Stay away from thompson's. Go with a quality stain like twp, the rustic covers that green color pretty well.

al

John agrees with the Al on both points.

You need a couple warm days and another to put the finish on. John

Thanks guys. I appreciate the help. I've been reading and posting to the site for a while, but the deck project is new. If I could have afforded Cedar or IPE I would have, but we had to go with what we could afford.

Oddly, I don't have that weird green color, but it's still PT. I'll need a pretty good bit of it also. Will I need the 500 or the 100 in TWP? Here's a pic so far (and a before).

The green mafia has outlawed the 100 series in a few states, if thats true in your area the 500 series can ship any place. John

Lol John, this is TN. We don't outlaw much of anything. Even better if you mix it with tobacco(jk).

Actually, I can order 500 or 100 here -- legally. I scoured the forum last night closely and still felt good for asking what I asked. And go figure -- today we were back up to 60 degrees.

It looks like I'll have a few warm days coming up before the big Farmer's Almanac predicted March freeze here to stain and seal.

The wood that was used was something new, or so I was told. My deck guy, who has done a great job and been very open to any change I've asked for, brought us a sample before we decided. I had my heart set on western red cedar, but he showed us a "new" PT, that is actually white. (Yes, that was weird to me too). It may be that its actually the PT that doesn't have arsenic in it, rather than the old stuff, but it really is white. I had checked the end and it really is pressure treated though. He stated he'd only worked with it once before, but it is much dryer also than the regular green PT. I had to agree upon examining it. I'll post a pic when it's all done, but he's done a great job.

I would like something lighter to stain with rather than darker. Lighter will show wear less quickly, I've learned from here from you guys, than darker. I like a cedar stain, DH likes a redwood (too red for me) and DFIL likes a mahogany flame (nice, but too dark as far as wear will go). I'm looking for middle of the road.

((note -- we're recessing a spa part-way and it's clothed in that redwood fake stuff, so I will need at least some red tone in the stain to "blend" a bit.))

Thanks for all your help, and if you know anything about this "new wood" I'd be interested. I can show more pics if need be.

Your guy might be using envirosafe material,its treated with borax then a second treatment that locks the borax in. Both cca and acq are green and heavey, the borax treatment dosent require all that water so its a lot lighter and the color is more like what yellow pine actually looks like with a white kind of frost on it.

When acq first started its run I really tried to get going with envirosafe it has a lot of advantages like not having to use special fasteners,much less movement, non toxic. But the acq machine was too strong for the guys in Greenville S C to make any real market dent and the shipping was too high for me to get it over here.

I am glad to see,if in fact thats the material your using,the borax material being used over there, frankly its what we all should be using. John

Pressure treeated wood is very wet and very resisitant to sealer. I have never recommended anyone wait to seal wood but with PTP you have to. Couple that in with the fact that your temps are too cold for the sealer to cure.. Clean and prep the deck in May (do not use a product containing sodium hypochlorite, otherwise known as bleach), pH balance the wood, use a high quality, penetrating, oil based, semi transparent stain/sealer. TWP is a good choice. I think the 200 series is their best for wood but they are a good company.

We looked at TWP but decided on Cabot's mahogony flame. We tested many strips of leftover material and it was rather "gorgeous". So far so good. The wood we got seems to actually be very dry -- not wet at all. It absorbs water rather well.

The difference between the "green" PTP used as foundation and the "white" PTP used as a surface and significantly noticeable. I'll try to post pictures this weekend. I work "out of state", so I am only here on weekends to take those shots.

John, I think you are right and its what you said earlier. However, I only noticed the "frost" you mentioned on a few spots. It's not very noticeable at first, but its there. I will snap some shots this weekend for sure. We just had a ton of rain and some snow. So the pics should be very telling.

BTW, I can't say enough nice things about our deck guy and his crew. They worked their asses off.

"are** significantly noticeable"... not "and"