Cabot Stain, "Mahogany Flame, Australian Timber Oil" hand-painted on a new wood deck. Southern Home Wood Deck Cleaning, Richmond, VA

Australian Timber Oil by Cabot on a deck with new wood. We had the great pleasure of applying this product to the wood deck's surface outside of Richmond, VA when we were called by a customer in Chase City, VA. It was a bit of a drive and I was certainly in awe of the beauty of Virginia's countryside. It was a peaceful day and the pictures speak for themselves.

I thought I would share these pictures with my customers who want to know more about the appearance of "Australian Timber Oil- Mahogany Flame".  Here we applied the material with a stain-pad. 

Work done professionally by Southern Home Wood Deck Cleaning in Richmond, VA. 804-585-8016. Please, call us for a free quote. Text photos for a quote. Or, email at JSowell879@gmail.com

BEHR Wood Deck Stain is No. 1 in Reliability in years 2021 and 2022! Southern Home Wood Deck in Richmond, Virginia 23221

BEHR Stain for Wood Decks proved to be 2021 and 2022's best stain of the past two years, as per my assessment of all products/stains and sealants for Wood Decks and Fences.  

We tried every Wood Deck Stain on the market in 2021 and 2022 and we were very interested in finding a product that was of the highest quality and one that we could find stocked during the pandemic. We also wanted to find one that had a very high rating going into the application, one that had a nice finish, one that had a nice color and had the highest approval rating by my customers. BEHR was the undeniable winner in 2021 and 2022! 

Why? Because the quality is excellent and Coronavirus did not keep Home Depot from keeping products on the shelf! This has been one of the toughest time periods that I can think of. Nearly every supplier has had problems. Supply issues have hampered this industry. 

Every product produces a different result. No two products are the same. Some products behave completely different from other products. Some are easier to apply than others. Some seem to have almost a polyurethane like finish. Others have a seemingly plastic-like finish. Oil is better for wood, and those products that contain oil, they look best. Silicone finishes are hard to work with. These are just a few thoughts on a multitude of topics related to deck refinishing. 

Here is a deck completed with BEHR Solid Stain. It is in the process of just being finished and looks a tiny bit wet in various sections while taking this shot. 

Some of the other colors that were popular were the BEHR Honey-gold. It is rich in pigment and having more pigment keeps wood looking newer for a longer period of time. Here, you can see the deck mid-way through the staining process, after having been cleaned. 

BEHR Semi-transparent, Honey-gold

I used another product that is ranked highly on national, private polls, and it was the first year that my company has used stains by Sherwin Williams. The Sherwin Williams product was very rich with color, always a good feature. I tried to highlight the beauty of the following deck with a few shots with my camera. The pigment was so rich that it was easy to use overtop brand new wood. That is not common. Typically, when I replace a piece of wood, I can tell the wood has been replaced when I have stained the deck. With Sherwin Williams' product, it makes it virtually impossible. I love Sherwin Williams products, but it has been a disappointing few years as the company has consistently run out of product for weeks at a time.  At least in Richmond, VA!

One product that I would not recommend using for any person, novice or professional is the Thompson's Acrylic colored sealant. The deck below was sealed with this product and it was extremely hard to use. The price seemed right at less than $20 per gallon, but the finish was not one that showed the wood-grain well. It took numerous coats to make it look perfect. The key with this product is to not let the wood finish dry, if you are going to put two coats on the deck, do one right after the other. If you do not, you are going to have problems. Total commitment is the earmark of this product. It is acrylic and it does not have the tendencies of normal sealants with an oil base. We were able to make it look perfect, but many man hours were used to get the job done.

I believe the color was called Harvest Gold, Thompson's, super hard to work with

Now, let me talk about a very beautiful product called Cabot brand, Australian Timber Oil. The appearance of this product is luxurious. It is an incredibly beautiful product with a finish that reminds me of freshly finished wood floors. I am skeptical how well this product will hold up over the coming year, but I will be checking at the one year mark. You have to use nearly twice as much product, which makes the cost very expensive, but the finish is undeniably beautiful. The deck I am about to show you was finished by a gentleman who probably did not put enough of the product on the deck. I had to come and strip the old finish off of the deck and then apply twice as much product that I would have had to use with nearly any other product. It did look beautiful when done. Other water-sealant companies have tried to mimic this product, but only Cabot brand seemed to really look super rich.

Cabot brand, Australian Timber Oil

Solid finished decks were a hit this past year. We were working on decking on River Road in Richmond, VA and we were able to take a twelve hundred square foot deck and use it over a previous stain and make it look new again. My company used forty-two, sixteen foot boards to bring the deck back to life. The customer and I chose colors that matched colors we could see in the stone to make the wood look brilliant and new. This was the biggest job we finished in 2016 and you can see how nice it looked after the transformation. Here are a few pictures. 

This was Behr brand solid stain, a product I liked and would recommend using. It covered well and had a nice appearance. 

I used Olympic Cedar Maximum on a deck at the beginning of the season. Olympic, and all companies, changed the formulation of their products to become V.O.C. compliant- Volatile Organic Compound. Virginia was one of the last states to comply with the new EPA regulations and only time will tell how the product holds up. It was much different than what I have used in the past. This one deck was for a previous customer of over fifteen years and he was shocked by the cost of using the new EPA compliant product. We had to use a lot more to get a nice finish. Olympic is found at Lowes, primarily, and I can say definitively that it is not the same product. It use to be rich in its appearance. It still looks nice, but it is completely different, now. 

Olympic Maximum Cedar

Sikkens is a name I will not be using in the future. I will only use it if the wood is new. And, only the Cetol make of the product will I use. It is very expensive, hard to find- usually only at specialty paint stores. So, a few tips on Sikkens products, I am a certified professional that had to take a course in order to become certified to use it. It is not supposed to be removed when reapplying. A deck can be cleaned before reapplying. When I cleaned the following deck along the James River, I had to come back with two coats and my customer was not happy with the appearance. I could agree with her. To remove the stain, which is what I would have had to do to have uniformity, it would be necessary to sand off all of the old product. We tried to do that, and reapply, it never did look right. I racked my head for hours, and spoke to technical support at Sikkens and no good solution could be found to simplify and lessen the cost of the undertaking. Finally, I, for the first time in my many years of doing this type of work, had to bow down and accept defeat. A solid color was used and frankly, for the landscape of the yard, it was the perfect solution. So, below, see how it looked after being finished with a semi-transparent finish and what it looked like after I came back and finished with a solid. 

Sikkens Cetol brand product did not look right, no matter what we tried. Finally, switched to solid finish and achieved a nice result. Gorgeous view!

Please, consider using Southern Home to refinish your wood deck, fence, or to pressure-wash your home. Call: (804) 585-8016

www.southernhomedeck.com

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Southernhomedeck.com in Richmond, Virginia staining with Oil-based water sealant by Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore

Best way to Clean and Stain a Wood Deck using Cedar color www.Southernhomedeck.com

Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore offer other good oil-based water-sealants!

Oil-based sealants contain Linseed Oil and Tung Oil. When these oils dry, they cause wood grains to pull back upon themselves. Moisture is kept on the outer part of the wood while natural oils strengthen and treat the wood. During the winter months when moisture is absorbed into the wood and a freeze occurs, trapped moisture freezes and expands, damaging wood grains, and causing cracks!

Beautiful Colors include Pecan, Honey, Natural, Cedar, Redwood

Please, contact Southern Home at (804)585-8016

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2305 West Grace Street

Richmond, VA 23220

 

www.southernhomedeck.com in Richmond, VA 23220 and Sherwin Williams Super Deck

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Southern Home Wood Deck in Richmond, VA has been cleaning wood decks since 1987. Many years of Wood Deck Cleaning has made us the very best!

If you have a wooden deck and it needs to be cleaned and stained, the first thing that you want to do is replace rotten wood. Use a drill to back screws out of wooden supports and cut new wood boards accordingly. Be thorough!

Then, stain with Sherwin Williams solid Super Deck stain! 

Sherwin Williams Solid Deck Stain on Wooden Deck. Wooden Boards replaced, screwed into place. Then coating with Sherwin Williams Solid Deck Stain, "Super Deck".

(804)585-8016

 

www.southernhomedeck.com Olympic Maximum Cedar color Wood Deck stained by Southern Home Wood Deck in Richmond, VA

 

Southern Home Wood Deck in Richmond, VA (804)585-8016

Simple Wood Deck Staining using Olympic Maximum Cedar Color. This excellent Water Sealant will last approximately five years. Deep hues of cedar color help to keep wood surfaces looking new for a long period of time. 

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How Soon to Seal New Wooden Decks? Why Use Linseed Oil or Tung Oil on Wooden Decks? Richmond, VA and Southern Home Wood Deck (804)585-8016

Southern Home Wood Deck in Richmond, VA 23225

Why Use Oil-based Water Sealants vs. Acrylic Water Sealants?

If you are a homeowner with a new deck or an older deck and this is the first time that you are planning to treat the deck, you probably want to know how to clean it to make it look new again. And, you probably are trying to figure out the best product to use on the deck to keep it looking nice and to protect the wood against rot and decay. 

There is a multitude of fabulous products on the market, each providing great protection, but some create wood that will look good for years instead of just months. So, let me touch base on a few choices between products in the Richmond, VA area, Northern, VA area, and Cary, NC areas. It is important to mention available products along the east coast, for they do vary somewhat between what is available in other parts of the country. Wood decks in these areas are generally built with Pine lumber. In other parts of the country, Cedar is more prominent. 

Wood is cut and milled and brought into big box hardware stores like Home Depot and Lowes regularly. It is a very short time period between the cutting and infusing/pressurizing of outdoor woods with chemicals to keep bugs from eating your new decks and fences. Usually, only a few weeks pass before the wood is shipped and stacked at your big box hardware stores. Wood can seem moist, and a little bit of time should pass before applying sealants or stains. A moisture meter is the best method to tell when the wood is ready to seal!

When wood is adequately dried, there are many products to choose from. For new wood, I almost always recommend using a product that contains Linseed Oil. Linseed oil helps to condition the wood. It strengthens wood fibers by pulling them back upon themselves. It keeps wood from cracking and splitting, by pulling fibers of the wood together and replacing natural oils that get lost during the pressure-treating phase with new wood, or with time as with old wood. Acrylic sealants do not give you the conditioning properties offered by Linseed or Tung oil. Wooden boats have been conditioned for thousands of years using these special oils. 

One of my favorite products is one of the more natural-looking products, called Ready Seal Water Sealant. It contains both Linseed and Tung Oils. Another favorite is Olympic Maximum with Linseed Oil. Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore, both offer Linseed oil-water sealants and both are offered nationally. Read the label while searching. 

Acrylic water sealants can be applied the same day that you clean. But, these products do not help to condition and strengthen the wood. Thompson's and Olympic both have good acrylic sealants, they may gray quicker on wood surfaces, but they both do a nice job of keeping water from penetrating a wood's surface and thus keeping rot and decay from taking hold.

If you are thinking about hiring a company, or if you have additional questions, please feel free to contact Southern Home Wood Deck in Richmond, Va, and allow us to discuss the pluses and minuses of using either version and what we feel about the various products available. Call, (804)585-8016 to reach Southern Home Wood Deck in Richmond, VA. We clean Wooden Decks, Wooden Fences, and Seal with the highest quality Wood Sealants available on the market. 

Richmond, VA and How to Clean and Stain a Wooden Deck Sherwin Williams Solid Stain

"How to Clean and Stain a Wooden Deck"

Southern Home Wood Deck 

(804)585-8016

Richmond, VA, 

 Fredricksburg, VA 

Cary, NC

Featuring world-class stains by Sherwin Williams, Ready Seal, Benjamin Moore, Cabot Stains, CWF, Sikkens

Southern Home Wood Deck and Fence Staining Specials. Inflation Buster Pricing! Pricing at 15% Off.

Wood Deck Cleaning and Sealing, House Pressure Washing, Wood Deck Staining, Fence Cleaning and Staining, Aggregate Driveway Cleaning and Sealing. Please, Contact Southern Home Wood Deck for Cleaning and Sealing or Staining of Wooden Decks and Fences. (804) 585-8016. 

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