When to stain a pine fence? 48 hours or 3 months?

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danepak

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#277270 4-Oct-2020 21:52

We’ve had a fence built (pine) and I’m planning on staining it.
The guy down at the Resene paint shop, said I should wait 3 months, before staining it.
The guy who built the fence is adamant that it’s fine to stain it 48 hours after it’s been built.

I’m confused now and hoping to hear what the wonderful people at Geekzone reckon?

neb

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#2579318 4-Oct-2020 22:38

Probably the reason for the wait-awhile position is to allow the wood to adjust to its new location, e.g. if it's gone from shade -> sun or damp -> dry or vice versa it may warp, expand/contract, whatever. If you stain it immediately and there's a problem, Resene will end up getting blamed, which is why they're telling you to wait.

If the wood has adapted to its environment and you don't mind potentially reworking a few problem areas if any develop then you can probably stain immediately.

Bung

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#2579331 5-Oct-2020 02:42

The paint shop guy is probably getting confused with new hardwood decking that normally leaches tannins for awhile. With pine you could have stained the timber even before it was a fence.

Paul1977

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#2579434 5-Oct-2020 10:00

If it had overlapping palings there'd be some benefit to waiting, as when the palings shrink it would reveal unstained timber. But since your palings aren't overlapping I would have thought it would be ok to stain whenever you want.

danepak

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#2579687 5-Oct-2020 16:57

Thanks.
I’ll play it safe and wait for 3 months.

Bung

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#2579762 5-Oct-2020 21:02

I've got away with painting the fencing before putting it up but apparently staining could be affected by how dry the timber is. Some is only just out of the treatment tanks and is very wet. If you know the timber is dry you could start earlier. You probably want it finished before Christmas.

Froglotion

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#2579793 5-Oct-2020 22:54

Yeah i'd wait as often the fence pailings are quite wet, won't do them any harm to wait.