Deck Staining, DIY (Do it Yourself)

.     There's a plethora of knowledge and information. Videos with tips and step by step instructions. There's no need to be apprehensive about tackling a project that if you don't take care of it every year, will cost you a boat load more; like it will the folk I'm going to help tomorrow. 
.     Today I've come back and re-posted this with a day's worth of in the moment tips. Here's literally What I Learned in prep for the project. 
.     First step. Know what you want it to look like. If what you want is something that looks like wood, with a tint then 1. You have to maintain it yearly. 2. Wood, covered and protected or not, ages and removing that age after a year becomes an expensive and time consuming project. 3. Use the stain-lifting, mold-removing stripper. It helps. 
.     The difference between "re-stain the deck annually" (Or Else) and "this stain lasts two years but no more..." is the difference between hiding your "waited too long" to get around to staining it and now you have to take care of this problem yearly wood, and your "looks like new or kept like new" wood is literally upkeep and the right stain in the first place. The worse you let your deck age the harder it will be to make it look good. Despite tips I'll get to in a bit. The major thing to get from stain is: can't see-through stain lasts a year and usually is required if you waited too long.  Clear sealers and mostly clear stain is the better stain for the visually good deck and lasts longer.
.   Clean the deck means clean it. A decent broom and the proper deck stripper are musts. Power-washing tends to make the rest of the job harder, so hang up this idea unless you need to remove a damaged top layer of wood, in which case, power-washer second, stripper first. So seriously, get the "let set and rinse off, stain lifting" stripper. 
.     Of course you'll still need a scrub brush and a decent broom. Push-brooms actually save time and effort both for spot-scrubbing and for the rinse process. After this general cleaning you'll have to do some sanding, because I assume you used the neighbor's power-washer rather than that twenty-dollar old-fashioned hose sprayer nozzle you needed a new one of anyway. 
.     The sanding step can be skipped, though have a brillo handy, this will come in useful in a bit. For the real tough spots any visible imperfections are going to show through to some extent, there's a cheat here: newspaper. It's made from wood and soaks up stain. Here's what you do. The spot where the grill sits on the deck is black and oily and even the power-washer on the beaded setting didn't get the stain to go away. Try this next tip.
.     Coat lightly with stain, flatten newsprint over it so it sticks evenly and let sit. After a five to twenty minute bake in mid-day sun try to peel it up, If you can't peel it up, not even a little, it's good. Now take your brillo and scrub the paper like you're trying to get it off. You want to leave a roughed up but otherwise smooth layer of paper over your dark spot. Now that the area is "wood smooth" run over it with more stain. It should blend in and appear to be a grain-less section of wooden plank. Invest the elbow grease where it's simplest to do so.
.     Application can be done the fast and less effective way or the equally fast when you factor in the clean-up wipe down and splatter protection processes, old-fashioned way. Things like tarping the walls near-by and anything under the deck aren't often thought of but save a lot of effort if you don't want to explain speckled walls later. Get a roller, one of those thin ones, experts say not too pouffy, I say wide and whatever works will work. Bubbles weren't a problem for me, you go back over it with a paint brush anyway. 
.     Speaking of paint-brushes; get brushes that are as wide as your planks and brushes that are wider, but a two or three inch brush will make tight spots and corners easier. Trust me, every deck has their tight little spot. Paint sprayers don't pain around corners. By the way, there's this stuff called Tek-Dek, should have invested in that and might have to if this wood needs replacing instead of a paint-job. Zero-maintenance is worth it.
.     When you paint the stain on, back brush to get it evenly into the wood and to get a smoother look and finish. Correction, pour stain onto a board and roll on with roller, then go over the board with a brush to get in between the gaps and make sure the roller spread the paint well enough.  Do three or four boards at a time, end to end. If you stop in the middle of any one board then you stare at the imperfection all year with regret. Drips happen, try to catch them before they get bad, yet another reason to tarp under your deck and especially the edges. Spindles take twice as long at least and they are drip factories.  One more thing to note. A paint roller doesn't get the stain on evenly unless you go thick and thick leads to peeling. But it'll get it on quick enough, and after it's been gone over with a brush, minimal effort and good result.
.     And then clean up, no one like stuff dried into a brush and tarps are easiest pulled off of wood it was tacked into, Use 3/4 in. staples and a staple gun. They don't go in as far, makes 'em easier to pull out at the end. Also something to note, saw-dust isn't a big deal, it fills in gaps when it mixes with stain. that's how wood-filler works. Now, does that sound simple enough?