Subject: cedar deck preservation

From: slaton <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1997 15:42:29 -0600

Any of you guys had any pleasant experiences with deck preservatives.  
Everyone in the industry seems to sell "THE ABSOLUTE BEST".  Some truly 
awful. Any comments appreciated before I spray a nice new cedar deck 
with some crap.

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From: damian drewek <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1997 16:24:48 -0600

> awful. Any comments appreciated before I spray a nice new cedar deck

All I can say is let me know when you find the "best".  I use CWF-UV and
it lasts 1 year and then I have to pressure wash and reseal.  I live in
the Midwest and it does take a beating.  If I ever build another, I'll
use green treated and let it go (or use concrete!).

BTW it looks GREAT for about 1-2 months after I seal it!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS - I am thinking of trying CWF or some Stain and then putting good old
fashion Thompsons to seal the prettiness of the CWF.  Lastly, my
neighbor tried Thompson WOOD sealer, looks like crap.

Good Luck.
DAmian

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From: [email-masked] (Gary Watts)
Date: 11 Feb 1997 22:34:36 GMT

slaton ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Any of you guys had any pleasant experiences with deck preservatives.  
: Everyone in the industry seems to sell "THE ABSOLUTE BEST".  Some truly 
: awful. Any comments appreciated before I spray a nice new cedar deck 
: with some crap.

Well, I'm interested also.  I built 2 different decks 1 1/2 years ago.  One
has SunFrog, a locally made (West Linn, OR) product.  The other was treated
with CWF-UV from the Flood company.  I also treated my new cedar fence with
the CWF-UV.  The Sun Frog treated deck isn't too bad but had darkened quite a
bit.  I also have a deck for the main entry that's covered overhead that
I treated twice with the SunFrog but it doesn't do well with heavy traffic
and has scuff marks from various peoples shoes.

The CWF-UV deck got off to a bad start.  The deck was properly dried but 
got a light rain on it before it dried.  It is water based so it didn't
dry and turned a milky white.  I called the company and they told me to
wait until next year, then retreat it.  I cleaned it with their deck
restorer (which didn't do anything on this deck) and reapplied.  This
was last summer.  Right now, it's got bare spots where the material
didn't soak in and therefore flaked off.  The remainder is beginning to
look aged but not particuliarly silver.

I'm not sure if the CWF-UV is part of the problem or if it was just the
initial application.  Anyway, I still don't have strong recommendation
on a brand name for sealing.  

I did read an article in one of the homebuilding mags like Fine Homebuilding
on finishes.  It was a research project from a University like Wisconsin
I think.  The conclusion for was a penetrating finish was far superior to
any kind of coating (sealer or paints) that merely coated the surface. 
With the present condition of my deck, I'm ready to just paint it!!!

Gary Watts

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From: Neil Williams <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 1997 10:08:10 -0800

> awful. Any comments appreciated before I spray a nice new cedar deck

Don't know if this helps, but I've had an Adirondack chair on my back
porch where it's exposed to direct sun most of the day. Anyway, it's 
been out there 3-4 years now, through rain and shine (but no snow).

When it was new, I sanded and stained the unfinished wood with some
gel stain whose name escapes me. Then I covered it with three coats
of Varathane's exterior finish, semi-gloss (the oil-based mixture).
Oh, I also applied 2 coats of stain.

The finish had held up pretty well. It's no longer glossy, but there's
absolutely no fading of the stain yet. The chair has just recently
(last month) started building up some mold on a couple of the horizontal
surfaces, so I'll probably clean it up and reseal again with the
varathane this summer.

I also did a bench at the same time as the adirondack chair, but only
used one coat of stain and one coat of the varathane (I was getting
tired by then). The color of the stain is still the same as the
adirondack chair.

--Neil