Mountain View

If you have a surface cleaner, try a small area to see what happens. If the results are not good, maybe because the surface finish of the concrete has been taken off, then walk away. Small investment of your time for a potential significant payback.

If they are zebra strips from power washing, they're the weirdest ones I've ever seen. Maybe some sort of street sweeper used.

It's gettin purdy hot here in Texas. At what temp do ya'll stop staining? The temp doesn't bother me so much, I'm more worried about stain flash drying on me.:sunshine:

Very nicely done!! Can't wait to see the finished product.

This one job is turning into a real headache. Quick recap: Conractor built Ipe deck for customer. Contractor then put Cabots Aussie Timber Oil on deck right away. Stain failed within a few weeks. Customer could not get any satisfaction from contractor. Customer calls me. I look at the deck, tell him that I recommend for all new decks to wait at least six months before doing anything. Customer can't stand the way the deck looks and really wants a stain on it. I tell customer I'll do what I can, provide him with qoute, he accepts qoute. I strip all old stain, let dry for a week, sanded and blew off dust, apply and wipe off coat of Wood Tux Wester Red Cedar. Deck looks great, happy with my work. A little under two months later customer calls me, says stain if failing and pictures below are what I see. Question now is; apply another thin coat or strip completely and wait a year. Customer will not be happy, to say the least, with second option. Note: The deck was about 4 months old by the time I came on board. Please PM or call me (817) 372-3743 if you have any advice. Certain things I won't or can't put on public board. Thanks.

Heck of a job!!!

Small town near a job I've done recently. Couldn't resist it.

Here's a few pics of my latest job. As always, the pictures just don't do justice. The difference in person is striking. Unfortunately my digital's battery decided to die during the finishing stages of the project so I don't have any after all my stuff was cleared away and only a few that show all three stages of work. The job is 80 (yes, I said 80) miles away so I can't just run out there. I am going to email the customer and ask him to take some. The house is Cedar sided with three different finishes. The main house had a couple of coats of Behr solid, the carport/garage has some red stain of unknown origin, and the rest is new wood that is part of an extension to the house. The red stuff was especially hard to remove along with the behr solid. This was a tricky one.....too strong on the chems or pressure and I could have been looking at a real mess. Ended up doing about 8oz/gal of HD-80, about 500psi on the pw, and quite a bit of sanding. Two coats of Baker Super Cedar and yer done. Home owners were some of the nicest people you'd want to meet. It was out in the country on 35 acres with 5 horses and about a dozen head of cattle, beautiful place to work. I was told that there is no one else anywhere around here that could do this job the way they wanted it done. One guy said to cob blast it (on Cedar???), others said to just paint over it, etc. The splash and dash fence stain guys wouldn't know what to do (i think many of us know what I mean). My wife (her backside in the last frame) couldn't believe how much better it looked in person. I don't normally pat myself on the back but I did on this one.

Maybe a little better viewing. Just one of my new four legged friends.

I use mine for rinsing only. Mostly for second floor exteriors on house washes. I've downstreamed for a long time, never done the x-jet.

Enlighten me.......what's Bix?

I recently did a sales call on someone who had a deck/gazeebo setup (extremely gray with lots of mold/algae) in an upscale neighborhood. I talked with him, gave him a qoute and we talked again. He said the price was higher than he expected ( I didn't budge, I knew what would be involved). Then he asks me if I could just do the deck and leave the verticals and lattice untouched. I sort of humed and hahed about that. At the end of our conversation he told me about a recent experience he had where he took a low bid on painting his house and he ended up redoing and/or completing what the 'lowballer' did. We ended our conversation and I left. As I was getting in my truck I was shaking my head about a couple of things; he was asking for me to only do a partial job (deck would have looked great, verticals and lattice would have looked like c**p and he had already had experience of what taking a lowball bid will get you. Maybe I'll hear from him when he calls to ask if I can correct what the lowballer has done.

I love it when I see a deck strip like that.

I bought one of the Harbor Freight variable speed buffers and it works just fine. Used the Osborne brush on one Ipe deck. Maybe I'm not used to it but I wasn't super impressed. Ended up using 60/80 grit with my random orbital and was much happier with that. Haven't tried the defelting pad yet.

I have a lead in far east Texas. If anyone is interested, give me a call.

Attached is a picture of the same area viewed from two directions of an Ipe deck done with Wood Tux. I am not getting the results I wanted. The deck was stripped and neutralized then left for 5 days to dry. The deck was also defurred with an Osborn brush (not impressed by this thing, will stick to sanding in the future). The Wood Tux was brushed on liberally, allow to sit for 5 mins, then padded in to remove excess. This stuff went on pretty thick and was like padding through mollases after only 5 mins., very tacky. Temp was mid 60's and sunny. With some parts of the wood it settled in, on other it just seemed to sit on top, shiny appearance. Neither the customer nor I were satisfied with what was going on; he said it looked just like the ATO that failed after one month. We agreed to leave this section for a few days to see what happens. If it still looks this way, I'll probably strip it off and try Bakers (probably should have used that to begin with; a product I know and trust). Did I do something wrong? Is this just the nature of Ipe? As far as I know, I prepped it correctly. This will be a 6 month maintenance contract so I want to get the "base" coat done right. I'm about ready to 60grit sand the whole thing then wash it again. I will be flying around the country today so I won't be near a computer but if anyone wants to call me, I get back to you during one of my lay-overs. 817.372.3743. Thnx.

Have any of you used Xylene to remove excess, semi cured stain from a wood?

Doesn't everything???

I should have been clearer.....that's the "retail" price. I normally figure 12 cents per sq. ft. of the floor plan of whatever building I'm doing....1000 sq. ft. house, $120 and so on. To a family member....that's a personal decision but I don't think you are out of line.

Considering the issues I'm having with my first Ipe deck, I am soooooo jealeous!!!!!! It looks awsome!!!

More than fair, I would have been in the $900 range for all of that.

I applied with a brush and back padded to drive it in and take away excess.

If there are still shiney spots after a week, is there an effective way to remove them? Mineral spirits, buffing pad.....?

Well, my first Ipe deck is done. A couple of pictures before and after. The shiny places in the pictures had already settled in by the time I left the customers place. Used Wood Tux Western Cedar. The last two deck jobs I've had have been done by hand........my kingdom for a spray on, back brush job!! Anyway, customer happy and a six month maintenance contract. Time will tell how well it holds up. If it just fades out, no problem....if it fails, problem.

I've noticed that on the last two deck jobs I've taken pictures of. I don't know if my camera (7.1 pixel Cannon Power Shot) is going flakey on me or what, it certainly doesn't look that way (orange) in person. On another job, areas that were very rich in color looked as if they didn't have any color at all.