Treating Minimal treatment: water repellent with a fungicide This is a basic treatment for any wood that is exposed to weather. In time, your arbor will turn a beautiful silvery gray. Storm Stain Wood Stabilizer 20024, manufactured by California Paints, is an excellent treatment. This clear, penetrating sealant is recommended for outdoor cedar structures. It will resist mildew and other fungus and repel moisture. Storm Stain Wood Stabilizer 20024 contains zinc naphthenate. According to the US Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service and the US Army Corps of Engineers, zinc naphthenate has been found to be the most effective clear preservative available for retarding warping, shrinking and checking of unfinished woods. It also penetrates and actually hardens the wood, while allowing the structure to “season”. Bleaching oil Applying a coat of bleaching oil, with a fungicide, will also protect the wood from checking and fungus staining. Bleaching oils have a light gray stain added to them. Cabot Stains produces a very good bleaching oil.   Treating Translucent stain with a wood color If you desire to have the arbor a natural wood color we recommend a product called Penofin. Penofin comes in a variety of wood tones. It will not flake or peel because it is a penetrating stain. Penofin results in an attractive and extremely durable finish. We do not recommend the use of clear coat finishes to maintain the natural wood color. If it is clear, it has little or no pigment and will discolor and turn gray fairly quickly. Full bodied, colored latex stain Staining the arbor a color is an easy process. We recommend a full bodied, colored latex stain. It comes in a variety of colors. This product will not peel, but it is necessary to first apply an oil based primer to the wood. Cabot Stains and Benjamin Moore produce very good solid bodied stains. Staining of the arbor is preferable to paint, as paint will require greater maintenance over time. Colored oil stains are also fine to use. California Paints makes an excellent line of oil based stains. It is not necessary to apply a primer prior to using an oil based stain.   Because our pieces are unstained, this allows you a full range of possibilities for finishing, including the option of allowing the product to weather naturally. The consistent, high quality woods that we use are beautiful in their natural state, and do not require a colored stain to hide blemishes in the wood. All of the wood that we use is extremely rot resistant and will last approximately 20 to 30 years with minimal treatment. While the product does not have to be treated to prevent decay, we recommend any one of the following treatments to help ward off checking (small cracks that can occur as the wood dries in the sun) and possible discoloration of the wood due to fungus. In certain locations, fungus growth can occur if the trellis is exposed to a great deal of moisture and shade, preventing proper drying of the wood. Each piece comes with a detailed finishing sheet which includes a variety of methods for staining and treating western red cedar products.