Along with a nice clear coated decking floor with it’s glimmering rows of perfectly finished wood, it is now quite common to see that lovely wood theme continued with clear coated wooden handrails around the deck, and stairs leading up to your deck.

In our last post we talked about clear coating decks and now to complete the picture we’ll go over how to apply clear coat to all those extras.

Stair Tread, Hand Rail and Post Preparation

As with the decking boards the key is in preparation. You want to make sure there is no dirt on the handrails, posts or stair treads.

When you’ve given it a sweep and you’re ready to start give all rails, posts and stair treads a light sand down to get any rough timber smooth and also to sand off any pencil marks.

How To Coat Your Stair Treads With Decking Oil

For the stair treads (the flat part of the stair where you tread on it, smart name for it hey?) you will coat them with decking oil in a similar manner to coating your deck. Cut in the edges two stair treads at a time and proceed to apply oil with the decking applicator.

The tough part of doing the stair treads, and here’s the gotcha, is that you must get underneath the treads with the clear coat as well making sure you cover all the bare timber.

Stair treads will require 2 coats of decking oil with 24 hours between coats otherwise you will have problems with stained water dripping off the treads – this is especially bad if they are exposed to the weather and not very nice if you have tiles underneath the staircase.

How To Coat Your Hand Rails and Posts With Decking Oil

Now for the rails and posts. First and foremost, make sure you buy a descent cutting brush as this is guaranteed to make your job 100x easier. You can find brushed specifically for cutting in at your local hardware store.

This is one of those occasions where I want to point out a couple of products and it really does make a measurable difference if you use them. We’ll be using two products to do two coats (one coat each).

The first coat I recommend you purchase a product called “Sikkens – Filter 7″. When you apply the first coat, try not to get too much on whatever you have inbetwen the posts (be it wires, or other metal poles).

After 24 hours give your rails and posts a light sand with a sanding block. Brush it down to remove the dust and now we’re ready to apply the final coat.

For the final coat I recommend you use “Sikkens – HLS”. This will give you the best results, but again cautious not to get it on your wires and other metal.

Final Advice For Clear Coating

Remember as with all clear coating it is best to recoat at least 3 times a year.

Take your time with it, you don’t have to do two stairs at once if you’re uncomfortable with it, it takes practise and repitition which is why as a professional painter I can get it done faster with a better finish. You’ll get there!

And finally, the more time and care you put into it the better it will look and you can be back to enjoying your lovely deck with your family and friends knowing it was a job well done.