Staining a deck for the first time

Originally Posted by Molitoth

I use thompsens water seal with the cedar stain.... but I don't know if it sucks or not because I've never used anything else.

You probably use Thompsens because your daddy used it. It was the best thing going for decades. But it's not nearly the product it used to be since they stopped using lead in it. Sure, it will do the trick but it's not rated as highly as other products in terms of longevity these days. There are much better values.