RPetry

This is strange, have never seen this. One single 5/4x6 board on a fairly large ipe' job will just not hold pigment. The stain is penetrating fine, put a 2nd application of RS light brown on the "white" area. Initially, the pigment is on the surface, paraffin oil soaks in, and the color looks fine. Come back the next day, and its "white" again. Where does the pigment go? There is something very "off" on this particular board, certainly the cut of wood itself. Does anyone have an idea of the physical characteristics of the wood that would cause this anomaly?

Hah! Hope children do not read this board! Daniel, I have never seen anything close to this with any wood, PT, mahogany, cedar, redwood etc. It is not "sappy" to the touch, and the white area of the ipe' feels as hard and dense as normal ipe'. We have serviced a lot of ipe', particularly this season, and I have never seen anything like this. Its difficult to imagine any pigment "soaking" into ipe'. One thought is that this particular tree had some kind of disease that affected some of the wood. Beth, We didn't build this deck, just maintaining it. The customer did not say a peep, so I guess it is not an issue with him. I'm just a bit more than curious as to the "why?".

Adrian, Straight paraffin oil stains, ie. RS, some TWP's, Baker's, TimberOil, penetrate quite well in colder weather. We stained two 1 yr. old ipe' decks yesterday. The temps were in the high 40's to low 50's during a cloudy day and the wood took a good amount of oil. Will be back at the job site this morning to strip some cedar on another part of the property and will see if the ipe' needs a quick "wipe down" or, though doubtful, another light oiling. Tested A-C rustic brown on my own ipe' last year. It certainly lasted as long and held its color on this tough wood as a previous application as RS. Subjectively, on ipe', in this one case, there was little difference in longevity. We do have a fairly large "test" cedar deck also done with 2 coats of A-C rustic brown stained in the summer of 2008. It looked very good when checked this past spring, and I'll see how the A-C has held up next summer at the expected 2 yr. maintenance mark.

Dan, We use Shurflo pumps to apply stripper. May provide a bit more spray control than downstreaming. We use masonite 4' x 4' boards as spray shields. Thin, not too heavy, and lean easily up against a house. Also do double duty as stain shields.

Max, We have been using Ready Seal, almost exclusively, for the past 7 years. Very easy to apply, with no lapping or uneven areas. A paraffin oil based stain, there is no need to clean brushes or sprayers after use. Conditions and preserves most woods as the oil penetrates into the substrate. Readily available from distributors or the manufacturer. Terrific customer service. Maintenance is a quick bleach/soap/water low pressure wash, followed by a single application of more oil. Downside is, when preparing a deck for the first time, the wood must be very dry prior to staining. Very old, dried out wood will take a lot of stain.

This may be true for linseed oil stains. It is not true for paraffin oil stains. We have used both Ready Seal and ESI's TimberOil stains on new pressure treated the past few years. Both penetrated well, at ~ 125 sq. ft. per gallon coverage.

Adrian, Darn right. Shameless self promotion! We get a fair amount of business from TGS each year, either directly or I guess link backs to our business web site.

Ron, There is a book, Understanding Wood, by R. Bruce Hoadley, that is the "bible" for wood workers. Has a chapter on wood species ID with many pictures. A veritable ton of information, enough for a lifetime. Go to a local lumberyard and see if they will give you scraps of various species of wood. Hardness, grain pattern, coloration, even smell can help you identify wood in the field.

9 month old ipe' cleaned with a percarb wood cleaner. Through a malfunction on a dual pump setup, the acid Shurflo pump leaked a small amount of citric acid onto the wood. Oxalic acid was actually applied to the job. Pretty obvious the color difference, both on wet and dry boards, from the citric acid. An acid not only neutralizes caustic cleaners and strippers, but brightens the wood to a large degree. When using oil based semi-trans stains, the finish looks a whole lot better.

Ipe' percarb cleaned, oxalic brightened, and lightly R/O sanded with 60 grit. Ready to go, if the owner shows up to approve of the stain sample! And it does not rain. Stain sample is Ready Seal light brown. Disregard the Budda looking head. Have no idea and am not going to ask. Well, probably will, more than a bit curious myself. This is one amazing house of new construction.

Ken, Depends on the wood. Some woods, particularly hardwoods, in the extreme new ipe', have so much natural oils and extractives, that you want to purge them out of the wood surface to make room for a stain. The "whiter" I can make newer ipe', the better. More oil/resins/pigment is able to penetrate. Otherwise, the wood will just "push" out a stain application.

Mike, That is the mix we use for regular pigmented RS maintenance, minus the SC. Good to know it removes the gray. Thanks.

Tracy, My mistake. Pete sent me some for testing some years ago prior to production and my memory is a bit "long of tooth". The percarb was EZ Off, not Remove. Rob, From your pictures, it almost looks like a waterbased, possible old acrylic semi or clear stain on the wood. Hard to tell from pics but these can be difficult to strip. May want to try 12 oz./gal. of the Rip It, keep it wet for a longer time, and then wash.

Ron, Sun Brite's "Remove It" is a sodium percarbonate based wood cleaner. It is not made to strip out intact finishes. Sun Brite's "Rip It" is their sodium hydroxide wood stripper. It is formulated to remove old oil based stains. Try a stronger mix, and let dwell, keeping it wet with additional stripper or misted water for a while. Then try again.

Mike, Please do, I'd like to see the pictures. A question. With the clear, if the wood grays, is it a light percarb cleaning followed by a light acid? Never did or have had the chance to maintain one before. We will be back in the Spring to maintain the ipe' and probably the cedar. A heads up would be appreciated. Thanks.

Was staining an ipe' job today, and the neighbor walks on over. Admires the work, and asks for an estimate. Saw this from a distance the other day, assumed it was beat up old PT. See the first picture, its an elevated deck. Walk up a metal circular stairs to the deck surface and low and behold. Its good wood! For you new guys, carry spray bottles of NaOH in various concentrations on your truck, along with acids. Not only for testing various stains, but for "putting on a show". Nothing sells a job more efficiently than bringing dead wood back to life. Especially when the next door neighbors deck is looking like a million bucks!

Started staining this little ipe' job today. Unbelievable. This ipe' is just taking a ton of oil. Absolutely flooded the floor, and will probably stop back later in the week to give it a 2nd go round. I always encouraged new ipe' customers to wait a year, now 6 years seems better. The coverage on the horizontal wood will be about 120 sq. ft. per gallon of Ready Seal.

Mike, We used some Ready Seal Clear last week for the first time straight up. Have used it to "tone down" some RS colors in the past, but never as is. New T&G cedar with the Clear. The floor is new ipe' with RS dark brown.

Overall, good advice. With exceptions. For wood restoration, I always tell my customers exactly what chems we will be using on the job. But there is an acceptable way of doing this. For example, wood cleaners are sodium percarbonate based. Most do not know the term, but they do know and often use Oxiclean. Instead of acid, we use "food grade citric acid". Its drinkable for humans and contains a ton of vitamin C ! Strippers are a different story. For very difficult finishes to be removed, the "hot" and "boosted" NaOH mixes are highlighted. Customers want that foul looking finish off and all of a sudden, "nasty" chems are of benefit. I also let them know these types of strippers are not something they or Joe Handyman can buy at Home Depot.

Ron, The fastest and easiest method is with an airless sprayer, and back brushing with high quality synthetic brushes. But on very small jobs, which may be this case from the pictures, just using the old dip, shake, and brush technique by hand may be the best method.

Jeff, Thanks. Real nice. We're friggin' freezing up here, hoping that wood will dry out and you're basking in late spring weather. So be it. Vinyl, stucco, and concrete will never hold a candle to the satisfaction of restoring wood!

Hmmm, ya' gotta' love painters (sorry Daniel!). Ipe' deck, topside storage, and 3 sets of treads stained with Sikken's Cetol log and siding stain! 3 months ago. Clear cedar balustrade and horizontal fascia band also stained with the same stuff. Thankfully, the T&G vertical fascia as well as the clear cedar room framing was left unstained after the homeowner said "STOP!". Very nice home and design, the outdoor wood is 6 months old. Better half of the household is an interior designer from Britain, just learning about wood. She is appalled at the 3 month mark. A few pics. #1 - overall shot of the job. #2 - outside storage cabinets, with Sikken's stained ipe' tops, and mostly untouched cedar. Right side shows where the homeowner applied a coat of the Sikken's recently (too orange in her opinion), a smaller area of some Cabot's, and my 3 very small RS three brown samples. #3 - Closeup of the failed Sikken's on the ipe' deck floor. #4 - On the right, a test of a "boosted" sodium hydroxide stripper test on the horiz. cedar fascia board with the Sikken's. Appears to have stripped out OK. Question. The cedar with the Sikken's Cetol seems to have stripped out fine with my "boosted" test stripper. The ipe' with the same stain appears to be more problematic. It is hard to tell as the ipe' was still very wet when I left after estimate measurements, and would of taken some Labor Day time to let dry. A bit hard to imagine that the ipe' would not strip out even better than the cedar, but I am somewhat unsure. Thankfully, we do not see Sikken's stain in this area. Any clues or practical experience stripping a "new" application of Sikken's Cetol off of hardwoods? Thanks.

Scott, Not the best pictures, as the stain was still wet when taken. All the cedar (vertical wood), was stained with Ready Seal Clear. All the ipe' was stained with Ready Seal Dark Brown. As a side note, when doing an estimate, if it is for an interior designer, plan for a lot of color samples and extra work. The cedar was originally stained with Cabot's Clear Solution, Heartwood color, selected by the customer. The next morning, I get a call on the cell, "I don't like it, can we get it off and try something else?" Hah! Of course we can strip it, it will be an additional charge of xxx.xx. BTW, you never answered your above question. Please do, just curious.

One other consideration. Did not realize this until emailing a "test" picture to a "customer in progress" a few minutes ago. See attached pic. Ready Seal dark brown color on ipe' Oil stains provide that Kaboom!, a real impressive, fine furniture like appearance to ipe'. An initial finish that Defy cannot compete with in appearance. Of course, as we know, that initial coloring with any oil does not last long. We have some ipe' customers that will live with the constant cost and maintenance, maybe 30%. Otherwise, Defy at first glance appears to be a real competitor in the cost conscious, "its good enough" ipe' market.

Ken, I agree. Ipe' is just so hard, dense, and downright bulletproof naturally as a species of wood, oil stains are probably superflous. The old, true Burmese teak is the only other exterior wood that comes close to a natural ability to stand up to the sun, moisture, freeze/thaw cycles without help. One thing that is a bit of concern is maintenance. This Defy stain on application seems to penetrate the wood, unlike other waterbase stains. It does not "appear" to form any film on the surface. It acts like an oil. Weird. Scott Paul may have some answers.