In Richmond, Virginia, please visit our website at www.southernhomedeck.com and explore the various colors we have used on wooden decks and fences, it will probably help you in making a decision when considering different products. I have many pictures there, sharing the characteristics of various water sealants and stains. Stains are just colored water sealants, so do not be confused when you hear the word "stain" bandied about when talking about colors.
This blog has been written to try to give anyone reading it, some understanding of watersealants and how they came about. In 1987, nobody had an idea of what to do when many homes were built with a cute deck on the back. The wood looked new and beautiful, but within a few years it had turned gray and looked very unattractive.
Enter, Thompson's Water Seal!
At www.southernhomedeck.com, I have been cleaning and sealing wood decks since 1987. So, I remember the early days when the only water sealant that you could purchase for wood decks was a clear, oil-based water sealant called Thompson's water seal. The product had a small seal on its can. Don't laugh, I am sure some of you can find a can of this old stuff in your grandfather's garage! The product was a simple seal, with no color. But, it's ability to prevent water from penetrating into the wood was incredible.
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The product was great. You put it on wood, and the water-repellency was amazing! But, one year later, the wood looked gray. Most people would be frustrated with the gray, but they would see the water-repellent still working great, little beeds of water pooling on the deck after a storm- so they knew that their wood was protected. Currently, turning gray quickly, is still the biggest problem with clear water sealants. Protecting wood from the elements, and the damage that occurs when moisture seeps inbetween wood fibers is more important than gray, so this simple sealant will at least keep wood from rotting. The take away? Clear sealants are the cheapest, they do what they are supposed to do, but they do not keep the wood from changing color.
The second watersealant company to come along after Thompson's was a company called Olympic. Anyone reading this will remember the clear Olympic Waterguard around 1989. That was the competition for Thompson's before colors began being used. Olympic was the first linseed-oil based product available in the Richmond, VA area, where I first began cleaning and sealing wood. That was new for the time period. Linseed oil is considered a wood-conditioner. It causes wood grains to tighten upon themselves as they dry, reducing splitting of wood-planking over time.
This was a cute advertisement from 1989 featuring Olympic Wood Preservative, the product that came out before Olympic Maximum. They only offered clear for a number of years, and then Olympic started to mix a tiny bit of color in it that was matched to the color of cleaned wood- or, new wood. They contacted my company, www.southernhomedeck.com in 1989 and for approximately three years, we were shipped test packages of deck stain-strippers and water sealants and from Richmond, Virginia, Southern Home Wood Deck, was essential in helping in the development of these early creations by the Olympic water sealant company.
Those two companies paved the way, for new products and companies that created their own versions of water sealant. Flood Watersealant and Sherwin Williams were the two companies that offered high quality oil-based offerings.You maybe remember the CWF can, very popular at Lowes and Home Depot.
This is for the real old timers!
It is kind of important to note that CWF, from the very beginning, tended to be a slightly tinted product, even though it was considered clear. The Olympic product that I mentioned earlier was colored to the color of new wood. Flood was colored a natural "tea" color. It had rich body, the finish was very much like varnish. It was hard and very beautiful. The downfall was that because it was very hard, later when you came back to clean it with a pressurewasher, it was hard to get off. You needed to go back over the previously sealed wood deck or fence, with the same CWF product. After developing stain-strippers, we could get CWF off the wood after a few years, then a client could move to another product if they so chose.
SuperDeck by Sherwin Williams
Super Deck by Sherwin Williams came from a product that Sherwin Williams kept on their shelves for many years, Duckback. Duckback was purchased by Sherwin Williams and I do remember seeing it on the shelves of Sherwin Williams' company's stores for many years.
Sherwin Williams did not have their own sealant for many years. This was the product that they sold for many years before buying the company and putting their own label on the can. It was a very good water sealant, lasting for about three years, once put on a wood deck. "DuckBack" was a simple parafin wax and Linseed oil water sealant. I did not use it much during the 1990's, my brother did, and he used the product exclusively. He used it for more than twenty years and believes it was a good product. I use the Sherwin Williams SuperDeck more regularly, and I can honetly say it does a very good job at making wood look beautiful.
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Enter the niche water sealant companies' like Ready Seal. In the year 2025, there are many water sealants available from smaller companies. Water sealants are easy to make, part Linseed oil, part parafic way, some other simple ingredients make there way into these products, some giving more sheen, some imbuing light coloring without overwhelming with substantial sheen. This simpler water sealant is perfect for new wood. New wood loses natural oils when the wood is pressure-treated and infused with natural substances that keep insects from eating the wood. That is why I recommend using a good, oil-based sealant like Ready Seal in this present year. It is easily available, it has good and natural coloring.
Please, visit my website at www.southernhomedeck.com to see examples of this product. I really like it on new wood.
www.readyseal.com
Cabot water sealants are very good, they have been around since the 1990's. And, they came out with a water-sealant called Australian Timber Oil. It is a very special product. The finish is amazing. You can see a few decks that I have used the product on by visiting my website. I like the hard and shiny finish. Many people love the hard and shiny finish.
It really does look great! But, the look fades with time, and more rapidly than you might expect. The product looks amazing for the first year, but after that first year, the look quickly diminishes.
Australian Timber Oil
The beauty of Australian Timber Oil is undeniable.
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