Thompsons water seal equivilent?

[Jim]

Hello,

I have sort of a "love hate" relationship with this Thompsons Water sealer for my deck. I use it every year to seal my cedar deck boards and cedar deck walls. It looks absolutely fantastic! It brings out the wood grain to make everything new again.... problem is the beautiful look is freaking gone a year later...I am buying the UV protected stuff that is supposed to not allow any greying/weathering.... sooooo my question is this.... Is there a product that will make my deck look as nice as Thompsons water sealer THAT WILL LAST?....at least more than one summer! Thank you... Jim

[Joe]

Consumer Reports and many posts in this NG have shown the poor performance of this product. Apparently, you never bothered to check it out, and like many of us, simply buy it because the container is so pretty. Obviously, Thompsons is an inadequate product. So head off to your library and dig out Consumer Reports as a starting point. From there, use Google for more info. Then the archives of this NG. Ask at your local real honest-to-gosh paint store for advice. Find a store that sells building maintenance products and check their products. Finally, why did you persist in not allowing the cedar to weather gracefully? It looks fine on 200 year old dwellings in New England. Preserving the new cedar appearance might be possible with some very $ $ marine finishes, but using Thomsons usually means nothing else will ever adhere to the wood again. FWIW, it might just be best to let it all age and concentrate on other matters.

Joe

[Frank]

I feel the same way. I prefer their sealer with stain but only color remains after a year. I think the active ingredient is wax and a few years ago, engineering for low VOC's crystals were precipitating preventing me from using a tank sprayer.

Little googling shows something with silicone would be better:

but on bare wood, you'll still get graying. May not look as bad on cedar as it looks on my pressure treated deck.

[ransley]

For clear coat nothing lasts, the CR review shows 6 stains which Thonpsons makes 3 types and one of them CR says looks better at 3 years than top rated behr and the other Thompsons with same name, is poor, so you have to read the review, I dont understand the review as Thompsons water seal deck and house seems to have two listings together, and one is poor. But clear coats are a yearly ordeal, CR is confusing and many companies are not listed like Sikkens, Ben moore, Sherwin Williams, Olympic , so its a crap ass review. I bought a JD single stage snowblower on their bad rating, it clogs in wet snow, my neighbors have Toros, they dont clog so the idiots at CR didnt test it in heavy wet snow, My Toro lawnmower bogs in damp stuff bad, my old Lawnboy doesnt but the toro is rated higher and I think had a rod knock from new. CR dosnt seem to work or test Midwest conditions, but they cant figure that out, They would rate a B&D battery drill over a Dewalt or Bosch, Miwaulkee from run time and balance alone, so beware, they dont use the stuff or rate things right.

[Jim Elbrecht]

-snip-

Yeah- but our gr-gr-gr-grandpa had more sense than to use it as a floor. Cedar is way too soft to walk on, IMO.

My brother does a lot of work on an upscale ski slope 'development'. When the cedar craze hit, everyone had him tear out their PT decks and replace them with cedar. A few years later they had him tear out the cedar to put Ipe in. Then the Ipe craze passed and he tore out a few to put some sort of plastic stuff in.

He has a nice barn framed in PT, sheathed with 8/4 cedar, with an Ipe floor. All from lumber that was headed for the dump.

Jim

[Ed Pawlowski]

Penofin oil. They have a few types and they work well. Good UV protection too.

[Red Green]

"Jim" wrote in news:GYidnWuUq6q6-QPWnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

Thompsons water seal equivilent? ====> Water

[buffalobill]

buffalo ny: years back, i read the can, and consumer reports, and learned that it was at best a temporary rain/snow repellent; i didn't want the dogs tracking the oil ingredients back into the house. our 10x25 second floor deck of 1990 pressure treated pine wood has a half roof and a dog door. but your brain against all common sense wants to put something on it because you want to repel the urine etc. and make it so it can look new again. so i tried one of the latex type stains in a lighter color one year and it looked uneven and worse by the year as i am letting it blister off over several years. depending on your climate and the wood and its surface condition, i would now try to have it gently sanded after you carefully pressure wash it and let it dry out completely for a couple of weeks. another early mistake was i applied urethane to the top wood of the surrounding railing where you park your picnic plates. that peeled after a year and looked bad. right now i have rubber-back janitor mat and a rug over wintertime which will help to self-peel off the old latex stain on the surface.

[ransley]

Is Penofin avalaible at Ace or Box stores, have you seen it in quarts, can it be used at 45-50f? I need some treatment on 20 sq ft of new pine to protect and dont want a gallon.

[Jon Danniken]

Close, it's nothing more than paraffin wax dissolved in mineral spirits. It is to "wood protecting" what whitewash was to paint.

Jon

[ransley]

The original Thompsons is wax as the preserver.

[Ed Pawlowski]

"ransley" wrote

It is available in quarts, but not every place stocks it that way.

Find a dealer or internet store at

Some Ace may have it but the big box stores do no.

[Phisherman]

Once I applied Cabot Decking stain, never looked back.. Thompson's anything was crap. The decking stain I used was driftwood grey, and the deck really does look like driftwood. Got several complements.

[OrdinaryPerson]

replying to Jim Elbrecht, OrdinaryPerson wrote: Would be nice to be courteous enough to not use only "in" words that only those "inside" the industry (whatever it is ) would understand. PT lpe

[Ed Pawlowski]

Huh? What is "inside" about Ipe? It is as secretive as using oak or maple.

[Hammer N. Saw]

replying to Ed Pawlowski, Hammer N. Saw wrote: Yes, Ordinary Person. Your statement goes to show that ignorance can be cured, but stupidity is forever. Please take the cure before returning. BTW, did you realize you were replying to a six year old post?