RPetry

Jamie, We also use a lot of Ready Seal. On every job we have a couple of spray bottles of Simple Green for cleanup of errant stain. Spray a bit on a paper towel and wipe off your hands. May not be the best thing for skin but it works.

Jamie, I've applied RS maintenance jobs in the mid 40's F without problem, aside from the stain taking a while to dry. As you are dealing with a fence, no problem, no one is going to walk on it! For a first time RS job, the problem isn't the air temps and stain, the problem is the air temps and the wood drying out to 12%. Realize you are not going to get as much RS into the wood when it is cold. May want to hit the fence a second time after a few days.

All woodies get wonked by hard rains. I guess other PW contractors do also. The National Weather Service offers on line radar loops to help you see what is coming or going away. This link is for the NE US but other regions are available. NWS Enhanced Radar Mosaic: Northeast Sector Loop

Just got back from looking at a beautiful 2 yr. old red mahogany deck. A painting co. applied some water based stain only 9 days ago and the customer does not like it. To be honest, I think it looks ok. Kind of mottled, but not too bad. The customer is going to try and get the manufacturer, product, and color of this stain from the painting company. If it would help, I'll pass along that info when I receive it. Any hints on the best, most effective manner in stripping new water based? The builder did a great job. All deck boards are attached from underneath, the gaps are very narrow but of identical width, and some good joinery and detail work on the posts and handrail. This is real nice wood.

Started a mahogany job today. The home is two years old and built by a very good local custom builder. Attached is a picture of the garage doors. Anyone have any idea what species of wood this might be? Owner has no idea.

And the answer is ..... Spanish Cedar. So many have asked my customer that he called the builder, who called the garage door company. Kind of interesting as the wood is not from Spain nor is it a cedar.

Daniel, Never replaced spindles, but if they are easily detached, might be more efficient and less $ than stripping and hand staining. Kevin, Here are pics of the 2 jobs I referred to in an earlier post on this thread.

Daniel, I feel for 'ya. Years ago when just starting out had a 2nd story semi trans deck, stairs, fascia, posts, and hand rail with white latex spindles. Took forever. Either charge a ton, walk away, or if easily done and makes $ sense, tear out the old spindles, stain new ones off site and install. Have a long time maintenance customer with composite decking but full cedar balustrade, fasica, posts, stringers etc. Gets charged a fair premium as all staining is done by hand.

Scott, Maybe it is just my preferences in color, but I hate Ready Seal medium brown. Had a customer insist on the color a few years ago for their stripped cedar deck. Complied with their wishes, but I think the stain looks "muddy". To this day will not include medium brown when laying out samples.

Daniel, I went back and read your first post in this 10 page thread. Your first paragraph is: I added in the bold lettering. I'm afraid the test was doomed to failure from the start. I did not use a "curing" type stain such as WTW, but Ready Seal, which is a penetrating type stain. RS does not "stick" to anything. If it does form any type of "film" on the surface, you have not prepped the wood correctly or severely overapplied. As you can see from the picture of the handrail above, visually I cannot tell much difference between the oxalic and citric treated ipe' using a penetrating stain. Kevin asked; I would assume so, something is holding the iron oxide pigment in the wood. Would guess its parafinnic oil, stain resins, or both working together. In a perverse way kind of like your dying idea. Ipe' is so naturally dense, moisture intrusion is not a problem. So throw out the oils and color it!

Kevin, No way the garage doors I posted are mahogany. Mahogany has a tight grain pattern, kind of like small rice kernels. The mahogany job I started is a large porch at the rear of the home. Stripped off 1 yr. ATO, buffed, and waiting for the weather to clear to stain. I installed two Pella Architect Series doors in our townhouse 5 years ago. Expensive, but worth it. These are pine to match our furniture. Hardest, most dense pine I've ever seen. If I recall, the pine is from Eastern Canada.

Kevin asked, I always have sanded the ipe' before finishing and I'm the builder. I have never used any solvent on customers or my own ipe'. I would never sand any wood without first prepping it. Kind of like using a harsh rubbing compound into your car finish without first washing it. Tore out the old PT and reskinned with ipe' in March of 2004. Sometime early that spring, cleaned with percarb / brightened with citric, let dry, and sanded with 60 grit. Needed sanding as even if you are careful with a wood chisel, the plugs are not flush. Stained with one app of the old formula Aussie oil. Next spring, did the same (minus sanding) and started lambswooling Assie oil. Did not like the look and decided to strip. After stripping, ipe' will fuzz up some and as Jim reminded me, the ipe' plugs had swelled a little bit that first year. And at least the old ATO had friggin' tung oil in it that did not all come out from the NaOH. So stripped, citric acid brightened, sanded and lambswooled a fresh coat of the old Aussie oil. Come spring of 2006, decided to take a different tack. Stripped, brightened, sanded out the tung and let the ipe' sit in the sun, rain, and snow for a year. Bought a new teak table and chairs and also let the teak weather naturally for a year. This spring percarb cleaned, citric brightened, sanded, and applied Ready Seal to the ipe' and teak. Pics after 6 months are at: http://www.thegrimescene.com/forums/wood-cleaning-restoration-decks-fences-etc/10202-thoughts-oxalic-ipe-10.html I'm tired of yearly stripping and sanding of my own ipe'. My thoughts are with Ready Seal, next spring will be a light bleach/soap mix, a quick scrub, and a hose rinse. No pressure washing, no sanding. Throw down an app of oil and get back to paying wood jobs. My hope is that as more RS gets into the ipe', might get a true year out of the stain. Be interesting to see if any pigment makes it to next spring and how much oil the ipe' will take on maintenance. Ken said; I do not think this is necessarily true. After letting the ipe' weather for a year and prepping as described above, my helper was able to hand brush with natural bristles, two separate apps of Ready Seal into the ipe'. No wiping, no mineral spirits, no puddling. Certainly no where near the amount of a softwood, but all that oil, resin, and pigment went somewhere and it had to be more than a few mils into the wood.

Neil said; Grit may depend on the type of finish you are using. For curing stains such as WTW, 100 may be fine. As we normally use RS, have found a courser grit is better for all species to allow for better stain penetration. Man, 1000 sq. ft. per hour? Either you guys are superhuman, I'm half dead, or I have got to get an Osbourn or knockoff. Jim said, Now that you mention it I do remember having to do a 2nd sanding on my own ipe' and plugs a year after installing the wood. They did swell slightly in the first year. That was about 3 years ago and the plugs have remained dimensionally stable since then. Kevin, Ipe' is different. I would put it on a durability level 2nd to old growth Burmese Teak. Read somewhere that Hyde Park in London has teak benches remilled from ship hulls in the late 1800's that are still in service! Ever clean fairly new ipe'? Your rinse water looks like blood. The wood is just loaded with natural oils, resins, or "extractives". NYC started using ipe' for some exterior use in the '60's, and part of Atlantic City's ipe' boardwalk has been in service close to 30 years. This wood has never been stained and is holding up just fine. Point is, if you want that "gee wiz" appearance, you have to get rid of the natural surface "extractives" before you apply any stain. Otherwise, the stain will weather off in a few months. Worked on a new customers ipe' this summer. The initial application of Messmer's lasted ~ 6 weeks due to improper prep. Know it. Best thing I ever did to my own ipe' deck was to strip off the old ATO and let it just sit and weather for a year.

Douglas Fir certainly sounds reasonable. Being on the East coast, don't see it in this area, or at least have not noticed it. Looked at a cedar job last month and the customer had a very large redwood in the front yard! Seems that someone imported Chinese or Dawn redwoods about 40 years ago and planted quite a few in the Princeton, NJ area.

Would not miss it. Rumor has it that John T. may be bringing Villary.

Ken, We use 7" R.O.'s with 60 grit Klingspor paper, usually two of us so it goes pretty fast. Most times very light, it seems to go about as fast as a Makita and 3M pads. Neil, Have yet to try an Osbourn brush. Know McMaster Carr has something very similar and one of their distribution centers is about 6 miles away. Is it faster than 3M pads? Do it for all hardwoods. Stripped a mahogany Aussie oil job today and will give it a quick sanding tomorrow if the weather stays dry.

Neil stated, True, if you are countersinking without plugging. But ipe' plugs on an ipe' deck look way better than exposed SS fasteners. Don't see how countersinking to 3/8" or so has any structural effect when using 5/4 stock or better. Trimheads seem best.If countersinking and plugging is normal in NC, I hope the builders are getting a ton of $. What a tedious, time consuming job. Why would you want to "undo" a countersunk and plugged ipe' deck? A light sanding is normal for us when first prepping ipe', whether stripped or unfinished, plugged or not.

Beth, Yes, this is one of two full doors. Ken, Never worked on cypress. Had a customer last year with a large solid stained cypress deck. Could not get to it for nearly a month so he tore it down and rebuilt with composite! What a heartbreak. Looked at a small cypress deck years ago but it was dirty with residual stain. I made a wild *ss guess of Siberian Larch when talking with the customer, but have no idea where that idea came from. Too many mixed up, degraded neurons floating around in this old skull.

Daniel asked, Nah, no need. There is still oil in the wood and beside that, it takes a blow torch to do any harm to ipe'. Could let this wood sit for years without any damage. Only reason to finish it is for appearance.

Beth asked... Hah! Funny you should mention that. Just got home a little while ago. Today, Judy had both pups on the back deck for a few hours. Our 7 month old Miniature Schnauzer male is pretty much housebroken. Our nealy 4 month old English Springer Spaniel female still hasn't quite gotten the idea that peeing on the downstairs tile floor is not appreciated. So, this afternoon, she starts whining on the deck. Never whines. Judy takes her down the steps onto the lawn and she pees! Geeze, never gives us a clue in the house. She's smart as a whip and probably appreciates ipe'. Hah!, great dog for a woodie!

Ken, Looks like someone tried to sand just the butt joints to get off excess AnchorSeal. Although, there are all those marks on the steps. Bad wood chisel work on plugs and spot sanding?

Daniel, Just got back and took two pic late afternoon on 10/22. First is the handrail. If you recall, the right side (top of gate) and the small ipe' fill piece were treated with oxalic acid. The left side was treated with citric acid. Both were stained with Ready Seal, same color and same prep/application. There may be a slight difference as the citric side looks a very fine shade darker than the oxalic side. This is visible to the eye but is so slight as to be in the realm of chance. Could be just the angle of the sun or something else. What really surprised me is how well the floor has held up. As you can see, this is right in front of the exit gate. With two new puppies, we use this section of the floor a lot. It is amazing how often puppies pee! For comparison, the vertical post and spindles are old PT, not ipe'.

Daniel, You must have marked this on a calendar, 6 months to the day! The Ready Seal has certainly faded some, though not as much on the floor as the top rail. I can tell no visible difference between the oxalic and citric brightened ipe'. I'll try and get some pictures up tomorrow, schedule is a bit in flux at the moment.

Ken, Wonderful resource and idea. Hope it generates traffic. Much rather see DIY'ers do things right than wrong. Jon most aptly said: Sure enough. Many do not have the time, interest, or energy to take care of exterior wood more than once. Much rather have a customer that did things right than wrong. Or let a pro take care of it from the start.

Hey Ken, Nice work, its good to see you still have the touch. Thought all that marketing and voodoo Excel formulas may have dulled your craft! Hope to see you at ACR on the 17th.