PS: If you are going to use a solid (I wouldn't unless I had to) be sure to prime first with an oil/alkyd base.

pressurepros,

Thanks for the tips/views. My deck is cedar and I kept it in clear or cedar tone semi stain for about ten years. Then with some physical wear-and-tear that I decided to fix with wood filer rather than new planks and the fact I was tired of putting down sealer only to see the rain soaking in after about 3 months, I went to a Behr Deck solid stain, cedar color. This holds up a lot better, but needs some attention every year.

As for Consumer Reports they do rate Cabot O.V.T 0600 (latex) in third place, but this test is for siding I believe and there is not test of the abrasion resistance of the finish. One of my applications is on the siding of my house, and so they tested what I need to know. I posted here on the Porches and Decks because I am also doing the deck and I didn't see a painting fourm subject.

All that said I see the Olympic I purchased to give it at try is the Wood Protector Acrylic Latex and part of my reason for doing this post is what is perhaps a lament: National Brands come in too many "models". I have found Home Depot carrys Glidden, but not the specific "model" I find tested in Consumers, and seems the same is true of Olympic and Lowes. I suppose if I went to a local paint store I'd find the Olympic that was tested, and it appears the chain Big Box Stores may have "custom" versions of a paint that is different that what the small paint/factory dealer sells, and is most likely less money, and maybe cheaper in every respect. There is some of what I'm trying to uncover, and I couldn't find anything on the Olympic web site that told me they make a special for Lowes and that it has a Lowes rather than an Olympic quality.

A good rule of thumb is :

Anything you can get at Home Depot or Lowes is basically CRAP. Olympic has some decent sealers but again, what you get at Lowes is sub par mass produced garbage.

I know only one way to give this to you and its straight. You can trust a biased magazine that has expertise in nothing or you can come to a froum, ask professionals and heed their advice. Return your Olympic to Lowes and go to a paint store.

Once you put down a solid, thats it you are married to it. They have to be maintained meticulously. If you let it go a few years and it begins to peel, its shot. It very labor intensive applying a solid. You have to first apply a primer (oil based is best) then you have to wait for that to dry. Then you have to apply a solid like you do paint with a careful touch and wet edge feathering. I wish I could talk you out of it.

John

Gee, my vocabulary on political terms is weak/absent.
Is a "left wing liberal" the same as a environmentalist? If yes, that's one of the reasons I trust/value CR.

The lesson learned so far for me is Lowes, like Home Depot sells some company brand products, e.g., Minwax and some "store versions" of company brand products, e.g., Olympic at Lowes and Glidden at Home Depot. I can't do much more than question the value of CR reported tests relative to what Lowes and Home Depot sell if it doesn't carry the company brand and version, as is the case with Minwas. I do know Sears, one of the original big box stores now in trouble, had all their Craftsman tools made to their specification, and they put the name Craftsman on the tools, not Black and Decker etc. While these tools have done only average in my recollection of Consumer Reports testing, I've used them extensively as a residential, non-commercial, user and have been completely happy with the tool and the quality, some now more than 30 years in my shop. So, my experience tells me some "store brands" big box or not, are of good quality for the use I make of them. Still I remain in the dark as to the value of Consumer Reports unless I go to a "company store" and get the identical product to that which was tested, not a BBS version.

Go back and read Consumer Reports then do a little research on advertising. I always find it interesting that the top ranked products in a category usually have advertisements or advertisements from the parent company. Enviroment or liberalism have nothing to do with my opinion.

Big box stores as redfined by todays standards are different than what you experienced in the past. (thus why Sears has been in trouble) Todays standards are huge stores with aisles and aisles or low priced things. Lets skip all of the rhetoric and theories. I am a professional. I do this day in and day out and have for a long enough time to know what of what I am speaking. Every day I do proposals for customers that have used products from HD or BLowes and they want them OFF their decks. Cheap grade mildewcide, high silicone/acrylic content etc.

If you are seeking advice, amen, I will help you until I am blue in the face. If you are seeking validation for your purchase, that will not happen. Like I tell my son, go ahead and let me know how it works out for you.

pressurepros,

Thanks, I do appreciate your advice, and while I have to expend some effort to understand your problem with CR taking advertisements, I believe they don't, it isn't something I propose to argue here.

You have helped me understand and re-evaluate Home Depot and Lowes products that I had assumed were in the most the same name brands sold elsewhere. As I said in the opening: "what's what?"

As for Sears, it's now really KMart, enough said?

Not chiming in here on what product is good or bad. Just to say Consumer Reports is a bunch of idiots. I myself am a left wing liberal and I don't think that has anything to do with why Consumer Reports is always wrong. I think they just don't know what they are doing. I never read them anymore.

Five years ago I bought a Bosch dishwasher, which at the time was the best for water conservation. I needed this feature because I am on a well and have septic and need to conserve water. At the time, CR rated this dishwasher low because of an odor in the filter. Well my dishwaster washes great and has no odors and is one of my favorite appliances because it requires no maintenance and is useful each and every day.

I could go on and on with different examples of how Consumer Reports always gets it wrong. We left wing liberals are not the devil and we are not the reason Consumer Reports stinks.

-terri

terri, my sentiment exactly. I see their top rated products fail and their low rated ones (like in your case) exceed all expectations.

Jerry, trust me.. I don't rely on anecdotal evidence, hearsay or rumors to formulate my opinions. I know a manufacturer that was solicited and offered higher ranking for advertisment money. It doesn't have to be in that particular publication, magazines are corporation with multiple publications.

Sorry to rain on your parade, but your are in error when you suggest that Consumer Reports is biased.

Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, contrary to your assertions, makes a point that they are wholly owned and paid for by their membership and have never taken advertising. So your assertion that they are biased by their advertisers suggests you were perhaps reading Consumer Digest (owned by Kiplinger), not Consumer Reports. I have been a member/subscriber of CU for 30 years and have found them to be an excellent source of information across the board. They have a staff of competent engineers and scientists, consultant specialists, and panels of users that actually test the products. Their tests show that seldom is any one brand good across the board or across its spectrum of products --so Olympic's acrylic latex opaque stain is very good in almost all categories, its semi-transparent flunks on some scores, its transparent flunks on others, and so on for almost every manufacturer in almost every product line, and so on. I'll take that kind of unbiased product-specific, attribute-specific analysis over any single opinion even by a professional in the field, since none of can claim to have put an array the current crop of products by different manufacturers to side-by-side tests in a variety of conditions --especially when they almost all have already developed an allegiance to a single product line, usually based upon an experience with a version of the product that is no longer available.

I haven't done an objective, quality controlled survey on this, so my opinion on it not worth much, but in my own limited experience in seeking bids, every painter has had an allegiance to one or two brands, and seldom have their choices been the same. But they almost all are convinced they know which are best.

Insofar as your claim that the Big Box stores carry inferior versions of the products, what proof do you have of this, or is that speculation?

Not savvy about various paints other than alkyd and latex...so i went to Lowes looking for a satin finish for my patio door which was painted once white. Upon opening the quart, that is all i needed, in fact even that was too much cause i was doing both sides of a 15 glass panel door. It did say for interiour/exterior. Naturally, like most paints one has to mix it with the paint stick supplied. It seemed strange as i was mixing it like i saw hints of polyurathane? Sorry for the mispelled. LOL i had prepared the door with sanding and i started to apply it with a brush and it no way looked like the typical white enamel I was looking for. The door absorbed it like a sponge and it was not even covering some of small bare wood that was shown after sanding. Just what is this paint. I thought it needed more mixing, but same effect. The salesperson should have warned me ..but in my local Lowes, they know nothing.