fireandrain

Rick, What a gratifying restoration job! You did a fantastic job with that old beauty. I love those all horizontal OG redwood projects. OG redwood on the east coast, just blows my mind. As most are aware of, Redwood constitutes 95% of all the work we see out here in No.California. Of that, maybe 15% exceeds 30 years in age. The issue of tannins is certainly a challenge,esp. after sanding regiment. Helluva job,Rick!

As always, wise words from Rick and Jim. Anyone new to exterior wood restoration should copy those two posts from Rick and Jim, paste them into a word document, enlarge the font to 36, and tack them on the dashboard of their truck! Along similar lines, I just completed the most challanging strip of my life last week. I threaded this a couple weeks back, a split level suspended deck with no access save a very tall ladder or somewhat disruptive interior through-house access, Ipe deck with 2 failing coats of exterior urethane finish. To boot, 400 3/4" copper tubing spindles that the client wanted to restore to pristine (shined). Certainly qualified as my first "should I walk away from this one" experience of the season. Went like this... 1. Drove up, saw the deck from the driveway suspended forty feet up the back side of the house. Could see the shine of the urethane from 20 yds. away. Gulp.... 2. Consulted with the homeowner for an hour and a half. Walked away from our discussion feeling like I had adequately prepared her for the big numbers that would be forthcoming in my project proposal. She said that she had met with 4 previous contractors that week, but that my suggestions on the most effective course of action with her deck seemed,by far, the most informed and educated. (Thanks TGS!) 3. Got home, couple night up late researching stripping strategies ( I had NEVER seen this urethane on Ipe before). Had more than one professional on from this board point me in the direction of a particular chemical that had a strong chance of succeeding in removing this nasty finish. Spent a few hours on the phone talking with three different chem distributors. 4. Crunched my numbers, all along realizing that the homeowner was, as Jim put it, "already sold on me" before she received my proposal. Built in a fair amount of room for unanticipated PITA angles, faxed it to her. 5. She called 20 minutes later to accept and we were in contract 5 minutes later. Ordered recommended chems. 6. Went in production. I expected the strip to be a challenge, and it was! More stress than usual as I was using chems that I was unfamiliar with... I am familiar with them now. Bottom line though, the homeowner, who, as I speak, is having a party with a live band and 60 guests at her house this evening, said to me that "this is how I imagined the deck to look after it was built 4 years ago! I can see the wood finally! Wonderful job!". Naturally, this really made my day. To here those words come out of a happy homeowner when you complete a complicated project loaded with job site variables is priceless. I busted my ass on this project, a job I came SO close to walking away from, took it on with irreplaceable tactical support from some folks with much more experience than me, and knocked it out of the park. The project took a bit longer than I had hoped for, but the extra time I spent researching stripping strategies led me to build in an additional $2K for unexpected issues. That saved me and made the project both educational AND profitable. I think that 'walking away' from certain jobs should always be an option. But I agree with what Rick and Jim have said, in many different threads with respect to seeing these PITA projects as an incredible opportunity for growth. Most of my first 25 decks this year were ALL just generally neglected, minimal failing finish, redwood decks restores. I had more buckets of sodium percarb than I knew what to do with! Easy skeezy..Then I hit 4 acrylics in a row, only to be topped by this Ipe Urethane strip. Live, learn, and prosper.

I need to do some sanding on the floor of an Ipe tommorow and am trying to decide what to use this time. I have stripped appx. 80% of 2 coats exterior Urethane from this deck so I need to get the last of it off and get it prepped for staning on Saturday. My thinking is that a drum sander would be too aggressive and a hand orbital too time consuming taking into account the widespread nature of the remaining stain needing to come up. Has anyone used on of these square sanding units? The guy @ HD Rental swears by them... Any input is appreciated! I'll be posting pics of this Ipe over the weekend. Thanks!

I don't normally work with a drum sander but did today for a few hours. Same issue with Ipe cupping.... How DO you get at the bottom of the cupping on a deck board???

It seems like the IPE owners are all coming out of the wood work in the last couple of weeks out here... Thanks to everyone who weighed in on the last IPE thread I initiated for that NFL football player in No.California. Still waiting to hear from that guy...saw hime on TV last night actually... Anyways heres another IPE, just met with HO yesterday... Felt much better equipped this time around. Homeowner appreciated my input as she spent $100K on this deck in 2004 and has been disappointed with the finish every year. She was well aware of the unliklihood of anything holding up beyond a year on her deck. I advised her that the most cost effective approach would be to strip the existing failing finish (Superdeck Urethane Hardwood Finish) and get something on that IPE that can be effectively managed on an annual basis. Im going to be working on my project proposal tomorrow. Deck is appx. 600 sq. ft of floor with handrails with minimal vertical work. The spindles are 3/4 copper tubing... Never stripped Superdeck Hardwood Urethane before, plan on returning for some testing on the steps. Anyone with experience stripping this stuff from hardwood?

So the HO on this one wants the 3/4" copper tubing spindles polished. I was doing some research on the most effecient way to polish these up... Seems like alot of copper polishing compounds utilize citric acid (in some form)...Hmmmm, wouldnt it be nice if, when DS'ing my citric brightener I could simply spray these copper spindles and, voila! polished spindles! Anyone want to make a prediction?

Called out to a redwood deck yesterday. When HO originally phoned us, they tell us that their redwood deck needs some, "sprucing up". I arrive to meet with the client and we take the usual walk around back to see whats in store. Have a look at these pictures! I have to hold in my laughter when I lay my eyes on this mess! I mean, always do my best to deliver professional, educational consultations when meeting with prospective clients, but I've got to admit, I've never seen such a botched deck job! The homeowner was not much for conversation and offered suspicios few details about the prior history of the deck. My guess is that he rented a baby chimp from the Oakland Zoo, set the chimp down in the middle of the deck with a clogged pump sprayer, and instructed the chimp to, "Spray!". My alternate theory... HO got a deep "off-season" discount on his last deck do-up from a firm that specializes in hiring the blind. Guessing this deck was last restored at a date that preceded the advent of tarps and the evolution of the opposable thumb.

p.s. note the 6" band of acrylic overspray along the house in the picture with client on deck. I was uncharacteristically speechless.

Took some pictures today, day one of a Urethane strip on an Ipe deck. Man, this urethane just laughed it's arse off at me! Pictures taken are after a 25min dwell, one pass rinse. Wondering if I can switch back to my less costly NaOH the 2nd pass through as I'm clearly going to be running short of Stripsol. Don't think that its any fault of the Stripsol, just this Urethane. Jury still out, but I did some testing with my NaOH @ 12 oz. p/g and it barely knocked on the door of this urethane. So far, Urethane beatin' me up but Im not dead yet!

And another shot 25 minutes into dwell with Stripsol applied.

For those of you interested, here is a picture taken of the Ipe urethane coat after 5 minutes dwell time with Citristrip Gel applied.

dumb maneuvers? pulled out of the gas station with the pump still engaged in my truck's tank. The station attendant and the nice soccer mom in the Volvo at the pump behind me were thoroughly entertained.

Hey there Kevin. This is a Superdeck product "hardwood exterior urethane". The Stripsol is getting at better now that I'm honing in more technique. New to this type of strip. While I was waiting out dwell time yesterday I did some testing with Citristrip as I had an old bottle in the truck from some furniture refinishing I did awhile back. Was almost more impressed with the Citristrip! I don't think this citristrip gel would be a cost effective approach to the strip in general as this stuff runs around $13 for 64oz. bottle.

Thanks Beth, I will log that product into my stripper database. Appreciate it. Rick, Sounds like an AWESOME project! If you could send me some pictures when your done with it, I'd love that. I can hear that deck screaming your name!

Awe,come on Rick, I know you really wish you were out here in California working in pitch perfect weather on a suspended IPE with a breathtaking view of the golden rolling hills and San Francisco Bay in the distance! Oh, did I mention Urethane?

Couldnt be happier, Jim. I have the tester kit coming next week for future goulie-stain testing. The strip moved along bit better today as I'm getting the hang of working with this new stripping chem,Stripsol. Keeping it wet w/ product NOT h20 misting...seemed to help. Lots of patience with this one but I can hear that Ipe beneath all of the carnage whisperin' sweet nothings to me!

Hey! Maybe I should try this!!! (video) YouTube - Removing Old Deck Coatings

Curious what the maintenance is with AC. Clean and re-coat similar to RS?

It's day-1 tomorrow on this Ipe-Urethane deck. My Stripsol from Eaco Chem landed on time Friday. Looking forward to seeing how this Stripsol performs on an exterior urethane finish.

Thanks to everyone who chimed in on this one this past month. Client finally left for Europe yesterday and it was time to get at this strip! My first acrylic strip, and I was up tossing and turning last night worrying that this stuff was going to get the best of me. Here are some process pictures... Treatment: 8oz p/g F18 sprayed with Deckster 20 min dwell time. Stain started to wrinkle up real nice after 2 minutes dwell. 1st pictures taken before treatments.

gutters. or Hawaii. or education. work on a new degree. or, stare at wall until eyes begin to water. count fingers and toes (backwards, and then forwards...repeat). Over-eat (very effective treatment for depression). Stock up on tools, other work-related gizmos. overspend. increases motivation to get back to work next season. Sit on a park bench in the rain (or snow), talk to squirrel's and passerby's. inform them that you are, "just killing time" until the weather improves. try out for a professional sports team.

I, too am curious how Stripsol performs on this big urethane strip... EACO Chem has a full suite of strippers on cleaning chems and this will be my first experience working with them. I will be posting some detailed process pictures working with Stripsol. Project slated to begin next Monday.

Homeowner accepted my project proposal today. Bring it On!

Had a very informative discussion with EACO this afternoon regarding Stripsol. Planning on putting in an order this week. Should do the trick on this Urethane junk.

PM me Randy, I will help walk you through it..