Water sealing my newly made deck

[FardinA]

Hi there, I have built my deck just a month ago. Frame is made of Pressure Treated and deck board (top) is made of Cedar. Due to rainy/snow weather here in Alberta, I have not had chance to water seal my deck. All I have done so far is just cover the deck with plastic sheet so at least water cannot get into the boards. My plan is just to wait for sunny days to do the seal. Temperature here won't be that high any more (max 20C). Here is my question: Is this a good plan to seal my deck board this year OR just let the wood to expose to the weather (rain+snow (-20C) ) until next spring for water sealing. I know that exposing bare wood to harsh weather would screw up the wood, but on the other hand I am not so sure if I can get enough sunny days for a good water sealimg job. My water sealer is Sikkens which is a good one (trust my neighbor ;) ).

thanks a lot

[Doug Brown]

Well Fardin I live in Regina. I built a similar deck 4 years ago, PT frame and cedar top. I too use Sikkens. I haev not yet had a chance to clean and re-seal my deck this year. Our weather is a little better than yours ;), but not a lot. At least we don't have snow (yet).

I plan to try and pressure wash the deck and re-seal it using Sikkens before fall really sets in.

Sikkens works very well to keep Cedar looking like cedar - I hate that "lovely grey shade" that it turns to.

[JGS]