No stain or paint can adhere to dead wood fiber leading to major coating failure.
Why would stain peel from wood siding.
Instead the cracked wood is open for moisture intrusion from outside weather conditions leading to delamination and deterioration of the wood.
Another insidious cause of solid stain failure on cedar has to do with dead wood fiber on the face of the siding.
If there is too much stain it restricts the moisture from evaporating away so peeling can occur.
Why does peeling happen.
One principal factor in the peeling process of a coating from wood is the amount of water or moisture that infiltrates the wood siding.
Because wood absorbs moisture from rain and snow and when the sun comes out and dries the wood out the moisture vapor from the wood needs to be able to pass through the stain and escape.
If the wood is highly textured water remains on the total surface for extended time periods.
When the peeling stain is scraped off dead wood fiber often stays stuck to the back of the flake.
I suspect the deck was either painted or that it received multiple coats of stain.
Many environmental factors such as sunlight rain acid heat fungus growths oxygen wind.
Most stains absorb into the wood surface so they don t form a film that could peel off.
This is a telling sign of the problem.
They just weather away.