I stained a new deck about 3 months ago and decided to power wash it before the winter. Unfortunately, I removed a good amount of the stain in the process (maybe a third of it). It was a semi-transparent stain. At this point, I'm not sure if I can just let it dry and give it another coat. Or if I need to sand off all the remaining stain and start over. I'm leaning toward the latter since portions appear to have been "scuffed up" as well. Any thoughts or ideas? I know it needs to be 50 degrees to get more stain down so I'm pressed for time here in CT. Thanks in advance!

What was the brand of stain? Do you have a picture of how it looks now?

Thank you for the quick response. It was Benjamin Moore ALKYD TRANSPARENT stain in Natural finish. Here are a couple of pictures...

I would let it go through the winter then strip and start over in the Spring. It will be easier to restore then, you will be able to enjoy for the Summer, and it will not hurt the wood to weather through the Winter.

Ok. My main concern was letting it sit unprotected all winter. Doesn't sound like I need to worry about it.

Thanks again.

One of the reasons your stain came off so easily is that brand new PTP is not absorbent at all. The stain is supposed to penetrate completely into the wood, not film on top of the wood. You should have better results in the Spring.

Thanks again. I'm feeling much better about just leaving it alone for now.

Next Spring... Should my approach be to strip, sand, then restain? If I need to sand the whole thing, I'm wondering about the galvanized nails. Thinking I might want to go around and set them all first so I don't ruin them with the sander.

Do not power sand. That will cause issues with penetration. You can lightly sand with a pole sander to remove splinters if needed.

The better the stain penetrates the better the performance.

You might want to look at other brands of stain as well.