Wood Deck Coatings: Do they work? Do they suck?

SWMBO has an older deck on the house--its pressure treated and was painted over some years ago. The paint is now peeling and it generally looks like E36 M3. My intent is to pressurewash the deck and then refinish it. The wood is not rotten, but there is a fair bit of cracking (see "original" in photo below).

I came across a coating called "RockSolid" at Menards the other day--the stuff looks awesome, but upon further research it seems that lots of folks have had coating like this (Behr and Pittsburgh make similar) come flaking off after a just few months.

The stuff looks like this:

Has anyone used any of these products? Any good feedback?

Been wanting to try it, co-worker did his deck with it and loves it so far. Of course its only been a few months....

We installed the Restore brand from HomeDepot 2 years ago on our ugly back deck. I have been impressed with how its held up, even stacking firewood on it. I plan on using it when I redeck my car trailer.

Buy a gallon or two extra. We found it didnt cover as far as the can says.

logdog wrote: We installed the Restore brand from HomeDepot 2 years ago on our ugly back deck. I have been impressed with how its held up, even stacking firewood on it. I plan on using it when I redeck my car trailer. Buy a gallon or two extra. We found it didnt cover as far as the can says.

This is exactly what I needed to know. I have to repaint the dack I've been working on at the house. What was your prep? Application style?

This is relevant to me. My deck is now 14 years old, I powerwash and put Cabot deck stain on it every 4-5 years. If this stuff holds up better, I'm all over it.

Rocksolid on wood?

I did the concrete floors of the lunchroom and inspection room at the shop with it last year. Prep was a bitch, getting the previous 40 years of tiles, glue and paint off, but it's held up well.

EDIT: I didn't check the link, to see that they have a wood coating, too.

RealMiniDriver wrote: Rocksolid on wood? I did the concrete floors of the lunchroom and inspection room at the shop with it last year. Prep was a bitch, getting the previous 40 years of tiles, glue and paint off, but it's held up well. EDIT: I didn't check the link, to see that they have a wood coating, too.

C'mon Paul--I got my E36 M3 together!

C'mon Erik, I don't.

I don't know about the Rock Solid stuff, but my daughter's husband put on the Behr or similar stuff. I can tell you it isn't worth a E36 M3 if you put it on wrong (like he did).

Do these products completely seal the wood? I wonder if some of the failures are coming from not having the wood very dry before sealing it?

Dusterbd13 wrote:

logdog wrote: We installed the Restore brand from HomeDepot 2 years ago on our ugly back deck. I have been impressed with how its held up, even stacking firewood on it. I plan on using it when I redeck my car trailer. Buy a gallon or two extra. We found it didnt cover as far as the can says.

This is exactly what I needed to know. I have to repaint the dack I've been working on at the house. What was your prep? Application style?

We pressure washed the deck and gave it a couple days to dry. Then we rolled it on with the rollers that came in the kit. Use a broom handle on the roller so you can do it standing up. We did the trim with a paint brush.

We have been 100% happy. The deck was pretty rough from the previous owners not taking any care of it. We were hoping it would extend the life a couple years and it is. The front deck is worse but it needs fixed more than the Restore can do.

nicksta43 wrote: Do these products completely seal the wood? I wonder if some of the failures are coming from not having the wood very dry before sealing it?

Its like a bedliner material. We only rolled it on the top so the wood isnt totally covered.

We looked into doing something like this for our deck. One thing I read over and over is that you had to nail the prep. Power-wash, and then wait for at least 3 dry days before applying.

My Uncle put Deckover on his deck, and it peeled up within a year. I have no idea what he did (or didn't do) in terms of prep.

logdog wrote: Its like a bedliner material. We only rolled it on the top so the wood isnt totally covered.

Hootus.

those all look like top coatings....

about 25 years ago my dad gave me a small wooden hanging lamp... the kind you might use over an entrance door. It was faded and cracked as your original was.

I managed to remove all the old nails and disassemble the lamp. I coated all the wooden pieces in 20 coats of Thompsons. It took about 3 days total and then I re-assembled the lamp. Its been hanging outside since...