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I stained my deck with Cabot solid-color water-based Deck Stain in September 2010. I followed the exact instructions given by the hardware store selling the product. I power washed the deck to remove dirt, washed with a Cabot deck cleaner, waited a week then brush painted the deck, waited another week and applied a second coat. It looked great. Then came winter. In March 2011 (less than six-months later) the snow melted off my deck and the Cabot stain started peeling off along with the melting snow. About 2/3 of the deck is covered by a roof and the only areas peeling were flat areas exposed to snow and rain. Contacted Cabot and they mailed me a two page form asking for everything but a blood sample. Along with the form they had me mail in photos of the entire deck including areas not peeling, lot numbers and other information on the cans of stain used and sections of the peeled stain taken off with tape. I complied, waited two weeks and contacted their customer service department. Their conclusion was "you should have pre-stained with our problem-solver base coat first. Sand entire deck, cover peeled areas with problem solver and then restain entire deck. I asked about all the money I spent on the original 10 gallons of stain (At $34 each), their response was "tough luck". The photo included here shows a small secion of my deck exposed to rain and snow covered with Cabot stain less than six months before the photo was taken I will re-stain my deck. I will NOT use Cabot and recommend readers look elsewhere as well.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Looks to be a high traffic area too besides the peeling. There is some obvious scrapes from what skis ski boots or ski poles? Under the railing it looks like it has no problem. I have a deck I did all 4 sides of the cedar 5/4s decking I replaced with Cabot semi transparent OIL based stain mixed with semi solid OIL based stain. It never had a problem with a lot exposure. Though it looks more like solid to me than I desired. However using a WATER based Cabot recently on another deck when it rained after staining semi-solid it washed part of the stain off. So choose highest quality Maximum Olympic or choose Oil is my suggestion. However when switching various products you may find putting one coat of water based over OIL will cause it too bead up and need 2 or 3 strokes to get even out if you choose OIL. I did find this problem also existed with some stain I used on the joists which were never subjected to any stain other than the treated wood color that they use in Pacific Northwest being brown. I recall it to be a water based product that did this.
I'm sure its better now. What is the Blue or possibly Gray material on several boards. It appears to be under and over the stain in the photo. Ski Wax or another color of stain or paint? For a deck that size you can find any number of returned cans or mistints for cheap at the box stores. Some products say oil penetrating yet are actually either latex, acrylic, or alkyd that clean with soap and water as they are WATER or H2O based so don't make mistake of mixing those with true oil based thinner type.
A dead give away is the cleanup method. Soap and water for water based or mineral spirits for OIL The H2O stains have oils in them but nothing like a true enamel oil based paint or stain. Also people please don't leave rags around with linseed oil based staining products as they can and do self-combust. Keep those in a metal can with metal lid for disposal. Which is hard to find in itself these days. Maybe a jar with metal lid would do. Certainly an advantage of lighter oil or water based products.