Re-wet Edge of Stain

Question

I'm staining a new shop (using Sikkens Cetol SRD) that's sided in T1-11 with cedar bats.

On the first day my partner got a little carried away and stained all of the walls from ground level up to about six feet.

Yesterday I tried staining up to (and slightly over) the previously stained portion and ended up with some pretty noticeable lap marks.

I'm hoping I can spread them out a bit with paint thinner or mineral spirits. Any advice in that area is also appreciated.

But my question is is there a good way to avoid new lap marks on the rest of the siding now that I no longer have a wet edge to work from? Would it make sense to brush some paint thinner or mineral spirits on the previously stained area before continuing the stain to the end of each section?

Answer 1

Unlike painting you cannot fix this by painting/staining over it seems. The only working solution is to remove stain somewhat uniformly from the overlapping areas using thinner. I'm not sure for how long after staining you can still use thinner. If that stops working, you can try paint/varnish strippers, which may remove some but not all staining because stain sinks into the wood fibers rather than forming a film like paint. Failing all that, you have to sand the wood to remove the marks.