Decks, Patios, Porches and Docks - best sealer for mahogany front porch floor

We're having the covered (roof with railings all around) front porch on our 1920's rebuilt with mahogany tongue and groove flooring. I'd like to keep the floor natural, but don't want a lot of upkeep. I want no upkeep so badly we almost used Trex! What is the best way to preserve it the longest. We live in NY and it faces south.

The painted gray fir floor my husband installed 22 years ago lasted a long time with the original paint and I liked it. Only started looking bad in some places a few years ago. If I don't like the looks of the natural mahogany with our house, we may end up painting it gray anyway. But I'd like to try natural first. Can always go from natural to gray paint, but not the other way around. :)

I'd appreciate any advice I can get. I want to buy the sealer myself rather than letting the contractor get it.

Thank you!

Welcome to the forums!

Clear sealers like thompson water seal have a short life and polyurathanes don't weather well. A semi-transparent stain would be a good choice. If you pick a color close to the wood color it will enhance the wood without looking like the color had been changed.

You will always find better coatings at a real paint store - beter advice too :)

Thank you for the response, avid DIYer. I actually did go to a Benjamin Moore retailer today. I felt like I had just enough information from all my Internet searching to ask halfway intelligent questions. He suggested their Exterior Stain Hardwood Finish Alkyd Transparent. The word stain kind of worried me because I thought I should be getting a "sealer" rather than a stain, no? He said this stuff IS a sealer.

He said then I would have to decide if I wanted natural or mahogany. Looking at their display samples I think I like the mahogany better. How does that sound?

He also said I should first clean the floor really well with their "Brighten" Brightener & Neutralizer to get off the glaze or whatever that is always on new wood, rinse real well and then let it dry a couple of days before applying the stain. He said the stain would absorb better if I do this.

He said it would only need one coat of this stain. More would just make it shinier and aren't necessary. I don't want shiny.

One thing I noticed is different from your advice. He suggested the transparent variety. You said semi-transparent. Does it matter? If so, why? Thank you so much!

An ongoing survey here tends to recommend Sikkens or Cabbots.

I don't use a lot of B. Moore products so I'm not real familiar with their products. Transparent usually means no color while semi-transparent means color but not enough to hide the surface colors/grains underneath. It is possible that they use the term transparent for stains that other manufactures would call semi-transparent.

It is always a good idea to have a clean surface to paint/stain. Oil base [akyld] must have a dry surface.
All exterior stains are also sealers. if you have a piece of scrap mahogany - take it to BM and ask them to apply a sample of both stains/sealers on it so you can decide which you like best.

Thank you. Sounds like I'm on the right track, but I have one more question. Do you not usually use Benjamin Moore products because you don't like them or because you already prefer another one. And if so, what? Thanks.

I just had the thought to check consumerreports.org. They rank Cabot Decking Stain 1480 as #1. I hesitated about Cabot's because I was also on another forum (can't find it now) that said Cabot's used to be good, but all these contractors were saying they wouldn't use it now because they changed it. I specifically asked the guy at the paint store about Cabot's and he said it used to be really good, but since some government regulation about 5 years ago that said a certain ingredient couldn't be in it, it isn't as good. :confused: So what do you say? Is that the one you use?

And what's the difference between opaque and transparent?

Thank you again.

The main reason I don't use much BM products is location and hours of business. SWP has more stores and opens earlier ;) They also seem to always be nearer to the job :cool:

As far as I know cabot stains always have been and still are good stains. All coatings change from time time to meet gov't regs and changing formulas. Years ago they used to be cresote based but I think they got away from that over 20 yrs ago. Cresote has since been banned.I recently did a deck with cabot. Up until I retired, 90% of the coatings I used were SWP - mainly because of the working relationship I had with the various stores. Except for their bottom line of paints, BM is just as good [some may say better] than SWP [which also has a cheap bottom line]

Opaque is hard to see thru so it should be a heavier coating than transparent. Their isn't an exact standard for sheens or how transparent a stain might be which means there can be differences between brands - opposing brands may say the same thing but be different in appearence.