Treating your Wood or Deck with transparent "tinted" Deck Stains will create a UV absorber, filtering out the damaging sunlight and preserving the natural color tones.
Composite Decks have been saturating the market for many years now. The common belief is that composite wood is maintenance free. This is far from the truth. Periodic cleaning and now staining is needed to keep them looking good.
Composite decks were introduced into the market over 10 years ago as a "maintenance free" material. Through the years it has changed to "low maintenance" due to several issues with mold and mildew. Composite wood is a very dense material. Due to this water will stay in the wood for a long period of time and mildew/mold will grow, especially in the sun. The result is small black spots the size of a quarter. This can be cleaned off with a mold and mildew remove such as the Defy Wood Cleaner or a watered down bleach. After cleaning it would be helpful to prevent water absorption by using a composite deck sealer or water repellent such as SuperSeal-M. This product will not stop the mildew permanently but will prolong the mildew or mold for a short period of time.
There is also issues with fading and discoloration through the years. Imagine leaving a pot or a mat in the same position for a few years only to find that your composite wood is a completely different color under them when moved. Or that your nice 'sadle" color has completely faded to a new different color. Well unfortunately the only way to fix discoloration is to stain your composite deck. This goes against the belief of composite wood never being needed to stain, unfortunately if you want the wood to look good again you will need to apply a Composite Wood Stain. Good news is that there already is two high quality composite stains on the market.
I couldn't agree with this article more! I have had black mold spots on my composite deck since it was installed. I was completely mislead by the builder and lumber yard who told me it wouldn't need to be treated ever!
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