Yo Ken, if your still around your up on this one. Far as Composites go I am with the Larry/whoever We are for the most part. Composites are really no longer using recycled material because there is just not enough of it so most of the raw stuff is virgin,the energy used to make composite is an enviro no no, when its time to remove the project composite is not real big on bio degrade its tricky to burn shreading it would be silly. Bottom line composites are not so enviro freindly. Info like that might suggest its not all that good to clean it either, with anything. I dont agree>> composites will out last Ipe, left to go silver/gray Ipe is as close to no maintance as a person can get. With the softer composites like Choice/MoistureShield even trex= tjunk I have found a coat or two of TWP 116 seals up the decking,locks in the color and keeps mold,mildew,stains from causing major problems. Of course not needing to do this is the reason the Wallet goes for composite in the first place. I my own self dont like composites at all for the reasons stated in several posts here and on other sites. Welcome aboard Larry!!! Sorry I dident understand your intent at the begining . John

Preasure treated lumber is going to have splintering/feathering / cracking and spliting no matter how its fastened or what finish you use on it. There is no danger to anyone who uses the sprit of a sound mind sanding cca lumber. A person has the same exposure eating a teaspoon of dirt right next to a cca post three times a day as they will incounter drinking three glasses of water every day. That said, I would not sand a cca deck,to any high degree, that old there really is no point or anything to gain.Geting all the paint/finish out of that old weathered grain is not going to happen.(Hunter green and red sounds like a cool trip to Me.) I would not try to strip this deck either. I vote for an oxalic acid wash,some scrubing,sand where needed with a 5'' orbital, two coats of a dark quality outdoor finish like twp dark oak. John Hyatt www.deckmastersllc.com

We put down a trex deck on east side of our home with lots of shade 3 years ago. No problems with mold until we had a very wet spring and summer in minnesota this year. I expected to have to wash and maintain this low maintenance deck. We had lots of mold staining everywhere on deck. After tring Behr deck mold and remover with no luck I was extremely unhappy. Tried Simplying Green full strength with no luck. After pulling out my hair and complaining to my husband about why he wanted composite instead of wood I told him I would have been better off spending 2 days staining a real wood deck. After lots of reading on various threads on composite decking problems and trex websites on how to clean it,I finally found a product that working amazing! I used Mold Armour ez deck wash from Home Depot. I know the product contains a bleach solution but it worked in a matter of min. I did wet down the surrounding areas with a water hose including the railings and grass. Wet down the deck boards first before applying the product with a soft brush in an ice cream pail. No scrubbing was required but I had control with application by this method. I did small section at a time and rinsed off after only 5 min or so. You can see the product work! Be careful not to let solution on boards to long because it does contain bleach and bleach will fade anything it comes in contact with. I did this project on July 4 and want to see how long mold stays away. I plan on buying a more eco friendly product in future like Corte Clean but didnlt try it this time because no stores in our area carry it and it is quite expensive. You also have to watch expiration date and have to buy it on line. Has anyone had luck with this product with mold spots and how long does the mold stay away with Corte Clean or Mold Armour? By the way my deck looks amazing and has no structure problems like some I have been hearing about. My husband built deck himself and followed all the proper guidllines to install. We also used hidden fastener system for instalation and used proper support system underneath. We have the saddle color with accents brand. Hopefully the mold issue will be a controllable one since we plan on staying ahead of it this time and not wait so long to wash it. We also had alot of snow this winter and I didnt always get out there to promply to remove snow. Let me know if you have had better luck with other products as I dont want to use a product so often that contains bleaching agents. Still wish my husband would have agreed with me to use cedar but I lost the battle and had to settle for composite. I keep telling him I told you so about composite and I am stuck with an $8,000 deck that is not low maintenance. I appreciate any feedback on a sealer or something to put down so i only have to wash deck to maintain and keep mold spots at bay. Any luck with sealers or stains?

Other people have talked about using a lambswool pad on a stick to apply the TWP. Lambswool looks awfully hairy, though, and I wonder about leaving hairs behind on the wood. I wonder why lambswool is recommended? The TWP can didn't mention using a pad, but instead indicated using a brush, roller, or sprayer. The paint pad on a stick idea is appealing because we have some high places to get to. When you say "work it into the wood as much as possible", do you mean rub it in really well? What I had in mind to do was to apply the stain rather generously with the paint pad, let it soak in for a few minutes (maybe 10?), then rub off excess with a rag to avoid overapplication problems. We'd work in small sections especially since it's so hot and sunny right now. I didn't plan to try the wet on wet approach. The can specifically says only 1 coat on new wood, and with us being novices I was afraid of messing things up and getting a sticky result trying to put on two coats one after the other. Assuming all goes well and we get a coat of TWP on successfully, I'm assuming we'll need to reapply the finish yearly to maintain the nice color and UV protection? Will we have to go through the full RAD process every time?