Exterior Wood Stain Stripper - Removes Deck & Fence Stain, Stain Stripper for Wood - 1 Gallon

I used a semi-transparent stain on my deck 3 years ago. My paint sprayer started leaking and the stain dripped everywhere. I though it wouldn't be noticeable when it dried. I was very wrong. Splotches everywhere and on my off white vinyl siding. (red/brown color). I tried power washing it off without any success. I said I was going to strip it off, but never got around to it. Now, because of the pandemic, I have a lot of time on my hands at home. I followed the instructions carefully. It tremoved 95% of the stain in one application. I did remove with a power washer with a rotary accessory. Some areas I had to go back over with a stronger pressure head. I spot treated some areas that were particularly splotchy that did not come clean the first time and was able to get them off. It is not recommended for vinyl siding but I tried it anyway. It worked fine. It took 3 or 4 applications in one really bad area. It did not discolor or strip the color off the siding. I make no promises for your siding. When I removed the stripper with the power washer, the stripper and removed stain foamed up. It was a bit hard to tell which areas were fully stripped. I tried to clean the stuff off the deck with lower pressure, but there was a lot of foamy mess. (my deck is 540 sq ft) Some light foaminess remained. That dried into a film on the deck that required a second round of power washing with my rotary head. It was still more than worth it. 1 gallon only goes so far. My 540 sq ft took took 5 gallons. That includes enough to retreat some spots and for the vinyl siding. It says it covers 100-150 sq ft per gallon. That's very accurate.

We had our deck rebuilt and chose to use a stain and sealer product. The product was great, unfortunately, the person applying it did not read the instructions on how it was to be used. He just "assumed" he knew how to do it. Instead of applying one coat - as directed - he kept applying coats (finally stopped at four coats) until the deck looked painted instead of the semi-transparent look we wanted. I contacted the manufacturer (PPG - totally amazing customer service!!!) and was told this product would b our best bet since regular stripping products would not work due to this being brand new stain/sealer. I tested a small area of our deck to see how it worked. I was totally amazed at how easy it was to use and how quickly it worked. It did a fantastic job or removing what looked like gray paint and bringing back the new wood look. So simple! You get your deck damp in small areas (I used hose nozzle on mist setting) ; spread the Defy on the area and wait fifteen - twenty minutes (I used a large paint brush); and then, pressure wash it off. There were two small areas I needed to retreat, but with a deck as huge as ours (three different levels), I was impressed. I definitely recommend this to anyone needing to remove old stain or staining mistakes.

Product did not "Lift" the old waterbased stain off deck. Used exactly as directed on videos and directions on container. Applied twice with terrible results. Called DEFY directly to file a claim, directed me back to seller on Amazon. This is not the Seller's fault. The DEFY "Brightener" and DEFY "Stain" products were also used and worked well. The DEFY "Stripper" was a waste of time and money. Very disappointed in the Stripper product and DEFY customer service for pushing responsibility onto the Seller/Amazon.

I will start with the positive: this product does what it says. If you follow the instructions, this product will strip stain off of wood. It is strong enough that if you don't use gloves, you will eventually start burning your hands. It is a potent chemical that does work. The problem is, it doesn't strip ALL of the stain. I have gone over various areas of the wooden ramp multiple times, and there's always leftover stain somewhere. If you only use this product, you will have splotchy areas of old stain that will stubbornly not come off. There is another issue: the instructions say that you either use a pressure washer, or a brush to take the stain off after the product has had time to work on the stain. I used a pressure washer. I do not know what the experience would be with a brush, but the pressure washer has to be used at such a close range that you will flake the wood in various areas. It is basically unavoidable. You will need to go back and sand these areas in preparation of applying new stain. Another issue is that you will spend a large amount of time rinsing the product out of the wood. There is a soapy residue that will need to be cleaned perhaps over a dozen times before it is completely out of the wood. Perhaps the product should be left in the wood, but I have purchased the separate brightener so I want the deck to be as clean as possible. In my opinion, you are better off skipping this product and just going through the effort of using a power sander with a very abrasive grit. I purchased 14 gallons of this product and have used 13. I still need to go over the entire ramp and sand rough areas. I've spent countless hours applying this product, waiting for it to work, pressure washing the stain off of the wood, then rinsing the product off of the ramp. I would have saved both time and money if I just used a sander from the beginning. It might be physically more difficult, but you can be sure that all of the stain is removed, and that you have a quality surface which is ready for new stain.

This stuff worked great, easy to apply and removed 95% of the previous stain we had on our older deck.