Ready Seal questions

[CCPC 26]

To start, I've done very little wood restoration work so my knowledge is just about limited to what I've picked up here and few other places. Pops wants me to do is deck which I am happily willing to do for just the cost of supplies (I figure he provided food, clothing and shelter for 20 years, Its the least I can do). Anyways, I think I'd like to go with a Ready Seal stain because of the many good things I've heard about it. My questions are:

Which colors would work well with a PT deck that gets full sun for most of the day?

Is it true that Ready Seal only requires one coat?

In a year or so, can the deck simply be cleaned with a percarb and recoated?

Any other comments pros/Cons or feedback on this product would be great.

[Henry B. 4]

CCPC,

I'd suggest using the medium brown.

Ready seal penetrates so well it would be hard to use too much! depending on how heavy you apply it you might just need one coat. We usually apply two coats to flat surfaces and one to verticals.

Yes you can clean it lightly with a percarb once a year and lightly reseal it again.

Ready Seal ROCKS!!!!!

[Celeste 341]

There is another parafinnic type product on the market now...... see it at www.wooddefender.com

Ready Seal is goof proof, however, it never dries - ever. You will always run the risk of it being tracked back into the house - not good if the door enters onto white carpet! The coverage ranges widely, depending on application method (ie, rolling/spraying) the age of the wood, etc... It also does better with two coats. Because it never dries, the color pigment can fade faster, not allowing but one good year before a maintenance coat is due. It goes on nicely with a Deckster sprayer - do not use an airless. Reed Smith does beautiful work with Ready Seal - brushes, rolls & pads everything.

Wood Defender is a one coat, sprayable 150-250 sq ft coverage - mostly the same make-up as Ready Seal, but they have a formulation for fences and another one for decks. The deck stain has a silicone additive in it that provides a waterproofing barrier on top of the oils to retain the pigment for two years before a maintenance is needed.

The other thing about this stain is that it's substantially less than Ready Seal. We'll be testing it this week.

[tropical wave 22]

There is another parafinnic type product on the market now...... see it at www.wooddefender.com

The other thing about this stain is that it's substantially less than Ready Seal. We'll be testing it this week.

Please report your findings ASAP...... never heard of the RS problems you are mentioning....should I reconsider RS this year??? Is there anything that goes on as easy etc etc.....is woodtux goof proof too ??? now I find myself questioning stuff I thought I had already decided on for this year.....

[seymore 90]

Celeste

If the product is made in Texas you should contact the Texas Forest Service @ Texas A&M.They might be testing it and have some helpful info.That's how we found out about the Gray Away we're using and it was reccomended as a great quality sealer.

I've never heard of it around here so they must not be pushing it too hard.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Ready Seal is goof proof, however, it never dries - ever. You will always run the risk of it being tracked back into the house - not good if the door enters onto white carpet! The coverage ranges widely, depending on application method (ie, rolling/spraying) the age of the wood, etc... It also does better with two coats. Because it never dries, the color pigment can fade faster, not allowing but one good year before a maintenance coat is due.

Point well made! We used to use Ready Seal, and when we switched to Wood Tux, it was a huge difference. Customers would prefer to do the deck at a two year interval, rather than one, and Wood Tux allows for that.

We just booked a job that was a homeowner who has Ready Seal on his deck, it was applied 9 months ago, and it looks like it was TWO YEARS ago, even the verticals are shot. The owners are tired of throwing money away to have it look good less than a year overall. They want a better product. They want a durable result.

Beth :groovy3:

[Barry M 73]

Please report your findings ASAP...... never heard of the RS problems you are mentioning....should I reconsider RS this year??? Is there anything that goes on as easy etc etc.....is woodtux goof proof too ??? now I find myself questioning stuff I thought I had already decided on for this year.....

Same here, I've been researching since October of last year and have never heard anything bad about Ready Seal. Only how great and superior it is to all other sealers. So I buy "the best" to do my first deck job and now all of a sudden people I trust are saying it's not all that. Go figure. So now wood tux is the stuff to buy, huh?

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

We have used Wood Tux for two years, this will be our third season. We have folks caling for the two year maintenance,a nd they are thrilled and the deck still looks great. The verticals still look like thye were just done. The floor may be slightly lighter, but a light application to the horizonatls will bring it back again.

We used Ready Seal one summer, just before switching to Wood Tux. We have seen the difference firsthand, and we prefer the WT.

Wood Tux may not be quite as goof proof as Ready Seal, you may have to back pad a little on your rails, but if the difference isa call back for future business, you be the judge. Two years back we did a deck for a customer, and the neighbor had just had her deck done. She decided then that she wanted us to do it next time, due to the neighbor's deck. We have not been to her home yet and do not know what is on her deck yet, we are estimating it today, but she already said she is going to have us do it after looking at the other deck, a Wood Tux deck, for the last two years.

Beth

[Celeste 341]

Barry & Others -

As with all products, everyone has different results with the products that they use. We have used Ready Seal with beautiful results in the past - so have other applicators. Because of reading others' experiences, we made certain that when we used it on a deck, the homeowner did not enter onto a surface that would show any residual stain if that did transfer (tacky preventative measure, I know). We had planned to continue using Ready Seal this year as our fence stain and a back up deck stain for certain level deck jobs. I only mention this other stain because it is at least, comparable to Ready Seal, it is now being marketed and we are interested in trying it and again, it is priced less than Ready Seal. Roger uses Ready Seal - we haven't had any visible problems with it, the deck he did last year does not at this point appear to even need a maintenance coat (although it probably will this fall, 18 months after application) - I AM NOT DISPARAGING Ready Seal - I am only pointing out a drawback that was pointed out to us. Just go check the Wood Defender guys website out......doesn't cost anything to do that. As far as Wood Tux, that is going to be our choice for our "trophy projects" this year. It is beautiful, good for the wood but since we're looking at drawbacks here.....it costs more, it's more labor intensive to put down.....but it looks better - we will still use it. It all comes down to a matter of results and preferences.

Celeste