Cleaning and sealing decks

[Suuzzee]

What are the best products to use and the preferred methods of application to clean, brighten and seal a 2-year-old deck made of treated lumber with nothing ever having been applied to it? Also, what's the difference between cleaners and brighteners? Is there one product that will do both jobs?

After doing much research on the web, I came up with much conflicting information about the products and methods. On some sites, it was difficult to tell whether a product was being recommended for use or just for sale. If anyone has recommendations from first-hand experience, I'd love to hear them. Here are some of products (in no particular order) that were repeatedly recommended:

Cleaners: Stain Solver or Oxy-Boost. (Both equally good; Stain Solver costs more.) Oxyalic acid TSP (sometimes the recommendation was to add TSP to oxygen bleach) DEFY Timber Wash Chlorine bleach was NOT recommended

Methods of Cleaning: Use brush or broom to scrub the stuff on, then rinse with hose. Pressure washing was NOT recommended

Brighteners: DEFY Wood Brightener (TimberBrite)

Sealants: TWP 100 series (semi-transparent stain) Cabot Sikkens Clear Wood Finish Olympic Clear Wood Preservative Olympic Water Guard Wood Clear Olympic Water Guard 57560 DEFY Clear UV-Resistant Clear Wood Finish DEFY Epoxy Fortified Wood Stain

MANY thanks for all assistance provided. Suze

[Suuzzee]

Hey folks, I really need your help with this! Suze

[Ermalina]

Clean and brighten with Dekswood (contains oxalic acid) -- best to use brush, elbow grease and garden hose rather than a pressure washer which easily can damage the wood. Use diluted bleach solution for any residual mildew spots.

Let dry for several days.

Then, when the deck is completely dry, on a day that's not too hot and when rain is not predicted for 24 hours, with the deck in the shade or the day is cloudy, brush on a thin coat of high-quality semi-transparent stain.

I did that 3 years ago, using Sikkens Cetol SRD (one-step) which is made especially for low-lying decks which tend to have moisture probs, and haven't needed to redo it since -- probably next year, though.