LESLIE: Chuck in Texas needs some help preserving a wood project. Tell us what’s going on.
CHUCK: I have three decks and when I made them, I used, of course, the Wolmanized lumber.
TOM: Right.
CHUCK: And then I have treated them two or three times now with Thompson’s WaterSeal.
TOM: Right.
CHUCK: But what – it seems like it doesn’t even last a year. And we don’t even get that much rain here.
TOM: Right. So when you say it doesn’t last a year, what are you seeing in terms of the wear and tear?
CHUCK: Well, they’re dulling, which I expect, but when they get wet, the water far from beads up.
TOM: Right. So, look, in my experience, Thompson’s WaterSeal is a good application for regular lumber, not pressure-treated lumber.
CHUCK: OK.
TOM: And it does preserve it but if you want to really protect the deck, I would use a solid-color stain. I would use a solid-color exterior stain.
Now, exterior stain comes transparent, semi-transparent and solid-color. The more color, the more pigment, the longer it lasts.
CHUCK: OK.
TOM: You’re never going to – that natural color of the wood will fade no matter what you put on that’s clear. So why not just give it a nice color that you like? If you like it to be a cedar color or a darker brown color, whatever color you like, choose that in a solid-color stain and stain the deck. And then that’s something that could last you five years.
CHUCK: OK. Well, that sounds great instead of having to do it every year, every year-and-a-half.
TOM: What else are you going to do with your weekends, Chuck?
CHUCK: I have got so much stuff going on. I just got done building the wife a big pagoda out here in the backyard and putting the biggest fan and all that stuff in it.
TOM: Oh, nice. Well, there you go. Thanks so much, Chuck. I really appreciate that. Have a great day.
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