you did ask about POSTS but I fixated on 'deck') the wear, dirt, and water are mitigated a lot, but not the sun exposure.
I do stand by my generalized comments. In terms of upkeep requirements: Clear > pigmented (semi-transparent) > solid color; higher levels of pigments offer better UV/sun protection.