Best Semi-Transparent Wood Stains These semi-transparent wood stains color the wood but let the grain show through for woods you want to show off (such as western red cedar).

Learn More › Whether your wood fence is years old or newly installed, it can benefit from a single inexpensive addition: ...

Shopping for a wood stain? Read about types, features, and other must-know topics in our wood stain buying guide to make an informed choice.

Testers find in general that opaque stains stay looking good much longer--three years or more. An excellent performer is Cabot Decking Stain 1480 for $29 a gallon.

Shingles are best finished with a stain, rather than a paint. However, there are some heavy bodied, semi-opaque stains that come in white and look almost like paint.

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.

The more opaque the stain, the better the wood protection and lasting effects. "Using a solid stain is like putting SPF 70 on your skin," says Barr.

Many people like using a semi-transparent wood stain better than a solid one—even if it might not last as long—because it allows for more of the natural wood grain to come through. (Solid ...

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.

Sika Corporation is proud to release SikaColor (R)-400 Opaque, a reactive acrylic solid color concrete stain that provides excellent physical properties intended to stain concrete or cement-based ...

The best wood stains aren't always the costliest. Here are test results from leading brands including Behr, Olympic, Valspar, and Cabot.