Green deck sealants recommendations?
drpepper
| Posted in Green Products and Materials on
Following up on a post from last year, does anyone have any experience with any of these deck sealing products and recommendations for which would be best for an unfinished FSC ipe or ipanema wood deck we’re just building now?
Or goal is to minimize the maintenance needed going forward (as well as to protect the deck and use a healthy/sustainable product).
Here’s the link to last year’s post:
https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/community/forum/green-products-and-materials/17168/green-deck-sealants
Thanks very much for any advice!
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Replies
IPE etc do not hold finish well
'Green' and low maintenance do not combine well with exterior finishes, especially on horizontal surfaces of extremely dense hardwood.
I have a science experiment going, but while it is low VOC, I hesitate to call it green, and it is expensive and complex enough that i am going to wait a few years to judge its effectiveness.
I have seen tons of advice in my searches that said 'we used X 3 months ago and it looks great' Yeah, talk to me in 3 years.....
Karen,
We build and rebuild a lot of decks, typical failures are from; not 6 side sealing the wood prior to installation, not caulking the doubled up framing members together, not caulking the ledger to the house, lack of flashings and using a sealer. A sealer means the wood can't breathe, which means it will not dry if it gets wet. We only use Penofin Brazilian Rosewood oil. This penetrates and preserves the wood, does not encase it in plastic. You will need to re-apply every 3 years, but since it is not film forming, more oil just soaks in without sanding. The other thing is, hidden fasteners throughout eliminate most moisture penetration problems, we use Hid-Fast.