I just saw an ad on the weather network for a deck cleaning product called deck renew (I think that is what it is called) and I am looking for some more information about it. I built a 600+ sq. ft deck last summer and on someone's recommendation treated it with just a water repellent. the deck is made out of beautiful red cedar but is now grayed with weather. I live on the west coast of Canada (powell river, bc) and we have lots of rain here. I know the cedar can handle the weather but I am interested in recovering and hopefully retaining the original natural look of the cedar. Any information you could give me would be appreciated.
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Deck renewal products work almost like sandpaper and strip off the oxidised layer of wood, the gray stuff. So they will get you back to where you started.
Nothing STOPS the graying of any outdoor wood, that is the nature of everything when exposed to UV rays. Well, actually, paint does stop it, but you can't see the wood to know. Any transparent or semi-transparent coating that includes UV filters will SLOW down the graying of outdoor wood. The common way to deal with the problem is to use semi-transparent stains with UV filters. That slows it down and adds colour at the same time to make up for any previous movement towards gray. But with that beautiful redwood you may want to stick with the transparent water repellents ? just make sure they have UV filters in them to starve off old age. I wish they made shampoo out of this stuff.