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.
It is often a common belief that the reason to preserve your exterior wood deck is to "seal" the wood so that it "beads" like a car wax. This is absolutely not true! This is a marketing ploy by the "Big Box" manufactures.
While it is helpful to prevent water damage, the main reason to treat your wood is for UV damage. If left untreated, the Sun's ultraviolet rays will oxidize and damage the exposed layer of wood cells. When using a transparent tinted wood deck stain or sealer, the tint will act like "sunglasses" for your wood. The tint will absorb the UV and prolong the oxidation that turns the exposed wood cells gray. This is very important if you want to have your wood keep its natural color. The natural and/or sythetic oils in the deck stains will also replinish the wood that has dried out from the UV damage.
Depending on your conditions you can expect a high quality deck stain or sealer to last 18-36 months on the horizontals and twice as long on the verticals. See Deck Stain for more info.
On my cedar framed home, how long would the best stain out there last? Is it realistic to expect 5 years or more? Currently I get about 3 years with a product called woodguards and I was hoping to get twice as long
You should use a exterior wood stain that has a higher solid content. This will give better UV protection. A high end wood stain can give 5-8 years on a vertical surface such a your cedar home.
I have tried numerous sealers and none have lasted more then a year. I have never tried a tinted sealer. I guess I will now. What's the most popular color or product?
I just put up a beautiful cedar fence as well. We put a natural colored sealant on it. The colour is no where near the same as the original tone of the fence. It looks more orange and it breaks my heart to think of how lovely it looked before. But we didn't want the fence to turn grey which is why we sealed it.
My question is: Will the orange or "pumpkin" tone of the sealant fade a bit over time so that it's no so INTENSE! The color is now competing with my garden!
Articles & Reviews 
It is often a common belief that the reason to preserve your exterior wood deck is to "seal" the wood so that it "beads" like a car wax. This is absolutely not true! This is a marketing ploy by the "Big Box" manufactures.
