In April of 2023, we shared Six Tips to Prep Your Deck for Spring. This year, we’ve decided to do an entire series of spring prep tips for the exterior of your home, and we’re starting off with a deeper dive into one of the six tips we spoke about last year … protecting your deck with stain and sealer. Both stains and sealers are crafted to protect wood decks, and this protection is critical if you want to keep your deck looking good — and in tip-top shape for years to come. Wood decks need maintenance, there’s just no two ways about it. That said, let’s define the difference between sealants and stains, and why you might want to highly consider using BOTH on your wood deck, or at least use a product that is a combination of the two. These two terms are often confused with each other, which makes sense since they are both used to protect wood. But as you’ll see, it comes down to thinking about these products as, “stain