Are you sure the "Water Seal" you refer to is an oil based (requiring a petrochemical to clean the brushes and NOT soap and water)? Is it "transparent" and has no color listed or shown on the can? There is no need to "strip" or "sand" the Thompson's Oil based TRANSPARENT Water seal Product because the paraffin soaks into the wood and is not on the surface. It has no pigments in it that rest on top of the wood. Therefore there should be no "peeling" or "chipping" of the surface and no obvious wear other than wear to the wood itself, usually near stairs and door and very slight in most instances. If its the Thompson Oil Based Transparent product you used, there is no need to strip or sand. You may want to clean the surface (IF it is visibly in need of it) with something like diluted Clorox Exterior house cleaner to remove pollen, dust, dirt and any surface mildew (mildew spores are transported by the wind and there is always some on the surface, although it probably hasn't "stuck" to it. Its basically a spray or brush on job and rinse with a garden hose. Let it dry fully for at least a day (two is better). then you can apply your new oil based deck product. I suggest you wait at least one full year for the beading of water to stop and even two years is OK. My front deck got the Thompson's two years ago and I will stain it with an oil based stain this year. It requires minimal cleaning....I may just use a garden hose with a firemen's nozzle. The deck gets full sun all morning so mildew is very hard pressed to survive there. Best stain, IMO are oil based TWP. The main thing to watch for is to avoid "soap and water cleanup" because that is a water based, possibly latex deck product. You wouldn't think to put latex paint on your indoor hardwood. Latex wears like crap to foot traffic. A true stain soaks the color deep into the wood and is not a "paint pigment" that sits on top of the wood. The whole problem with deck preservation has been caused by the VOC controversy which tossed a lot of good products out of the market by legislation. The emphasis on water based products opened the door for a lot of "new" water products with "paint stains" which are not stains at all. Unfortunately, those products require stripping because they wear out fast, leaving some areas bare and have adhesion problems as they age. Stripping is more work than the refinishing. ALWAYS google the Material Safety Data Sheet of the product you are considering so you know exactly what it is. Be careful that most big box stores sales clerks are "selling" what the store has in stock. That is why they get paid. The best products used by Contractors are available through building supply vendors that cater to builders and carpenters and not the general public consumer. They do not refuse to sell to the general public, but "quality" is their life blood, not quantity of sales based on huge purchasing contracts supplying a nationwide chain. Wish you good luck. Don't be swayed by the claims of 6 year and 10 year lifespans. If its a water based paint pigment product, it will look like hell for half of those claimed "lifespans", Most people would prefer a true stain that can be reapplied easily without having to strip the deck. And. if you have to strip the deck, how do you strip the railings and balusters? I've done it....took a pressure washer and two days to complete. Then I started reading and wised up on the number of really crummy products that are available, being pushed by big box stores and consumer agencies that prioritize water based over oil because of an "environmental" bias. The idea behind using an initial Thompson's Oil Based Transparent on a new deck comes from a highly ethical, lifelong contractor/carpenter who needed a workable solution for customers who couldn't decide how they wanted there decks treated during an age of great confusion. The Thompson Transparent has an effective anti-fungal and gives good service up to two years. When you compare to other oil based products costing three times as much, many of them also recommend restaining after two years. BTW, oil based paraffin products do not support fungus.

Ok folks, so I am one of these guys who have had this tacky stain problem. I waited two weeks before I finally tried a few things. I attempted to stain again in hopes of emulsifying the original stain and then wiping to no avail, still tacky. I tried to pressure wash the tacky off and nothing, Finally, as a last resort, I tried one more thing. I purchased a bag of oil absorb. I spread it out amongst my porch which is about 240 square feet. I let it sit for about an hour. Then, I took a garage broom and gently pushed the oil absorb over the surface of the deck a few times. When I was finished, the dust from the oil absorb was adhered to the tacky spots. I gathered up the remaining granular and crushed it up as much as possible, attempting to get it as fine as possible. Then, I spread out the remainder equally over the surface of the porch deck once more. I waited 24 hours, then pressure washed off the entire thing with a medium spray tip on a 3000 psi pressure washer. All the excess tacky oil from the stain was absorbed into the speedy dry. I blew it off the deck and followed it up with a good 24 hour air dry. I was back sitting on my porch the following night. It worked great. I hope this helps someone else out there. Questions, try me at benryan76@gmail.com Good luck folks!

Update: Well, Monday morning and it still wasn't dry. My contractor called TWP and they said the same thing to us that they said to fpmr96a - mineral spirits on a rag and go over the whole deck. So we did and all the sort of glossy spots were gone. The mineral spirits definitely took some of the TWP off - it looks a bit lighter in color, but still a nice rich deep color. Thanks, pressurepros, for the technical explanation - I'm definitely going to keep an eye on our film. When you say regular maintenance, you mean the percarb and oxalic treatments with a TWP reapply on an annual basis?

Thanks for the reply. I think the issue may have been that I didn't save deep enough with my palm sander for these test boards. SJ I believe water popping can only be done with water. Mineral spirits is used to clean/tack the floor and it won't pop the grain. I also did a test board of water popped red oak vs non water popped, with water popping the dura seal stain came out insanely dark.