What deck sealer should I use?
 

I built a new deck with pergola last summer. Power washed this week and am looking to seal it now.

What is the best sealer out there in your opinion?

I am looking for a clear sealer.

It faces the south with no shade from nearby trees...hence the pergola. It gets beat by the summer sun.

Cabot is the best. Clear looks great but you will be refinishing at least every other year if you want it to stay looking good. I am in the middle of re building my whole deck and am using composite. I am done with all the work wood requires.

Phobia should know

Benjamin Moore is the best ive found.

Cabot hands down is the best I've ever used.

B. Moore soacks in and seals it unlike many that have a wax base like Thompsons Waterseal. That stuff wears off in a few months of hot summer sun.

I have never used Cabot I will have to give it a look see and see what the ingredients are.

My wife and I have sanded and refinished our 12' x 12' deck 2 or 3 times now after having it power washed. I'll ask her when she gets home which 2 brands we used. Junk whatever they were and promised.
Pretty sure one was Thompsons.

Both lasted one rainy season. Of course we live in a 3 month rainforest but when you spend more $$ to buy a guarantee for something to last x amout of time, only thing to hope for is luck I guess? And we didn't get lucky.

When the better half gets home tonight I'll ask and post then. :thumb: ;)

Pretty much anything not called Thompson's Water Seal.

Use the shit they put on wooden telephone poles. That seems to last ten plus years.

The picture of Seal scared me.

CP members homemade version out of their seed

Bags of semen dude . Bags of semen .

TWP or Cabot, and to a lesser extent Olympic I've had decent luck with.

May have to postpone the sealing to next weekend. Home Depot didn't have Cabots, they only had Bher and TWS.

Gonna try Lowes this week.

Sealmax

Try Penofin, google it up.

Sikkens if you can find it

I hope this is legit, I just picked some up at 50% off in OP today.

Assuming that the deck is fully exposed to the weather, seems to me like they all suck. The shitty ones, you need to re-do every year. The "good" ones, you still pretty much have to re-do every year, maybe two.

It's even worse if the deck is mostly in the shade cause that water will get into every crevice and won't dry out normally. Speeds up the wood rot considerably.

Yep.

The next time I do major re-work on my deck, we're putting in composite.

This will be my main summer project. Which brand/type are you going with?

I have learned that the hard way. We have used three five gallon pales of it on the three decks down in Missouri and it disappears in a couple of months. Going to try something better this summer, so this is a good thread.

Creosote

http://www.menards.com/main/exterior...742-c-7956.htm

This is what I've used. Applied it 3 years ago and the deck still repels water and looks great.

SealMax. When it absolutely, positively has to last FOREVER.