Making the deck prettier and safer

A short little product recommendation post. Behr did not give me any free products or pay me in any way for this (because I still haven't figured out how to tap into the "give me free stuff that I need and I'll blog about it" market.

Our beautiful 2 story deck was one of the things that I loved the most about our house, but it's starting to see some wear and tear. The poor steps are exposed to the elements all the time, and it's starting to show. Last year I stained and sealed the heck out of them, and by the time this spring rolled around they were cracking and dry once again. Especially with Bug wanting to walk up and down (and up and down, and up and down) them, we had to do something.

May we bring to the stage, Behr DeckOver, in Silver Gray

I love this stuff! It is decently priced (about $35 a gallon) and we were able to do 2 coats of the stairs with just one can. It was a bit tricky getting it on because it's so thick, but wow is it some awesome stuff. I finally found the best way to put it on was to use an edger tool for painting and spread it over the step, then use a short bristled paint brush to get into all of the cracks.

Ta-da! It looks great with our Trex deck and is super smooth for the feet. We are planning on doing the railings of the entire deck with it as well, eventually.

 It does definitely look like you have a painted/plastic surface though, so if you want the wood grain to show through, this is not the product for you.