Pressure washed deck, now what?

[CoryDH]

Our back deck had a few years of tree grime built up. I pressure washed it and it looks great right now. Gonna give it a few days to dry out then need some info on good sealers. Thomspons was what i remember from back in the day. Anything else that would be better? I wanna try to keep the natural color. Deck was built before we moved in 3 years ago uncertain on actual age but def seems newer than 2002 built home. Constructed well and Im sure pressure treated lumber. Do I even need to re-seal/stain?

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[rockbust]

Pressure washing can open the grain up. yes seal it. I prefer to sand it but you need a heavy machine (220)or put some extra weight on a 110 v drum sander

 

[tom-ky]

I have had good l pretty good luck with Cabot Australian Timber oil.

 

[Hivolts]

Not a big fan of Thompson's. Had to reseal my Deck at least once a year. I tried Ready Seal and I'm sold on it.

 

[MarlynOC]

Ready Seal is the way to go. Also you can check out Armstrong Clark. We cleaned and sealed decks for over 25 yrs before retiring and used only Ready Seal. Hopefully when you cleaned the deck you did not find any residue of a previous coating. If so you will have to strip it and then neutralize it before using any sealer. When we did decks we automatically stripped them if we had not done them before. Sealers are NOT compatible.

 

[zak77]

I've use many sealers, tinted and not, water based and oil based, direct sun or shade, etc. For my own house i just pressure wash the deck, this past weekend actually, and i dont apply anything. I've been doing this 10 years now and the deck is 30 years old and it looks pretty good for it's age. It is at the end of it's useful economic life so i'm not spending much on it and dont care if i do a little damage to the wood with the pressure washer. I've never used Ready Seal i can speak of it's effectiveness but whatever you do, get a natural color so when you pressure wash it next year, it wont be a mix-match of colors due to some stain staying and most leaving/fading.

 

[Kaizen]

plan on doing several rounds of whatever you choose. let it soak in and repeat next day. hopefully you didn't raise the grain or it will be hairy and splinter city

 

[MarlynOC]

One of best things about Ready Seal you can walk on it right after you apply and you do not need to keep a wet edge when applying. That is why we used it for years on hundreds of jobs.

 

[ford33]

You said you want to keep the natural color. Wouldn't a light color semi-transparent stain provide more UV protection and even color than just a clear sealer?

 

[Quick240]

I used TWP 100 series with really good results. Not VOC compliant in all states, so you may not find it depending on where you live.

 

[woodee]

I really like WoodRx and used it on my new pergola a couple years ago. It still looks like the day I applied it

 

[CoryDH]

You said you want to keep the natural color. Wouldn't a light color semi-transparent stain provide more UV protection and even color than just a clear sealer?

Yea, I have been looking into this. Making it a lot more difficult than it needs to be. I stopped by Sherwin Williams the other day. Think I am going to go with a light semi-clear sealer. The Next gen line.


I didn't see any residue of any previous sealer. The deck is under 3 trees and looked like new lumber once I sprayed. No gray tint or anything. I think the tree build up actually protected it some. I will def. seal it.

Thanks for all the replies guys.

 

[B T C]

I would be interested in seeing some pics and hearing more about your experience.

My deck is pressure treated lumber. When my house was built in 2010-2011, they told me to do nothing to the deck for the first year or two. I've now followed that advice for 7-8 years and feel like I'm at the point where I need/have to do something. I bought a pressure washer late last summer and washing it will be the first step. After that, I really have no idea what to do other than seal it. I really have no clue what products I should be looking at.