I'm not uncomfortable, I just wanted another opinion. The lady at Lowes was pretty adamant about only applying one coat. She said the warranty would be void. I don't care about the warranty, I don't expect any stain to last as long as they say. Too many variables.
Another question would be, if we do two coats and re-stain in the future, are we staining the wood or just adding stain on top of the other. When we stained it ourselves last time, I put two coats on the deck boards and the top railing board. The stain on the deck boards is virtually nonexistent. I had to sand the top rail to remove the old stain in a lot of places.
The painter started staining yesterday. I noticed the railing boards that have the new stain have patches that are shiny, places where the old stain was not completely oxidized or sanded.