Peeling varnish stripped from a shaded cedar fence in Tyandaga

A cedar fence under big trees in Tyandaga

Burlington climbs from the lake at Brant Street up toward the Niagara Escarpment, and Tyandaga sits on that rise, with mature trees that keep many yards in shade for most of the day. This property is a two-storey home with a modern exterior and charcoal window trim, set on a lot framed by a long horizontal cedar privacy fence. At the back, a deck steps down to the lawn on a short stair beside the neighbour’s white vinyl fence.

The homeowners asked us to deal with the cedar fence, which had begun to look blotchy and dark, and to refinish the deck stair treads and repaint the stair’s white wood railings while we were there.

A clear finish that trapped water

When the fence was built, it had been coated with a clear, glossy exterior varnish to show off the new cedar. A film-forming clear finish looks good for a season, but it offers the wood very little protection from sunlight, and once it cracks, water gets behind it and cannot get out. Under the trees, that played out badly:

• The varnish had peeled in sheets on the upper boards, where some sun reaches, and was cloudy and white where it still clung on.
• Behind the remaining film, the cedar had turned dark grey and black in streaks, a sign of water sitting in the wood and mildew growing under the coating.
• The lower boards, shaded all day and backed by hostas and ferns, had green algae on the surface.
• Post bases were buried in mulch and stayed wet after every rain.

The real challenge was that none of the old finish could stay. Stain cannot soak into wood through varnish, and a patchwork of varnished and bare boards would have taken stain in completely different ways. Every board had to come back to clean, bare cedar.

The deck stair had its own simpler issues: faded treads, and white railings with paint cracking at the joints.

Stripping, cleaning and drying in the shade

Protecting the garden first

1. The hostas and ferns along the fence were watered well, then covered with breathable cloths propped off the leaves on stakes.
2. Mulch was raked back from every post so the bases could be cleaned and dried.
3. The neighbour’s white vinyl fence, which shares a corner with the stair, was covered with plastic, with the neighbour’s agreement.
4. Gate latches and hinges were removed and bagged, so they would not be coated and so the edges of the gate could be finished properly.

Removing the varnish

1. A finish stripper for exterior wood was brushed on a few boards at a time and kept wet for its working time, which lifts varnish far more evenly than sanding alone.
2. Softened varnish was scraped off with plastic scrapers along the grain, then the boards were scrubbed and rinsed with a fan tip at low pressure.
3. A few stubborn spots near the posts were sanded back by hand.

Killing the mildew and evening the colour

1. Once the varnish was gone, the black streaks and green algae were treated with a mildew cleaner for exterior wood, scrubbed and rinsed.
2. A brightener was then applied over the whole fence to neutralize the stripper and lift the dark staining, returning the cedar to a fairly even pinkish-brown.
3. Fibres raised by all that washing were sanded down with fine pads, which also took off the last of the grey.

Waiting out the shade

Under a heavy canopy, wood dries slowly, and the lower boards dried slowest of all. We let the fence dry through a run of dry weather and checked boards at the top, middle and bottom with a moisture tester before any stain went on. Stain on wet wood is the quickest way to bring the mildew straight back.

The stair and railings

Stair treads were washed and brightened like the fence. On the railings, the cracked paint at the joints was scraped and sanded, bare wood was primed with an exterior oil-based primer that blocks cedar tannins, and the open joints were caulked.

Staining the fence and finishing the stair

Choosing a stain for a shady yard

For a fence that spends most of its life in shade, the finish needs to soak in rather than form a skin, and it needs to resist mildew. We used an oil-based semi-transparent penetrating stain whose formula includes a mildew-resistant additive. Being semi-transparent, it keeps the cedar grain visible, which the owners wanted, but it carries enough pigment to protect the upper boards from the sun that does get through.

Application around falling seeds

Big maples drop seeds and twigs all summer. Before each coat, we blew the fence and the ground below clean, and we kept a soft dry brush handy to flick off anything that landed in wet stain. Each board was brushed along its full length, top edge first, and the cut ends at the posts were coated until they stopped absorbing. Two coats went onto both faces, the second applied within the window the maker allows for the stain to still soak in, and any stain left glossy on the surface was wiped back so no film formed. The bottoms of the posts were coated right to the soil line before the mulch was pulled back, at a distance.

Stair treads and railings

Treads were brushed with two coats of the same semi-transparent stain to tie the deck to the fence. The primed railings got two coats of an exterior acrylic paint in white with a satin sheen, which sheds water well and wipes clean of the pollen and sap that fall from the trees.

Picking the tone with the charcoal trim in mind

The owners liked the cedar look, but wanted the fence to sit comfortably with the dark window trim instead of glowing orange. At the free colour consultation, we tried a range of semi-transparent tones on stripped boards: a natural cedar, a honey, a light brown with a slight grey cast, and a deeper walnut. Because the yard is so shaded, we looked at the samples twice, in the dim, green light of mid-morning under the trees and in the brighter late-day light that reaches the top of the fence. The natural and honey tones went orange in that late light, and the walnut made the shaded yard feel closed in. The light brown with a grey cast kept the grain warm while tying in with the charcoal trim.

A clean yard each evening

Because this is a garden as much as a yard, we finished every day by lifting the cloths off the plants so they could breathe, bagging the scraped varnish and used pads, and rolling the hose and sweeping the deck and the paths. Oil-soaked rags were spread to dry outdoors before going into a closed metal container. Gate hardware was reinstalled once the stain had dried.

Caring for a fence in a shaded Burlington yard

• Keep mulch pulled back a hand’s width from the posts and bottom boards, so they can dry after rain.
• Trim the hostas and ferns along the fence each summer; leaves pressed against the boards hold moisture and invite mildew.
• Rinse off sap and pollen in spring with a hose and a soft brush. If a few mildew spots appear, treat them early with a mildew cleaner.
• A penetrating stain fades rather than peels, so maintenance is a cleaning and a fresh coat, without stripping, once water stops beading.
• We left the remaining stain and railing white in labelled cans; keep them indoors, away from frost.

Why this approach suits Burlington’s tree-⁠covered streets

Homes near the escarpment and in older, leafy neighbourhoods like Tyandaga live under mature trees, and shaded wood stays damp longer than in an open subdivision. That is where film-forming clear finishes fail fastest, and where patient drying and a mildew-resistant penetrating stain make the difference. It is the kind of job our deck and fence staining service is set up for. Since 2010 our crews have stained decks and fences for households in Toronto, the wider GTA and Halton Region, and there is more about our work on the Burlington painters page, from Aldershot bungalows to lakeside condos.

If your fence or deck has a peeling clear coat, reach out for a quote; it will be written and itemized by surface.