Thompsons water seal

[Jim]

Hello ,

I have used Thompsons water seal on my cedar deck for the past 6 or so years...I use the "Natural" stuff which preserves the wood and keeps the wood grain looking bright etc... My first year I used the stuff I got a jug that had been frozen and as a result the sealer didn"t dry so had to scrub it all off and start again......I got a few new cans and it went great... I could see the wood grain coming out and looking fresh and bright as I put the stuff on.. This year I bought these plastic jugs of Thompsons water seal (It usually comes in tins)...I figured that they just changed their packaging...it says its the same stuff on the jug, but when putting this stuff on it dosen't go on like the oil which brings out the wood grain..it is rather like a yellow milky substance that does nothing for the wood grain...I ony did a few sq feet and shut it down as I don"t want to have to scrub the entire deck like I had to years ago... Has anyone used this product that would care to comment? Thanks...Jim

[pipedown]

Even if it is the exact same product there is no reason to expect it to make the wood look the same as it did when it was new considering it doesn't sound like you did much prep. Did you power wash? You need to get the oxidized wood, dirt and any residual old sealer off before the new sealer will take to the wood like when it was new.

[Robert Neville]

It sounds like they've reformulated to use a water base instead of a solvent base. Do you live in California? There are some really goofy regs from CARB that drive companies to lower VOCs. Read the label carefully and see if it says "water based" or something similar.

[Frank]

I think they reformulated for VOC'c as other respondent says. Last year, I applied some to our swim club's picnic benches and it went on milky and particles were crystallizing out. It could not be applied from a sprayer as in previous years as it clogged the sprayer nozzle.

I also had an old can which I used to touch up my deck this year and it did not show this problem.