Exterior House Stain

Olympic is the clear favorite

Stain is considerably less popular than paint, although it can provide a beautiful finish. Stain is thinner than paint. Reviews and professional opinions of stains don't add up to more than a bit of anecdotal information. In testing, Olympic Premium Solid Color (*Est. $20 per gallon) produced considerably better results than any other stain. Unfortunately, this specific product is only sold by a limited number of independent retailers. (Note that Olympic also makes a paint product called Premium.)

According to PPG, the manufacturer of Olympic, Olympic Maximum Solid Color Stain (*Est. $25 per gallon) is "comparable" to Olympic Premium. The company says the difference is that Olympic Premium is not recommended for horizontal surfaces (such as a deck), but that either stain should work for odd angles on a house.

Unlike Olympic Premium, Olympic Maximum is sold by Lowe's and some independent retailers. Olympic says Maximum is guaranteed to prevent water damage and graying for a minimum of 20 years on siding. As a solid-color stain, it allows the texture of the wood to show, but hides the natural color of the wood. Recent testing shows, however, that Maximum didn't wear well after just three years of simulated aging.

Members of the iVillage GardenWeb forum debate the value of the testing and of Olympic stain. The strongest sentiment is that products sold by the big-box stores should not be trusted (an assertion we saw repeatedly made by professionals).

You can choose solid-color, semi-transparent or clear stains. No clear stains were tested, but opaque stains trounced the semi-transparent stains in the rankings. Behr Plus 10 (*est. $20) and Cabot O.V.T.0600 (*est. $30) finished a distant second and third in the rankings. Thompson's WaterSeal (*Est. $20) tops the semi-transparent stains. Its endurance is much shorter than what you'd get from an opaque stain, but it does reveal the natural wood grain.