Choosing a Deck Protectant

Greg Reveles: Hello, my name is Greg Reveles, I am the founder of Renorr Dynamics Incorporated, Alexandria, Virginia. We are having a discussion on how to on properly clean and preserving your deck. A couple of days ago we washed the deck, we have allowed it ample time for drying and now we are going to make a decision and select between a sealer, a stain, a wood preservative or painting. One of the pros and cons of each, we have selected to do an application of wood preservative.

An oil based wood preservative, it looks good. It protects the wood from ultraviolets, from rain, snow and so forth. Sealers are another option, sealers -- they do not cover or color the wood. They are much thinner but they do provide some protection for the wood. The next option would be to go with paint, painting is probably the least chosen. Once you paint a deck then you are going to having a deal with issues of flaking and pealing eventually.

So for that reason, I really don't recommend it but some people may choose to do it. It is just going to take you a lot more long term deck maintenance. So today again, we are going to go with a oil based wood preservative and let us begin by applying that to the deck now.