Deck stain lap marks — carry each board full length
Lap marks come from stopping mid-board and restarting over a dried edge, which double-coats a line that dries darker. The fix is to carry each board its full length to a natural break, keeping the leading edge wet — work only 2–3 boards at a time.
What this diagram shows
A top-down right-versus-wrong contrast of deck boards. On the right way, each board is stained its full length to a natural break with the wet leading edge running off the end, giving even color. On the wrong way, staining was stopped in the middle of the boards and restarted, so a dark lap-mark stripe crosses every board where the dried edge was double-coated.
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