First deck. ( how much do you strip?)

[FLORIN 21]

I did my first deck strip yesterday. It is 400 sf no rails. Customer wants old stuff(Thompsons) removed and reapply semitransparent Cabots. My question is how much is needed to strip away. My first application of my mix took off all the stain that was on the surface but the wood still had pigment of the stain in the wood. I kept reapplying and letting dwell for 20-25minutes and it would lighten it every time. I had to repeat this process 7 times until I was unable to see pigment any more and then I brightened with citric. Do you woodies strip to bare wood or just take off top layer if not applying a clear? And usually how many applications of stripper do you normally need to do.

[FLORIN 21]

Here is some more. first pic before, 2nd and 3rd after

[FLORIN 21]

There is still a couple spots that have shadows and am willing to go back and reapply stripper if need be but thought I get your opinions first. Customer knows that this is my first deck and I priced it accordingly for allowing me to train on his deck. Here is the last few pics. First two are before last one after. If you guys/gals think it is ok I will stain this saturday or sunday depending on weather.

[plainpainter 217]

Looks great, but how come it took you multiple strips? What chems did you use?

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Nice strip job!

Beth

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

A typical strip is up to 98% complete. It may take from 1 to 5 applications to get the product to easily come off the surface. Trick is not to wash in between applications. It adds water to the equation and throws off your concentration.

Apply till you can easily remove the coating which is indicated by lightly scratching the surface in numerous areas to test for effectiveness. Once you see the wood directly by a test overall, you can begin the wash and then a thorough neutralization if you do not discover any remaining areas afterwards.

You're off to a good start.

Rod!~

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Also noting that some of the siding possibly was stripped in the process. IF that is so, get a color swatch and match as closely as possible and buy some paint (spray paints are usually good matches) and recoat the affected areas.

Your strip looks like you got about 96% off and may need some more neutralizing if not just some sanding to even out the uneven sun exposure splotchiness.

Rod!~

[FLORIN 21]

In terms of the paint removal on the siding I did a paint prep on the customers house the day before to remove all loose paint so where it was removed by the stripper on the bottom it is ok by the customer, he is going to repaint the whole house in the next week or so. I used a sodium percarb/sodium hydroxide mix to do the stripping. I might of made my mix too weak but was afraid of getting too much fuzzies. I will try making mix stronger on next deck. Great point on not washing in between. I did wash in between each strip application. Like I mentioned before first application took off all top coat stuff like butter. On the lower half of the deck which is a recent addition, after first strip the wood had a dark reddish tint to it. The upper half which had a couple of coats on it, it had a dark coffee color to the wood after top coat was removed. It almost looked burnt. After every application it would just lighten a little bit at a time until I got it to the color you see now.

[Deck Guy 14]

You still haven't said exactly what you used to strip the stain. We can help with formulas, but only if we know what you applied and at what strength. Believe me, Thompsons should come off easily in one pass with any of the strippers used by the folks on this board. Don't try to save a few pennies and cost yourself hours of work in exchange for it. Do a small test area if you need to.

I expect at least 95% removal of the previous finish if I'm going back over with a semi-transparent stain. Cabot's is nice stuff.

I'm sure you know this, but stain the boards full-length when staining or you will get lap marks.

[Tracy Handl 108]

Your job looks good but one picture gave a hint of pretty bad fuzzing. A rule of thumb; the longer and stronger you leave a strong cuastic cleaner on the wood, the more lignin (the natural glue in the wood holding the fibers together) is broken down creating the "fuzzies". You willl have to develop a "faith" in your brightening product (nuetralizer) as it will reverse the darkening you get when using a cuastic stripper. When using sodium hydroxide based strippers, you will know you got through the old stain when you see that chocolate-brown color in the wood. Don't strip wood trying to turn it back to that yellowish, "fresh" look. You will be over working if you try to. When your eye see's that the sealer has been pulled out of the wood, and you get that brown color IN the wood, then you have actually done what you started out to do. The britener procces will do it's thing and change that color, and lighten and brighten that wood. Sometimes pigments are left behind, and in most case will cover nicely when sealing. If too much is left in the wood more will have to be done. (sometimes a light bleaching in between stripping and britening can help) Sometimes a second strip will certianly be required. Not to worry. It can be preformed right away or even days later. Always follow up with a nuetralizer. For your first strip job, I'd say you did great!

[Mountain View 14]

I think it looks good. One problem I had when I first started was knowing what was old pigment that was left behind and what color in the wood was a result of the caustic stripper. Experience will teach you how to tell the difference. If there is still a trace of pigment in some cracks or crevices of the wood I would say that's ok, it will not show when you put the new sealer on. I'm very shy about over stripping myself. I think most of us on here have had to spot sand on a lot of deck work. For what it's worth, the darker patches look like they're a result of the caustic stripper that neutralizer will take care of.

[FLORIN 21]

Your job looks good but one picture gave a hint of pretty bad fuzzing. A rule of thumb; the longer and stronger you leave a strong cuastic cleaner on the wood, the more lignin (the natural glue in the wood holding the fibers together) is broken down creating the "fuzzies". You willl have to develop a "faith" in your brightening product (nuetralizer) as it will reverse the darkening you get when using a cuastic stripper. When using sodium hydroxide based strippers, you will know you got through the old stain when you see that chocolate-brown color in the wood. Don't strip wood trying to turn it back to that yellowish, "fresh" look. You will be over working if you try to. When your eye see's that the sealer has been pulled out of the wood, and you get that brown color IN the wood, then you have actually done what you started out to do. The britener procces will do it's thing and change that color, and lighten and brighten that wood. Sometimes pigments are left behind, and in most case will cover nicely when sealing. If too much is left in the wood more will have to be done. (sometimes a light bleaching in between stripping and britening can help) Sometimes a second strip will certianly be required. Not to worry. It can be preformed right away or even days later. Always follow up with a nuetralizer. For your first strip job, I'd say you did great!

Out of wich picture are you able to see the fuzzies, Might help me know what to look for in the future.

I am embarassed to say how crude and un scientific my measuring for the mix was but here it is, I gota learn somewhere.

I used a 35liter container filled it to the top with dry sodium hydroxide and another 35 liter container filled with dry sodium percarbonate. Poured both into a 2gallon pump up sprayer and filled rest with water. Applied using the pump up. I would love to find stripper chems already premixed like you guys use but am having trouble finding it in my area.

[Deck Guy 14]

35 liters is over 9 gallons, so you definitely need some help on the math and conversions. No way did you put 18 gallons of SH and percarb into 2 gallons of water...

Just do yourself a favor and buy some stripper and follow the directions. You seem to be in over your head at this point.

Leave the chemistry experiments to the experts or you will be certain to hurt yourself, or spend an eternity re-inventing the wheel. Very few of us have the ability to walk over to a store to buy what we need. We use the power of the internet. There are at least a dozen vendors that are used regularly by the people on this board. Just call one and order what you need.

[FLORIN 21]

sorry not liters, ounces.

[bigchaz 157]

Yea next time follow the directions on the stripper to make sure you have the right mix. 32 is still way too much. I'm surprised you were even able to get that to dissolve. Depending on the brand, average stripper mix uses 6oz or less per gallon for me. No need to mix hydroxide and precarb either, you're just wasting precarb

[plainpainter 217]

with my recipe a total of 5 oz of sodium hydroxide in that 2 gallon pump up would have stripped that deck down to the bone. Go get some premixed stuff - you're way overdoing it. I had a similar experience as you - trust me sodium hydroxide mixed stronger and stronger won't achieve very much if you don't add the right chemicals to it - other than severely burning your wood.

[A C F 14]

Be careful when mixing chems as well. Don't add the water to the sprayer after the chems are in there. Put the H2O in first and add the chems to that. Could be bad juju if done in reverse.

[dpaull 80]

Looks good. How'd that percarb work out for you? I think I clogged a pump up sprayer with it 2 or 3 times before I realized what was going on. I thought the sprayer was defective.

Oh and yeah they do make some nice strippers. I used the Behr stripper once because I was desperate. There are some good products through the 2 or 3 main retailers here on the net...and most paint stores have a pretty strong one. I've used a lot of the Benjamin Moore stripper and it works well but is expensive. A gallon is around 15 or 20...but 1 gallon makes anywhere from 2 to 5 gallons depending what the old stain looks like.

But yeah the deck looks good...stripped nicely. Most folks probably leave a lot of stain on for their first try. Good attention to detail and good idea to check here before going any further.

[Rick2 42]

Don't rely on premixed chemicals, you'll find the main ingredient is water.

Whenever possible buy a powder or liquid that you have to mix with water. It will save you quite a bit of money.

Eric

[FLORIN 21]

Thanks all. I will probably have to do alot of sanding on this one but I will get it done. For some reason I thought that shipping was going to be thru the roof for the strippers that you guys use but I checked it out and it was not to bad. I have another deck to do in a week and a half and I will order some hd-80 and try that and see what the difference is.

[Deck Guy 14]

I've used a lot of the Benjamin Moore stripper and it works well but is expensive. A gallon is around 15 or 20...but 1 gallon makes anywhere from 2 to 5 gallons depending what the old stain looks like.

Using powdered strippers like HD-80, you can get your cost down to half that. You also can carry enough powder in a small bucket to make 25 gallons.

[drush 14]

Florin.... good job on that first deck... I too, took on a painted deck that I cut my teeth on & it turned out great. Also used hd-80 at 8oz. per/gal but got some GOOD advise to also add low-tox antifreeze @ 12 oz. per/gal. It acts like a boost & also clings to vert's. Low-tox is made with propylene glycol & it's great stuff to mix with SHydrox. Be sure it's lowtox. I got it @ Advance auto (green jug) for about $9 a gal. Others may have forgotten about using it, but I think most will agree it works. Charge accordingly & price your strip jobs seperately from regular cleaning/sealing jobs.

Wait til you see pictures of the hack job I was called on for today to fix a major whacko experiment job a guy did on a HO's deck. Unbelievable. Good luck!!

[drush 14]

Well guys,

I was called on today by a woman who said "I think" the guy that was stripping my deck isn't doing it right.. My first clue was when she said he had just bought a pressure washer & would strip/clean/stain my deck for $250. She said he had been there 2 days for 6 hours each & it "just doesn't look good". A few more questions later & I was off to meet her @ her house a few miles away. BTW, the deck was 388sq/ft. , not including vert's or railing. My estimate is/was $800 & I think she's going to accept it.

I wouldn't have believed if I hadn't seen it in person & even from 20 ft. away, I knew this was BAD. REALLY BAD. She also told me she had supplied 4 gals. of bleach (2 of which were used at this point) & bought the pump up sprayer for him. More clues to the scene of the crime. Florin, this'll really make you feel good. At least you were honest in telling the HO of your inexperience, but you were also diligent in checking here too for advise. No mercy for the hack that has a new pressure washer & nothing more. These

are the kind of guys that allow US to make a HO happy & reap the benefits of strong testimonials & referrals. Pictures may have some woodies in tears....

Learn, earn & be honest with your work......

[bigchaz 157]

Wow!!!

David do you have original copies of those photos? I would love to use one or two for my portfolio if you dont mind. Sort of a what not to do section if you will

[Mountain View 14]

That is sad. I wonder how many fly-by-nighters have done work like this all over the country and ended up giving the credible craftsmen a bad name. When you make this right, it may end up being one of the best sales tools you could ever hope for. Get er done !

Edit: Any chance of using those as a "what not to do"? I would, of course, give credit for the pictures being yours.

[drush 14]

For those that "wood" like a copy of those sad but true pics of a madmans' work gone terribly wrong, let me know & I'll try to get them to you..... def. true on "how not to do this".... hopefully tears of a good kind from the HO's when this is finished