Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

So I put my Troy Built 2550 psi pressure washer to use and cleaned my unbelievably large wood deck.  Came out great (I'll post a before and after photo when I'm done).  I don't want to have to do this every year, so I need the board's advice on the best sealer to finish the job.  I don't think I'm going to stain the deck (I think the fading would get on my nerves), so I'm looking for a clear or tinted sealer that hopefully will give me a few years good protection.  What do y'all like? TIA!

I would think that Thomsons Water Seal would be a good choice wouldn't you?

I've heard raves about Thompson's, but I've also read a bit from those who think it's a reputation only product (like Bose).  Since I know there are many on the board that have done their own decks I wanted to get some opinions here.  Actually I've recently heard some very good things about Thompson's new Advanced line.  As of now that is what I'm leaning towards.

There are several good brands but Thomsons is the one I hear people using all the time

Regular tompsons is cheap stuff. You barelly get a year or so out of it.( Consumers reports backs this claim up )  They now make a better, Super version that works better, more solids in it. Max life for a deck sealer, on a Horizontal surface, is usually only 2-4 years, because of the extreme abuse from ice, snow, water and walking .

I sold Paint ( Benj Moore and Sears ) for years , and the reps always said, if they dont buy ours, sell anything but Thompsons.

Take a look at Cabot. They make excellent products. - Kris

I can tell you from personal experience the only brand I would ever use anymore is called one time wood.  Here is the link to their site http://www.onetimewood.com/     We stained my deck and the deck of my best friend several years ago with this product and it still looks great.  My neighbors used cuprinol and another used aa product by flood.  Within two years they were re-applying the product, but not me.  Yes it is expensive, but the amount of time it saves you from not having to re-apply it every two years is well worth it.  I highly recommend this product to anyone getting reaady to do their deck or childs swingset etc.

Hi NYCGator...

Ok... what kind of wood is it ? (assunption)... 

Deck Board  dimensions?  (I.e. 2"x"6"... 1"x4"...)...

Open joints between boards ? ... or tight tongue & groove flooring ?

Smooth ? a little rough ? kinda' rough ? (surface)...

Location in country ? amount of sun & rain that hits it ?   Near the ocean ?

How far off the ground ? Usual use for the deck ?

$$$ any limitation ? Will apply yourself or hire someone ?

Welcome to the best OPE site !

Dave...

Dave,

Here's more info.

1)     Deck board is almost all pressure treated 2" x 4" (wouldn't have been my choice but I didn't build it).  A cabana addition is 2" x 6".

2)     Open joints between the boards

3)     Kinda rough in spots with some splits in some boards (nothing too bad).  The prior owner did not take good care of the deck.

4)     Located on on Long Island, but not on the water (ocean is several miles away).  Most of the deck gets alot of sun exposure as well as rain when well it rains.

5)     The deck has three levels.  The top level is substantially above the ground, the second level is raised about a foot and the last level is on the ground.  Deck is usual use and houses my outdoor table and chairs, sun chairs, BBQ.

6)     No real limitation on $$$.  I will gladly pay more for a longer lasting finish and better quality finish.  Given the size of the deck and my limited time this summer, I am going to hire someone to do the finish work.

I look forward to any suggestions you may have.  Right now I am leaning towards Superdeck's Pressure Treated Stain/Sealer.

CR tested them. Thompson's did not do wel.. The more opaque the longer they last: Here's the Summary:

Best for most decks:
1, 2 Cabot $24, $29
3 Wolman $25
The Cabots are outstanding opaque treatments. (1), an alkyd, cleans up with solvent; (2), a latex, cleans up with water. The Wolman (3) is the best choice for wood worth showing off; it's an alkyd but cleans up with water. Most semitransparent products we tested are alkyds, but (12) is a latex.

#1 Cabot Decking Stain 1480
#2 Cabot Solid Color 1880

3 Wolman DuraStain 18146
#4 Benjamin Moore Moorwood 065

#5 Akzo Nobel Sikkens Cetol SRD 1708902

#5 Behr Deck Plus 200 line

I used a Behr semi-transparent because my wife liked the Color and Home Depot stocks it. I picked a color that thy always stock because you'll have to do it every two years or so. I put two coats on with a airless spray gun for the vertical serfaces and a rolloer or the deck. We have a two story deck so it's a brutal job. I've used Cetol a lot on boats and it holds up well.

Thanks for finding that article Garandman.

Just be carefull with any Solid Color stain, or one that doesnt specifically say DECK ( Horizontal Surface is sometimes used) on it. Some stains will not hold up 6 months if they are walked on. Will end up with traffic wear  and nasty peeling.

 All,

A very easy way to put on transparent  or tinted stain is to use a hand pump sprayer.

They cost no more than $15.00. You may use a little more stain with the sprayer, but it sure goes on fast!!

 You can buy them at Lowe's or HD!!

                                                                                          Fred  

jubol wrote:

I went with TREX, so I dont have to stain anymore. The price difference pays for itself in under 5 YEARS !!

I have to stresss again the onetimewood product.  I have built numerous decks and have used just about everykind of deck sealer out there and none compare to the one time wood.  Rule of thumb, each $10 per gallon generally equals 1 year of wear before resealing.  That is why the products costing 20 to 30 buck need to be reapplied every two to three years and if you have a lot of traffic or harsh sun even sooner.  I don't work for bond industries but when I find a product that works I highly recommend it.  For a comparison, the other products are like using stabil compared to using PRI-G for fuel treatment.  Yes PRI-G is more expensive but how much better does it work.  I think most of us here can agree that it is a much superior product to the stabil and that is my experience with the onetime wood product compared to the other ones out there.  I really think you would be doing yourself a disservice if you did not at least check it out.  Here is the website again www.onetimewood.com

I think I will let my deck go and replace with that plastic decking they have out now.  There are very many benefits to those products.  For future reference is TREX about the best there is? 

AJace wrote:
Consumer Reports tested 16 different synthetic decking materials.  In general they all worked pretty well and are competitive in price with hardwoods but 1.5 to 3 or 4 times pressure treated pine. All the vertical parts and the joists are still wood because the synthetics aren't stiff enough.

Well-rated materials included Eon Deckboard; Veranda Composite; ChoiceDeck Plus; Evergreen (Epoch); WeatherBest Premium. Some of them pretend to look like wood, others don't.

AJace wrote:

Im on my 3rd year with Trex. Only maintainance is pressure washing it yearly to remove the mold and moss that almost every deck acumulates. And be carefull, you can cut trex in half with a washer, so use a wide pattern nozzle.

I have NO SPLINTERS, where my neighbors 1 year old deck has given my wife and myself splinters. The colour is through the material, so no cost for stain, no day off to do the staining.

As far as cost, when I bough Trex, it was $22 per 16' Board( Have receipt still). #1 Pressure treated was at about $15 Board. I used 50 Boards or so. So trex cost About $350 extra. But you saved on stain, about $80-100 and all that labour. A Very wise investment in a long term item.

Edit: I have conventional wood railings, topped with trex. The composite railings were incredibly expensive, I think 40-50 a foot !! Would have doubled or trippled my cost. But with a trex topper, no splinters from railings,.

Yes, splinters was on my list also.  Rhino Deck is also another plastic deck.  It has a 10 year warranty.  I guess they are all about recycling so we are walking on some awesome conglomerated stuff. Looks like Tri-Max is another one with a 50 year warranty.  Appears Tri-Max and Rhino are together, not sure why the warranty is different.

Call a few Lumber yards. My distributor had a sample deck made from about 5 different brands of composite decking. One felt and sounded like a Aluminum bleacher !? Some are hollow composites, some solid.

Also, the color from the factory is bright, and fades to the final shade. You'l want to see that before a final choice.

I used one of those products from the big orange box to build the ramp for my shed.
I used it on the top and on the bottom so it, not the pressure treated side runners of the frame of the ramp are sitting on the dirt.
It's holding up great, but when in flip flops or when wet it can be slippery.
I've done some good splits.

There's a tread built into the surface and works great dry, but not always wet.

Careful Ramit,  I haven't yet achived a split. 

Ajace,
I certainly can not to one on command, so it's a very big unwelcome surprise when it happens. Before to much personal damage is done I guess I should put some traction tape on the boards.

Thanks for all the input everyone.  I ultimately decided on Cabot's Deck Stain in Rosewood.  Consumer Reports ranks it number one, but that was only one factor in the decision.  I'll post some before and after pictures soon, but the deck came out great.  What a difference from looking worn and grey to almost new and well . . . red.

The wood really soaked up the stain; it took 22 gallons (told y'all it was a big deck).  I'm glad I had someone do the work because it was a really big project.  My stainer (he also did the stain/poly on my new handrail and balusters on my staircase) used two guys for one day and four guys for the better part of another day.  That's a lot of man hours, mostly because of how much vertical surface I needed stained (the railing and balusters).  If anyone on Long Island needs a recommendation for a painter/stainer, let me know as my guy is top notch and fairly priced.

And to uc113, thanks for the recommendation of onetime.  I strongly considered it, but it would have added $1250 to the project and I couldn't justify the cost.  I don't need to get seven years out of the stain, as I plan to do an addition to the kitchen and dining room of my home in 3-5 years, which will cause me to change the layout of my deck.  When I redo the deck, I'm going to do it with TimberTek or the like.

Thanks again to all and I'll post pictures soon.

Congratulations on getting the deck done.  you were not kidding when you said the deck was large.  22 Gallons of onetime would have definately been very expensive.  Keep it in mind if you do any other outdoor wood projects that need to be sealed.  You will be very happy with it.  Enjoy your deck.

Have you heard of this PlastIron stain?  I bought some on craigslist and they say it has really high metal content - the thing says mica, titanium, iron, and calcium and a guy said that these metals make sparkles which are mirrors.  so i put the stain on and it does have tons of little sparkles.  they guy said that the mirrors deflect the uv better then anything on the market.  and told me to imagine a sheet of metal being put over the deck to protect it.  he said the sparkles are like a sheet of metal. he said that even though many millions of sparkles are covered by the stain so you can't see them, it is almost like have one thin sheet of metal covering the deck or fence.  so some space that aren't sparkling have sparkles that are covered by stain?  ok i get it.  did anybody here know if high metal sparkles in stain should deflect uv?  does it make it better?

PlastIron stain is frigging awesome.  We use it exclusively now.  Like 15 years ago we used Olympic products then in 2000 switched to Super Deck for both fences and decks.  It was okay but the oil products would darken older wood and the color wouldn't be true.  Then a few years ago we switched to the Behr products and they were okay, but then we found Plast Iron and it is our favorite by far. Nothing is like it due to the very high metal content.  It looks like normal stain except it sparkles when you're up close to it.  That's the metal particles reflecting the sun's rays away from the wood.  I have never seen the product fail and we have never -not once- had to perform warranty work on any plastiron decks or fences.  I'm a professional without about 15 years of experience and have used at least a little of ALL of the products out there and I recommend it.  Thumbs up.

Wood decks are never supposed to be finished with a "Film-Forming" finish.  That advice, and the rest, is from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory (www.FPL.FS.FED.US) so it is scientifically proven, and the FPL has been around for 100 years.   Sunlight makes any wood surface erode.  Therefore any coating applied to a wood surface, like your deck, that is constantly exposed to sunlight, will need to be constantly reapplied.  Even penetrating oil stains have the problem because the oil penetrates but any coloring pigments do not.  The pigments cling only to the surface fibers, which are constantly departing due to the sunlight damage (photochemical degradation).  Incidentally the photochemical response to the lignin in wood being damaged by sunlight is universal, it turns color.  It Turns Grey.  Now you know why all wood turns grey in the sun. The wood fibers in plastic wood composite usually have the same reaction, only because they aren't wood, the WPC materials like trex end up looking more like concrete. Wood makes a better deck because it doesn't hold the summer heat. Wood is an insulator, especially softwoods like cedar.  Wood is also resilient so it springs back when you step on it, it is not dead like concrete or WPC.  Makes standing on wood far more comfortable than concrete or WPC decking.  The other thing is the plastic soften and bend over the joists over time, especially in hot climates.  Wood has its own strength and doesn't do that. 

Use a clear finish and it wears off the fastest because it has the least ability to resist sunlight.  Semi-transparents last longer because they have pigments to offset some sunlight damage.  Cleaning wood is done without a power washer, which will turn a smooth wood deck into one with grain raise and often a torn stringy surface in need of sanding.  Wash the dirt and mildew by using some oxiclean or if the deck is fairly clean, some powered laundry (Tide with Bleach) detergent.  Brush the surface with the solution, let it sit (do it on an overcast day)for 15 minutes, brush it again (i use soft push broom ) then rinse it well.  The deck is now clean.  Stains can be removed with wood brightener read the label, you want Oxalic Acid, NOT sodium Percarbonate ( that's what's in the oxi-clean).  3ounces in 1 gallon warm water (careful it'sPoison to people and pets) will remove any stains, then rinse again.  When dry refinish the deck. Oil stains -NEVER apply more than 1 Coat, they will prevent mildew only when they dry completely.  Two coats become "Miracle Grow for Mold & Mildew" because they stay wet and oily.

Clean wood decks in cool weather for best results never in hot mid-summer sun, which actually causes damage to the wood.