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The builders of my home painted my front and back porch. The railings are white, and the decking itself is the same color as the house. It looks great, but the paint has all peeled up.

I'm in the process right now of re-painting it to get it looking good again, but once I'm done with that, is there a way to seal it? I'm guessing that something like Thompson's water seal needs to absorb into the wood, and wouldn't work on paint... What other options are there?

I had thought about polyurethane, but wasn't sure about how slippery it might be.

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Paint is a sealer of sorts. If the paint is peeling, then the issue is the paint itself. Perhaps the wood wasn't prepared right, or there is no proper primer, or they didn't use paint specifically for foot-traffic (they make paint specific for floors/stairs that wears better with foot traffic).

Your best bet is to strip what's there and start over. Sand it down a bit, use a proper primer, etc.

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I've put about 3 coats of Kilz Premium down as a primer... I did the back deck last year (it was in bad shape too), and I've noticed that I now have black streaks on the white railings, and the decking is dirty, and doesn't want to come clean... Do you have a suggestion on cleaning a painted deck? – vt100 Sep 12 '11 at 16:46
When you did your deck the first time, you primed it then? Had the deck been thoroughly pressure washed prior to priming? Did you use a latex or oil based primer? – The Evil Greebo Sep 12 '11 at 16:57
I don't believe that it was primed. When I pressure washed it, it came up in one layer... I used Latex Kilz Premium. – vt100 Sep 12 '11 at 17:02

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