Cleaning/sealing a cedar deck?

[daughtersrus]

We have a small cedar deck that leads to our patio. It was built two years ago and never stained or sealed. We're having a big party next week so I wanted to try and clean it. I purchased a deck/fence cleaner and used it yesterday. I was surprised at how much gunk it took off with some scrubbing (I rinsed it with a hose, not a power washer) When it's wet, it looks great but once it dries, it has a white/yellow look instead of the golden-orange cedar look. Is there anyway to get it back to looking like cedar? I don't really want to stain it but was thinking that maybe there's a product out there that's like a clear, natural sealer.

 

[mrodgers]

I don't know what kind of sealer you can put on a cedar deck. Cedar is pretty soft wood so, definitely do not use a power washer. Actually, my mother had always power washed her treated deck and it looks horrible because of it.

I will tell you, I am in year 3 of my paint stripping and refinishing the cedar siding on my house. I am painstakenly stripping it all by hand as I can't find any stripper or any other way to get the paint off. So, it's been a long time project. We are 3/4 of the way done. We will only use Sikkens stain on it. We used what I researched to be the 2nd best stain because it was $30 a gallon and it faded the following year.

Sikkens is quite expensive compared to all the others at $70 I think. It was a world of difference using the Sikkens over the Lowes stuff. We used 2 gallons of the Lowes stuff to cover several coats on the front face of the house. The Sikkens recovered the front face and covered the side and the back with just one gallon. We also only had to cover with 1 coat. That was last year using the Sikkens and it looks beautiful with no fading at all where the Lowes stain was put on in 200 and was faded by summer of 2009 arrived.

Definitely use Sikkens stain if you want to stain it. We use natural clear and it does make the wood a good bit darker, but it is absolutely beautiful on those cedar lapboards.