I have no water on the deck so, cleaning the deck is a chore using buckets, brushes and mops.  Since the prior coating didn't hold up I knew I had to clean and sand to bare wood (had to take down a light to put in an outlet to use the sander) before putting any the of stain or sealer.  I decided to use the Cabot Australian Timber Oil in Jarrah Brown hoping for longer lasting finish. I brushed on the stain, waited a few minutes and wiped off the excess.  Well it's blotchy and the color is bad - nothing like the color in the brochure - and my wife and I hate the way it looks.  Luckily I've only only done about 1/3 of the deck and I'm going to strip, sand and brighten what I've stained to get everything back to just bare wood.

Now, my questions.  What should I use.  My wife likes color variations of the cedar and we want to see the wood grain which is why we went with the clear sewer last year.  I know that the more pigment there is in a product the better it will protect and I also know that a penetrating oil will also last longer.  But living in Illinois there are VOC restrictions so an all oil product just isn't available.

So, my questions.  What type of product to seal / stain would be recommended and what can I do to avoid it looking blotch again.  Do I just go with a clear sealer again knowing that I'll have to clean/strip and seal again each year?

The pictures are:

274

new cedar unfinished

276

w/ PPG sealer

277

boards after 1 year

278 

cleaned and sanded

279

w/ Cabot Australian Timber oil stain

280

closeup of boards w/ Cabot Timber oil stain

I appreciate any help, comments or suggestions.

Thanks