How to Apply Ready Seal: Step-by-Step Contractor Guide

How to Apply Ready Seal

Ready Seal is the most forgiving stain we sell. No primer, no back-brushing, no wet edge, no temperature limit, no lap marks. Almost everything that goes wrong with it goes wrong before the stain comes out of the pail.

This is the full procedure, written for a crew. If you want quantity first, run the coverage calculator.

What you need

  • Ready Seal, quantity per the calculator
  • Deck cleaner, plus stripper and brightener if there is an old finish
  • Wood moisture meter
  • Sprayer, roller, brush, or a Deckster
  • Mineral spirits for cleanup and overspray
  • Plastic sheeting and construction paper

Step 1: Clean

Wash the wood with a deck cleaner. If there is a film-forming stain, sealer, or paint on the boards, it has to come off completely. Strip it, then brighten. Ready Seal penetrates into wood fiber and cannot do that through a film.

If the last coat was Ready Seal, this is much simpler. Wash, dry, recoat. No stripping, no sanding. That is the whole reason maintenance contracts on this product are profitable.

Brightener is not optional if you want a light color to read true. Cleaning alone leaves the wood darker than it needs to be, and a semi-transparent finish carries that forward.

Step 2: Dry, and actually verify it

Wait 48 to 72 hours after washing. Longer in cool or humid weather.

The wood must be at 12 percent moisture content or less. Two ways to check:

  • Water bead test: sprinkle water on the surface. Beading means wait. Soaking in within about 30 seconds means ready.
  • Moisture meter: a reading, not a rule of thumb. On a job you are being paid for, this is the one that matters.

Test the shaded side, the north face, and anywhere water pools. Those dry last, and they are what will fail.

New pressure-treated lumber needs at least 30 days before it will accept stain, and longer if it was wet when installed.

Step 3: Protect

Cover plants and shrubs. Lay construction paper along the base of fences. Mask anything you do not want oil on.

Keep mineral spirits within reach for overspray on brick, siding, or concrete. Catch it while it is wet and it disappears.

Step 4: Stir

Pull the lid and mix the pail thoroughly before you start, then stir again periodically during use. The pigment settles, and a pail that has been on a shelf will give you a different color at the bottom than the top.

Do not thin it. Ready Seal ships at application viscosity.

Step 5: Apply

Spray, roll, brush, or pad. All of them work with no back-brushing.

Brush the first few feet next to the house by hand before you start spraying, so you are not chasing overspray on siding.

Things you do not have to do with this product, and that most crews waste time on out of habit:

  • No primer
  • No back-brushing
  • No maintaining a wet edge
  • No stopping at a board end to avoid a lap mark
  • No waiting for a specific temperature
  • No watching the radar. Rain minutes after application will not wreck it

Do not over-apply. More product does not mean more protection. The wood takes what it takes, and the excess sits on top and tracks.

Step 6: Test before a second coat

Wait about an hour, then drop a few test spots of stain on the wood. Wipe them after 30 to 45 minutes.

  • Clear oil wipes off: the pigment absorbed. The wood will take a second coat.
  • Still tinted: the wood is full. Wait longer, or skip it.

A second coat takes roughly 60 percent of what the first one did, not another full round. Two coats on a maintenance job over existing Ready Seal is usually too much.

Step 7: Dry times

Walk on it About 15 minutes, no footprints
Dry to touch About 60 minutes
Furniture back Same day on most jobs
Full absorption into the wood 2 to 4 weeks depending on temperature and humidity
True color settles About 14 days

Cooler temperatures extend all of these. There is no minimum application temperature, but a 40 degree day will take longer than a 75 degree one.

The tracking problem, and the fix

On dense wood or an over-applied surface, Ready Seal can stay oily for a few days and track indoors on shoes and paws.

Prevention is not over-applying. If it happens anyway, wipe the deck with a mineral-spirits-dampened mop to cut the excess. Warn the customer in advance on any dense hardwood job.

Cleanup

Mineral spirits for tools and equipment. Ready Seal contains no linseed oil, so it will not stain your hands.

Oil-soaked rags generate heat as they cure and are a real fire risk. Spread them flat outdoors to dry completely, or store them in a sealed metal container. Never leave them balled up in a truck or a trash bag.

Recoating later

Clean, dry, apply. No stripping, no sanding, no chemical stripper, no sanding dust.

On a full-sun horizontal deck, plan annually or every other year. Independent field testing has shown significant fading between 9 and 18 months in that exposure. Vertical surfaces such as fences and siding hold far longer, and the manufacturer claims up to five years there.

That short interval is the trade-off. Ready Seal is built around cheap, fast maintenance rather than long gaps between coats. Because a recoat is a wash and a spray, it stays profitable.

Buy Ready Seal in Gaithersburg, Maryland

Ready Seal deck stain and sealer is on the shelf at Sun Brite Supply of Maryland, 16620 Oakmont Ave, Gaithersburg, MD 20877, in eight colors plus clear. Contractor and pallet pricing available, call (301) 519-9274.

Which color to use | Coverage calculator | Ready Seal vs other stains