I live in the foothill region of central CA: hot dry summer/fall and cold, freezing and often rainy & foggy winter. Just replaced 20-yr-old redwood deck with new redwood (the lower grade redwood, not top notch) and need to seal it. Read all the post since 2005 re: "I've had it with deck stains." Can someone tell me what to use on redwood in my climate? I thought a clear oil sealer was best (no color or stain), but now after reading so much info, I'm totally confused. Do oil sealers offer UV protection in the formula? Is oil sealer better than water-based in my climate? Is the wax content in oil products a good thing or a bad thing in this climate. Help! Please! Thank you.

We do the same with wood floor dye stains to alter the color with no detriment. I assume this is a dye stain, not a sealer.

Some of the Sikkens products have considerable sheen. Existing transparent or semi-transparent stains don't normally need to overly prepared if not let go too long. It is important to occasionally give a "maintenance" coat when you see it start to show wear. You only need a primer under SOLID hide stains. All good paint/stain products have a mildecide in them. I am not sure how parafin affects the performance of stains. If the wood to be stained has never had a water based product on it, it should accept additional oil stain. If it has grayed with age, you can restore the natural color of the wood using a deck cleaner. You should remove graying, as it will show through a transparent or semi-transparent stain. Of course, if there is color from an existing stain on the wood, it too will affect the final look of the wood. Old color from a penetrating stain cannot be totally removed.

I'm trying to remember back when we did ours (also so cal). probably 15 years ago. we took up the old pavers, exposing dirt. then I think we poured the cement and laid this ceramic tile (could I have picked anything worse?? honestly, it was cheap ceramic tile from home depot back in 05 or so) Some of the grout has loosened in a few of the tiles, but overall, it's lasted very well all this time. I would like to completely redo this area. (i've since painted the house since this pic was taken) This shows the tile we did. There is a koi pond under the blue wall. up on the porch we did the mexican tile. (we should have chosen this for the other part, but didn't know back then) the grout could use a scrubbing. I'd suggest using a darker grout if you do tiles I water every day out here, have a lot of potted plants.