Charlie: Sue, she writes to us and says, “We live in Crystal Beach on Bolivar Peninsula.” In case you need a little geography help there, “And we’re wondering what would be the best kind of treatment for our wood deck.” She says, “Some people out there paint them, and some people leave them au naturel.” Tom, do you have any recommendations about the preferred types of treatments she should look at?
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Tom: Doesn’t make any difference. It’s what you want.
Charlie: It’s all going to get blown away.
Tom: That could be too. Besides that wonderful thought. Painting is probably the most common throughout all of the country. If you go up to New England, all the decks are painted.
Charlie: Sure.
Tom: I remember Lake Placid, there wasn’t one that wasn’t painted.
Charlie: Ours was red.
Tom: There you go. You can paint it, it’s the most protection. You can leave it raw, the pressure treated lumber will weather, but it won’t rot, even down in the Galveston area. You can do that, or if you want to have a little bit more maintenance but keep it looking fresher, you can use a clear sealer, or even a semi-transparent sealer with a little pigment. What people need to know is, the more pigment, the more protection, that’s why paint has got the most in it, and that’s why it’s the best protector. It’s really up to how you want it to look. That’s the bottom line. If you don’t have to do anything, or you can go all the way to paint.