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Valspar One-Coat Exterior Solid Stain & Sealer Review

Check out my honest review of Valspar One Coat Exterior Stain and Sealer product. I used it to cover an outdoor three tiered planter project and it worked really well!

You know I’m all about trying different paint products. I’m always looking for a good outdoor paint and stain as well! How do you know how to choose the right paint? I hope that I can shed some light on the Valspar One Coat Exterior Stain and Sealer today with an honest review.

Disclosure; this post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This does not affect the price you pay. This disclosure statement refers to the rest of the Amazon links in this post.

Let me first show you what I’ll be painting.

3 Tier Cedar Raised Garden Bed from Walmart:

tiered planter

You’ll notice that the product looks a little different than it does in the product picture. I added bead board to the top so it would be a potted planter.

My purpose for this planter is to cover the old grinder pump. Remember when I previously added an outdoor table to cover the unsightly grinder pump? Well I got tired of it and wanted something new.

Shocker right?

Once the garden bed was assembled I had to make the big decision; which paint or stain to use.

I was mainly looking for durability through the heat, humidity and harsh elements here in the south.

I researched a lot of products and here is what I came up with for a great deck or outdoor stain.

Best exterior stain for wood in a solid color

BEHR Premium Solid Color Exterior Wood Stain and Sealer

  • Ideal for wood and composite surfaces
  • Water based formula
  • 2 coats recommended
  • Mildew resistant
  • Available in 60 colors
  • 2 hour dry time

Cabot  Neutral Base Solid Exterior Wood Stain and Sealer

  • Acrylic water based formula
  • Superior UV protection and water repellent
  • Mildew Resistant
  • 6 hour dry time
  • Scuff resistant
  • 50 plus colors

Valspar One-Coat Solid Stain and Sealer

  • One coat stain and sealer
  • 10 year guarantee on decks
  • Soap and water cleanup
  • 4 hour dry time
  • Water based formula
  • Thick formula so not great in a paint sprayer
  • Many color options

I choose to buy the Valspar Exterior paint mainly for the one coat coverage. Is that lazy? Maybe but I wanted to give it a try.

That being said I’m always leary about a “one coat coverage.” We will touch on this later in the post.

Valspar One Coat Exterior Stain and Sealer in Solid

Availability of Colors

When I went to the hardware store to purchase the stain, I asked for a color chart. The sales lady pulled out a chart from another Valspar product and said she could mix any of those particular colors into the stain. The chart had about 25 different options. I chose the color “Driftwood.”

If you look on their website under the One-Coat solid stain and sealer, You will find 63 available colors for the “solid” stain.

I’m sure the sales lady was correct and you can mix a multitude of colors into the stain, but the color I chose on paper did not seem to be the color that showed up when I opened the can.

I was looking for a very neutral color that would match everything. Afterall, the exterior color of my home is bright green.

First thoughts on Valspar One-Coat solid stain and sealer

When I first opened the can, I was amazed at how thick the consistency was! No joke, when I dipped my paintbrush in it, it felt like I was pulling out jello (maybe that’s a wee bit of a stretch, but not terribly).

VALSPAR® ONE-COAT SOLID STAIN & SEALER in Driftwood

All that to say that this Valspar deck stain is a THICK paint. I guess it has to be thick to be a “one-coat” paint, right?

After I stirred it briefly, I started to apply it with a synthetic paint brush.

VALSPAR® ONE-COAT SOLID STAIN & SEALER in Driftwood

It goes on smooth and has decent coverage. I could immediately see why it would only require one coat.

It took about 30 minutes to paint one coat on the entire surface.

Does the “One-Coat” stain really only require one coat?

This is a subjective question. In my opinion you could definitely get away with only applying one coat of this product.

That being said, if you want good solid coverage, you will probably need to apply a second coat in a few places.

I was able to get by with one coat of paint for the sides of the planter but I did apply two coats on top of the bead board. Could I have left only one coat on the tops and it look ok? Yes, but there were a few spots that looked transparent and I wanted a full solid coverage.

Also, I knew if it looked transparent now, it would only continue to lighten up over time (with all the elements).

Paint coverage

For one full coat of stain and 2 coats on the tops for the beadboard, I used 1/2 can (1 Quart can).

Like I said, it’s a thick paint so it doesn’t go as far!

The maximum coverage area is 35 square feet and minimum is 150.

Valspar one coat solid stain and sealer

Above is what it looks like with one dry coat of stain.

VALSPAR ONE-COAT SOLID STAIN & SEALER in color Driftwood

This is what two coats on the top looks like.

Check out more of my Paint reviews below:

Best White Paint Products for Kitchen Cabinets

Valspar Cabinet and Furniture Paint Review

Best Metallic Paint for Furniture

Heirloom Traditions All-in-One paint review

Rust-Oleum Home Floor Coating

Final Thoughts

Valspar One-Coat Exterior solid stain and sealer is a great product that has good coverage. They have a good range of colors to choose from and it’s about the same price as the other solid stains and sealers.

I’ll do a review in about six months to show how this stain has held up. Until then, I give this product two thumbs up!

Thanks for following and don’t forget to check out a few other paint reviews here.

Lindsey**

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  1. Brenda Lucas says:

    I will be interested to hear from you in six months. My HUGE deck looked good in October when I finished it with Valspar. In April it was ruined. There was a white undercoat with the color separated and peeling off all over the deck. Ruined the whole deck.

    • Actually it’s been way over a year and it still looks great! That being said I applied it to unfinished wood. Was your surface previously finished? It sounds like it didn’t adhere properly to begin with.