RPetry

Bill, I'm not Beth. Being said, let your ipe' "age" or weather for as long as possible if you want to keep it stained. Percarb clean, acid neutralize, let it dry, and stain again. Better yet, just clean every year. Ipe' laughs at North Central U.S. climate. The wood will outlast you, yours, and your grandchildren without intervention.

Call Bob. Or call Tom of ACR Products in Easton, Pa. They both know their stuff and will steer you in the correct direction.

1. The later you are, the more excited your dogs are to see you. 2. Dogs don't notice if you call them by another dog's name. 3. Dogs like it if you leave a lot of things on the floor. 4. A dog's parents never visit. 5. Dogs agree that you have to raise your voice to get your point across. 6. You never have to wait for a dog; they're ready to go 24 hours a day. 7. Dogs find you amusing when you're drunk. 8. Dogs like to go hunting and fishing. 9. A dog will not wake you up at night to ask, "If I died, would you get another dog ? " 10. If a dog has babies, you can put an ad in the paper and give them away. 11. A dog will let you put a studded collar on it without calling you a pervert. 12. If a dog smells another dog on you, they don't get mad. They just think it's interesting. 13. Dogs like to ride in the back of a pickup truck. And last, but not least: 14. If a dog leaves, it won't take half of your stuff. To test this theory: Lock your wife and your dog(s) in the garage for an hour. Then open it and see who's happy to see you.

Tony, Daniel is the life of the party on the wood web sites. He keeps everyone on their toes and is entertaining. Without Daniel, the boards would be boring. You don't miss your water 'till the well runs dry. Long live Plainpainter! Seriously.

Hah! Another wood guru sharing secrets of the brotherhood. First, M. Smith, out of the west, now D. Jim, wood expert extraordinaire out of the east. No fear. Most of the so called competition cannot read or spell English! And they are United Statesian born! Gracias senor.

Diamond Jim, Aside from the additional mildewcide that is obviously required, do you also need to add a bit of Japan dryer to help cure the boiled linseed oil?

Nathan, Mixing linseed oil into Ready Seal is like putting cheap, no name 87 octane gas into a top fuel dragster. 50/50 mix of Ready Seal med. brown and Ready Seal clear is the ticket. Call Tom of ACR Products in the morning and the RS clear will be on its way pronto.

Aarav, This is a pressure washing forum, not a moving and storage website. Best wishes on your business in Europe.

Charlie, You mean they beat the "bejesus" out of the wood and throw on a filmer? That is heresy. Daniel, Aside from a cosmetic sanding on ipe' or a "facial powdering" type of sanding on mahogany, in most cases, in my experience, you are wasting both your own time and customer cost. Jake makes a very fine stain. It is at the least half right, with 50% pariffin oil. Peirce owes my wife Judy a pink Ready Seal hat with her name embroiderd on the back. Jake has to step up and get me a round of golf at Pebble Beach.

Daniel, I am of a particular mindset that after many years of doing this type of work, one has a fair and honest method of restoring and staining exterior wood. There is no holy grail. Merely competence and experience.

Daniel, Between the years you have been doing this, and the obvious intelligence and education you possess, basic wood restoration should not be hard.

+ People wash and wax their cars frequently. What's up when they fail to do even basic maintenance on their equipment? It is your living, not another date for dancing or dinner.

Jake, I am truly humbled to receive such plaudits from an industry giant such as yourself. Please pass another drumstick...

Lyle, I'm not sure if the difference is with climate. 5/4" or 1" x 6" ipe' horizontal deck boards will cup, and ends will check slightly even with Anchor Seal applied on installation. It is a wood. I've seen no difference between a religiously oiled ipe' in those dimensions and an ipe' that has not been treated with a stain for years. If I was going to rebuild my ipe' deck again, it would be 2 x 4's on the deck flooring. Interesting enough, my 5/4 x 10 vertical fascia has held its dimensions for 7 years now.

Matt, Real nice truck. The lettering is very well done. ACR Products has kept me in the wood restoration business for the past 9 years. Her name is Barbara. She speaks with a svelte German accent. Drives this old boy crazy. Along with our hostess Beth, Barbara is a wood minx.

Yup. Also add in the fact that ipe' is an extremely dense wood. Stain, as well as water, cannot penetrate the wood to any appreciable degree.

Clark, Many of the deck floor boards in your pictures are pretty well shot. If you have some carpentry skills, I'd go ahead and replace the floor and stain with a semi-trans oil. The underside joist should be fine and the rail system looks solid. The current wood is pressure treated, probably Southern Yellow Pine and the wood is very reasonable in price.

Brad, Your ipe' was not cleaned or possibly stripped correctly. That picture in your post tells a tale. A 5 yr. old stain finish on ipe' should be history, so I would guess that a sodium percarbonate based wood cleaner applied, and medium pressure with a washer would do wonders. Follow up with a 6 oz./gal. oxalic brightener and rinse well. Don't worry about stop/start PW marks if you are going to stain. Try a small amount of stain on a "firred" or "beat up" section of ipe'. If the finish looks bad, get a set of knee pads and sand with a random orbital at 60 grit, but easy, you do not have to get down to bare ipe'. Good luck in doing that and buy stock in the sandpaper company. Your ipe' should come out looking similar to this before staining.

Yup. +10

Rick, OK, gotcha'. Ask Tom Vogel of ACR, I'm not known to be mechanically inclined! Wish I could do that for Shurflos. Go through 4 or 5 of them a season. Chems kill 'em fast.

Rick, The Pumptec pump on my Decker 5'er (clone of the Deckster) runs about $300 new.

Michael, IMO, you have one tough sanding project ahead if you wish to stain with a semi-trans. oil. I'd suggest stripping again with a heavy duty stripper such as Eaco Chem's Stripper Cream or Back to Nature's BFS II.

Doug, 3/4's to 1 measuring cup per gallon, dependent on the amount of dirt and top layer of degraded wood.