[Shop-talk] Choosing exterior wood stain

[Karl Vacek]

We're getting a new cedar fence and arbor - about 250 feet, roughly half 6'
and half 4', so it will take a lot of stain and time.  It's an incredibly
heavy fence (no Home Depot specials here), so it's likely to last a long time,
and I want to keep it looking good for a long time too.  Naturally I want to
stain it immediately, especially the part that will be against the evil
neighbor's fence and will be unavailable to us to stain again till she moves
or whatever.

I've always used the old-fashioned penetrating oil stains for just about
anything I've ever stained, indoor or outdoor.  However, there's lots of
evidence that a solid stain (I call that thin paint...) protects and lasts
better for exterior applications.  And cedar doesn't have that much of a
grain, particularly in a fence that you mostly see from a distance anyway, so
I guess a solid is OK if it's really better.

Test results are confusing and hard to follow.  Consumer Reports, an
organization I don't always trust anyway, just rated lots of stains, but none
of the most-premium ones we see right now on shelves from the same
manufacturers that they rated (Behr, Olympic, Cabot, etc.).  They did,
however, echo the solid vs transparent durability issue I've been hearing from
paint dealers.

I'm kind of intrigued with the hybrid (my term, not the manufacturers')
products with acrylic and alkyd oils in the same formulation.  Many are water
clean-up, which really doesn't matter to me, but it's not a bad thing IF the
material is durable and protects the wood well.  But I really just don't know
much about current products.

Soooo...  Anyone BTDT recently ??  Any paint chemists on the list ?

Thanks!
Karl