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My neighbor told me my deck stain was blotchy and I was furious until I looked closer
I spent three days last summer staining my back deck. Thought it looked fine. Then my neighbor Linda comes over and says hey you got some blotchy spots near the railing. I was ready to snap at her. But I walked over and squinted and she was right. The wood had some old sealant residue I never stripped off. So I sanded those sections down and reapplied with a thinner coat. Came out way more even the second time. Now I always do a test spot in a corner before I commit. Anyone else get unsolicited advice that actually saved your project?
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jenny_lane126d ago
That old sealant residue is a sneaky one, @patricia32, and I bet a lot of people wouldn't have caught it until way later. I've had a similar thing happen where my friend pointed out I was using way too thick a coat on my fence, and it saved me from having to redo the whole thing a year later from peeling. It's a mixed bag for sure, but sometimes a fresh pair of eyes just sees the little flaws we've been staring past for hours.
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patricia327d ago
Wait, you actually think unsolicited advice from a neighbor is usually a good thing? lol. I've had too many people give me "helpful" tips that were just flat out wrong or made my projects worse. Linda might have been right this time, but most of the time it's just someone trying to butt in. Plus, if you have to sand down and redo your whole deck because of one comment, that's not really saving the project, it's just fixing a mistake someone else pointed out that you probably would've noticed yourself eventually.
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