Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - Can I put stain over worn porch paint?

The porch on my century home was obviously last spruced up many, many years ago. I'm not sure if the railing, spindles and deck were stained or painted. I suspect they were painted because the garage door trim is the same color and it's flaking. (Stain doesn't flake, right?)

I'd prefer to stain since paint would first require doing everything with primer. The current surface is very worn. If it was painted long ago, would a high quality solid color stain now penetrate evenly? Thanks.

No, any remaining old paint would tend to repel solid color stain, since the old painted surface is comparatively slick compared to your areas of bare wood. Solid color stain is basically just very thin paint, so the stain you have selected will probably not cover up your old paint completely unless you give it several coats. Even then, solid color stain will not do a very good job of covering up old flakes of paint. You'll see the texture of the old paint right through it.

Years ago [as an employee] I have painted/stained a few well worn [almost unpainted] homes/structures with solid latex stain with decent results. The stain was sprayed so coverage of the remaining old paint wasn't really an issue.

XSleeper is right that any texture differences from raw to painted will be noticable. While stain often doesn't require priming it still requires prep. Proper prep is important no matter what type of finish is used.

I have never seen stain peel unless there was an underlying problem. Paint and stain can usually be gotten in the same color although they may appear different due to the substrate they are applied to. Covered porches seldom recieve the weather that open areas do, so the paint/stain will have a longer life.

Old paint often breaks down and becomes chaulky - this should not be painted over as the paint/stain won't adhere well and will fail prematurely. The substrate needs to be brought to a good paintable condition before painting. Porch floors should be painted with a stain/paint that is recomened for floors/decks.

Thanks for the advice. Opting for paint allowed us to pick a historical color. The first coat is now on and the porch looks great -- the historical color really picks up this tired old, old house.

I also washed the grime-infested white aluminum eavestroughs, soffits and other trim. Really made a difference!

Thanks again.