Hi

Hope you can help me out with a question on wood stain.

I have friends in Southampton who would like to re-paint an existing timber
fence. The biggest problem they face is that it was originally painted with
a dark brown stain which has weathered down to a really disgusting mid brown
with bare timber streaks where the timber has moved over the years.

They would like to paint it a lighter colour, but I've told them that it's
highly unlikely to work unless they use a gloss paint, which would probably
look nice for about 5 mins.

My suggestion would be to try and find an opaque deep blue/black stain to
try and cover the patchy wood and act as a contrast to the foliage. Looking
at the Ronseal, Sikkens etc sites haven't yielded any good results.

Does anyone know of a suitable stain or have any better suggestions?

TIA

Tim