We currently have more than 30 wood stains in our ratings, including a number that are still undergoing testing. That’s because we test each stain for three years and rate the products each year.

Olympic’s exterior stains—which include solid, semi-transparent, wood-tone, and clear finishes—can be found at Home Depot, Lowe’s, and independent paint and hardware dealers.

You have to stain and seal them regularly. Consumer Reports' long-term tests find some deck treatments last a lot longer than others. In order to find the right product, Consumer Reports coated ...

The vast majority of wood decks are finished with one of four finishes: Solid-color stain (also called opaque stain), semi-transparent stains, toner (a lightly tinted stain) or a clear sealer.

Whether you're staining a deck for the first time or restaining it, you want to do it right. We got a Behr expert to explain how to stain a deck, with pictures.

Some owners of wood decks choose a transparent or semi-transparent coating early in the deck’s life, and change to a more opaque stain as the deck becomes more weathered, she said.

But even the best semi-transparent stains in our tests aren’t as tough as the top solid stains, and our data say that this type of stain will probably last only two to three years on a deck.