[treeswarper]

Brick looks nice.

[Ski]

The stringers are 30 inches center to center on a deck?!?! Seriously? Mine's built like that, but it's less than a foot off the ground. Otherwise, much higher and you're asking for trouble down the road. Got an email back from aforementioned homeowner. She believes the stuff the other crew applied was called "Restore". It was applied to the deck surface only - not the railings or trim. It went on thick and goopy and contained some sort of aggregate that put a no-slip surface on the deck. I'm pretty sure it was really spendy. Trade-off was that it adhered, stayed adhered, and didn't peel, flake, or chip (much) during the first two years it was on there. (Hard to keep a deck surface from getting banged up when the homeowner drags flower pots and barbecues and deck furniture around.) After the two years went by, the railings and trim started looking ratty again which is why I had to go over and repaint the whole thing again last summer. My memory is fuzzy, but I believe the stuff I put on was called "Superdeck". I'll probably go over there Wednesday (July 5th) and I'll check old cans of left-over stuff to make sure of the brand. Went on nice - like butter - covered in one coat, and still looks great - no mildew so far this season, even after all the rain this last winter and spring.

[uww]

It is only 8 inches off the ground- maybe there was a reason it was built that way. It's about 300sf and I took a photo of the worst part- some paint is still fine in the less exposed areas. I have not looked under it to see what shape the framing is in, but I think it's just dirt below. I would like to do brick or stone or something- never done that before but I'd worry about the drainage. Thanks again for all the great advice, I appreciate the amount and quality of local knowledge on this forum.

[boot up]

I had a very large plastic deck in Kirkland, on the north side of a tall split-level house. It was on a structure of pressure treated wood. This replaced our original all-wood deck that had quickly rotted like all the other neighbors' all wood decks. Note the common theme of having to clean/ pressure wash ANY decking on a regular basis in the Northwet. The difference was with the plastic deck, you were done after cleaning it off every year. We didn't actually pressure wash, but used a mildew/mold remover/deck cleaner and scrubbed with a push broom and stiff bristled brushes(in tight spots like railing), then just a simple jet nozzle on a hose. Eventually (15 years later) the plastic decking was starting to signs of aging. Now in the high desert, we have a "paver" patio and love it. They recommended we use the sand filler, not the plastic filler for better drainage. Moss and mold is not an issue. And during our huge rain storms, drainage is fine. Of course, huge rainstorm means it might get damp here. Biggest test for us is snow melt and drainage was not a problem after this past mega-winter.

[Ski]

Couldn't get over there yesterday. Went over today but could not find any partial cans of the "Restore" product. As I recall that is the brand name of the product. Again, it is not cheap. The last recoat on that deck was Sherwin-Williams "SuperDeck". I managed to finagle a deal over the phone with the guy so price-wise it wasn't too bad. Initially purchased five single gallons and then had to go back and get two more to finish the job. Still looks good a year later. (Pretty amazing considering the results with some of the other products we used.)(I think the "Restore" stuff had a lot to do with it.)

superdeck

* ^ those are the stairs leading up to the front door in the background. first time I've painted those in 20 years where the tread surface didn't get all chipped from the UPS and FedEx guys running up and down those stairs every day.

[whitebark]

I know someone who installed an aluminum deck...now that's rot resistant! This deck does not even pretend to look like wood - it has sort of an high-tech industrial look, which could be a drawback for some people.

[mike]

[NWtrax]

we have an aluminum deck too, love it! should be good for 30 years?

[Gregory]

Restore is a Rustoleum product. https://www.google.com/search?q=rustoleum+restore+failures&oq=rustoleum+restore+failures&aqs=chrome..69i57j0.9551j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 Painting exterior horizontal cedar is going to fail.Ceder moves too much.Stain is better but the fact is there is no lifetime sealant covering for exterior horizontal cedar.The composite decking has improved and is a candidate for just a yearly cleaning. My decking is this http://www.allweatherwood.com/allweather-wood-air-series/appearance-grade-decking/douglas-fir-decking/ http://www.thisiscarpentry.com/2010/09/03/moisture-content-wood-movement/

[Ski]

^ Those stories about the class-action suit filed against Rustoleum on the "Restore" product are surprising, considering that it's the first product that's actually stayed on that deck surface for more than two years, in spite of all previous attempts with other products and preparation in every case that included bleaching, pressure-washing, and sanding. There is no paint or stain in the known universe that's going to last a "lifetime" on any horizontal wood surface in this climate, whether it's Douglas Fir or Western Red Cedar or English Oak or Teak. That just simply is not going to happen. I suppose maybe 20 or 30 coats of "Man-O-War" Marine Spar Varnish applied over a couple coats of oil-based Olympic stain might last a good while, but you don't have enough dry season here to get it done before it starts raining again. A buddy of mine had a new deck put onto the back of his house a couple years ago. Contractor used kiln-dried Western Red Cedar. Deck was washed with some sort of cleaner to remove the "mill glaze" and then he applied "Cabot" stain, which failed almost immediately; within a month it was coming off the deck surface. I am fairly confident that it was applied properly - he obsessed about it for over a month before applying the stain.

[Gregory]

Ceder is common here on the wet side because it is cheap and readily available and it stands up to the moisture we all love.Putting a finish on it means redoing it every year, maybe two.The same properties that stave off rot, repels finishes.I should not have said lifetime.I was talking to the wife last night and mine was stained six years ago.Only gently washed every year.I stained it with Behr premium deck stain.The difference is the decking material, not the finish. The problem with Restore and Behr Deck Over is that they target people whose cedar deck is on the edge of needing replaced.They read the marketing and not the fine print.They install it wrong and it fails.It scares me how many people think that a can of paint can restore a decayed deck.I have probably torn up a couple hundred decks, that the previous year, the homeowner slathered these products on, and found a nasty mess awaiting them in the spring.In all cases, the product was applied incorrectly.The problem is not the product, it is the marketing.What te marketing tells the consumer and what is on the back of the can are two totally different things. Hope to see you on the river this summer.I am surprised we have never bumped into each other before.I do tend to spend more time on a couple of the tribs these days.

[Ski]

^ You raise a good point there. The deck my buddy had installed two summers ago was built out of what was supposed to be kiln-dried cedar. One would assume that would mean that after the "mill glaze" was cleaned off it should "take" the oil-based Cabot stain he applied. He and I went back and forth on that one; I told him to just let it sit for a couple months before he put anything on it, but the installer insisted that once it was washed (with some kind of product made for that purpose) and the "mill glaze" removed, application of an oil-based stain would be okay. It failed within a couple months. He was not happy about it. I didn't mention it here, but my gut tells me (and it did then) that the cedar was still exuding oil that prevented the stain from being able to penetrate and adhere. (As an aside, my next-door neighbor had a similar problem with the new cedar railing installed on an upper-floor deck - the first coat of stain pretty much fell off within the first couple months.)

[JPH]

I used Restore on my old deck and it bought me a couple years before I had to replace it. Definitely better than regular paint - it looked like it had a couple more years in it before it would have had to be redone, but the rest of the deck was falling apart. I replaced the all cedar deck with PT framing and composite/plastic decking with cedar railing. The new deck will likely outlast the house...