Maintaining a Wood Deck, Using Flood CWF-UV

I recently had to maintain a wood deck at our old office.  The deck was put in about ten years ago, and we simply applied a coating of Flood (brand) CWF-UV clear coating.  This stuff seems to work fine and is rated fairly well at most websites that I recently looked at.  Since then, we've applied new coats of this stuff every 2-4 years or so.

I have more free time this year, so I took on the task of maintaining this deck this year.  I did quite a bit of reading and finally decided to use Olympic brand deck cleaner to clean the deck (it does contain bleach but is reviewed well).  Once I cleaned the deck, it looked terrible.  Most of the deck had been stained reddish by the CWF-UV, but in places such as frequently-used steps, grey weathered wood showed through.

All the ads I saw for CWF-UV described it as a clear coat.   I thought that this stuff was clear.  In fact, the gallon that I bought at the local Ace Hardware described it as clear.  In fact, we had somehow gotten hold of a can of CWF-UV that was "redwood tone" rather than clear.

Summary -- if you decide to use CWF-UV on your deck, be sure that you know what you are getting.  The product description pages don't clearly tell you that this stuff comes in various colors that will stain your deck different colors.   The part on the label that says "redwood tone" is very small and hard to miss.

Here's an image from their product sheet.  The official name is Flood CWF-UV, Clear Wood Finish.  So, the official name is Clear Wood Finish, but it comes in several "tones" which make this Clear Wood Finish, ummm, not clear. 

Here's some text from an article on the web:
The best penetrating finish I've found is Clear Wood Finish UV

(The Flood Co.; 800-321-3444), which enhances the wood's natural

beauty but can also be tinted like a stain. CWF is an emulsified oil,

so it cleans up like a latex but offers the protection of a petroleum

product. I have found it far superior to the more popular paraffinbased

coatings (such as Thompson's Water Seal) that require biannual

re-treatment to be effective. Even with the best finishes, however,

the surface of the deck needs to be recoated every three years to provide

maximum protection for the wood.