Hi Folks can any one point me in the right direction in choosing a good deck stain... Something that will. LAST... Thanks much...

What kind of wood are you staining?

http://doityourself.com/info/longlastingdeck

Questionable stain results :

My pressure treated wood deck was really beat up when we bought this house... I'm sure it went at least 4-5 years not properly treated. Cleaning this deck did not do a lot. Lots of work for mediocre results.

We used wolman durastain semi (menards)... was ranked high by consumer reports and their testing said itd last 2.5-3 years (I think)... just struggled getting the stain into the wood evenly and I did all the right pretreatments. Also too opaque for my tastes, but I think that's why c.r. rated it higher, as more opaque stains tend to last longer.

Personally, id rather stain every year or other year with a more transparent than have this "painted" look.

So not sure that its all the stains fault, as my wood was so weathered... but I won't use it again, even on a new deck.

It also really depends on what sort of wood you are staining. Treated wood for example will only hold certain types of stains. Cedar usually does good with just a polyurethane coat on it.