Deck seal and/or stain

I heard that paint will peel on a deck or wooden porch unless you put a vapor barrier down to prevent moisture.

 

Have an older family lake home. Deck is 20 years old and likely has not been restained for 7 years. We are going with Sherwin Williams deck paint. We'll see how it goes.

My preference is just to let it go and replace or reface with composite. Wood decks are too much time and money in terms of maintinence.

My dad does fine woodworking in his spare time. Grew up with gorgeous real wood furniture. My skin crawls when thinking of painting a wood deck. I prefer natural cedar, but the deck is too far gone to restore to that

 

Your advice makes sense but for me, my deck is only 10 years old so the wood is still in very good shape. If i let it go, it would make my backyard look very unkept and a sore sight, especially when we entertain our guests pretty frequently. The alternative is to just replace the deck boards now, but I don't have it in me to just throw away good wood and replace it. I guess time will tell how long this wood will last.

 

They sell composite resurfacing boards. You just lay over existing deck. Considering this but I want to read reviews beforehand and it doesn't seem like many people use it. Much cheaper than redoing the deck though because I'd have to put in more joists for better support. Plus the costs of the conposite boards is steep.

Not saying you should let your deck go, thats what I would rather do with mine. There are a few things I don't do in life, washing windows and staining decks are at the top of the list lol.

 

Lol! Yeah, its our first house so we like to make the impression that we give a shit around here! haha but I definitely hear ya. I was cleaning our deck the other day and I think my knees and back are still sore from it...

 

Its a tough job for sure!

I just look at it as thats $250-300 I spend on stain I could apply to the new deck next year.
All we do is get drunk on it anyways! Haha

 

So spend money on some liquor to get my guests drunk and they won't care what the hell my deck looks like anyways? I like it.

 

Exactly.

 

I just got done restaining mine. We put new cedar boards down 2yrs ago and stained it with TWP 1500. I just washed it and went over it again as some of it was rubbed off and started degradeing with my dog running all over and via regular use. The decks in 100% sun.
https://www.twpstain.com

I heard Thompson's water seal is junk now that they had to make it "green". I remember the deck stinking for weeks after my dad would use that stuff on our deck growing up.