SettingsSettings for this calculationUS
The total deck surface area.
Use the same area as the Deck Board Calculator.
1 coat is standard for routine maintenance restaining; new or bare wood often needs 2 coats.
Check your specific product's recommendation — some solid-color stains need 2 coats for full opacity.
Deck stain needed
2 gallons
Older, more porous, or rough-sawn wood absorbs more stain than newer or smoother boards — check your specific product's coverage rating.
- Area to cover (all coats)
- 220 sq ft
They open the calculator with your figures already in it
Deck Stain Calculator: 2 gallons — shown in imperial, US market. The link sets both, so the result they see is the one on your screen.
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How this was calculated
Formula source(s)
- Deck stain typically covers approximately 200-300 sq ft per gallon per coat, depending on wood porosity and stain opacity
Inputs used
- Deck Area
- 220 sq ft
- Number of Coats
- 1
Intermediate steps
- Area to cover (all coats)
- 220 sq ft
Confidence note: Older, more porous, or rough-sawn wood absorbs more stain than newer or smoother boards — check your specific product's coverage rating.
What this calculation does not cover
- COVERAGE ON DECKING IS SET BY THE TIMBER, NOT BY THE LABEL. New, dense or previously coated boards take far less than the stated rate; weathered, rough-sawn or end-grain-heavy decking drinks it. The 200-300 sq ft per gallon spread here is wide precisely because the same product can halve its coverage on a board that has been down two summers.
- Deck area is not coated area. Balusters, rails, posts, fascia, stair stringers and the visible edges of every board add surface that no floor-area figure contains, and on a deck with a substantial balustrade the rail work can approach the deck itself.
- The first coat and the second are not the same quantity. A porous board absorbs most of the first, and a second coat applied to the same area typically goes much further — so two coats is rarely twice one coat on bare timber.
- Coverage is fixed at 200 sq ft (19 m²) per gallon per coat, the bottom of the 200-300 range the source quotes, so a smooth, previously sealed deck finished with a high-spread product can come in close to a third under the gallons shown.
- The coat count only multiplies the area before that one rate is applied, so a second or third pass over boards the first coat already sealed is charged the same gallons as the first, when in practice it takes appreciably less.
- Deck area is treated as the flat walking surface, and the allowance for board edges and the gaps between boards sits inside the coverage constant rather than being derived from anything you enter, so wide-gapped, thick, or grooved boards wet more surface per square foot than that constant assumes.
- Nothing is added for stain left in the tray, held in a pad or brush, or dripped through the gaps, and no cleaner, brightener, or stripper is quantified alongside it - the figure covers finish coats only.
- The answer rounds up to whole US gallons and is never expressed in quarts, litre tins, or 5-gallon pails, so on a small deck the rounding alone can be most of the second container: a 20 m² (215 sq ft) deck works out at 1.08 gallons and is quoted as 2.
Estimated cost — your price
This site holds no price list for this material — local prices vary too much to publish honestly. Enter your supplier's price and the result is costed with it.
Part of bigger jobs
This trade is one line of a job takeoff. Run the whole job and every other trade comes back with it, off the same measurements.
Or plan the space itself: measure it once, doors and windows included, and this figure comes back worked out on that space, with what goes with it.
also measuresDeck BoardDeck FootingDeck Screws
Computed in your browser — nothing you enter is uploaded. Presented in US customary units and US trade terminology. Where a formula follows a published standard, that standard and its edition are cited beside it on this page; where none governs, the page says so. Local amendments override model codes — verify against the code in force where you build.
Sources checked 2026-09-05 · in the site-wide review of 2026-09-06 · v1.0.1
Regulatory standards & verification citations1
- Deck stain typically covers approximately 200-300 sq ft per gallon per coat, depending on wood porosity and stain opacity
Cite this page
Your workspace
Most jobs need more than one number. Add the calculators you need next and they open right here, underneath this one — your figures stay on screen and nothing is lost to a page change.
Protection this work requires
- Stop and check first. Paint under later coats in older housing can be lead-based, and sanding or heat-stripping it produces lead dust that is especially harmful to children and to anyone pregnant. Test before you disturb it — this is a job for a tested, controlled method, not a better mask.
Tools and safety for this job
To roll and cut in two coats and strip an old coating off timber. Generic types, no brands, no prices.
- Hardwood dust is a recognised carcinogen: extract at the tool and wear a P2/N95 respirator when cutting or sanding indoors.
- A dust mask does nothing about solvent vapour: ventilate through, and use an organic-vapour (A1) cartridge respirator in an enclosed room.
- Most fatal falls on small jobs are from under three metres: use a tower or a ladder tied at the top, and never work off the top two rungs.
Show the 10 tools this job needsHide tools
Essential
Brushes
Dust sheets and masking
Random orbital sander
Roller frame, sleeves and tray
Scraper
Shave hook
Recommended
Dust extractor or vacuum with a fine filter
Extension pole
Heat gun
Step ladder
Also needed as materials: abrasive discs, masking tape, plastic sheeting, roller sleeves.
what each painting tool is for, and the spec that decides which to buy where one does.