Any opinions welcome

[Mountain View 14]

I have a customer with a very nice Ipe deck but.....the builder used Aussie Timber Oil to finish it without any prep work at all (from what I can tell). Anyway, the customer has asked me to make it right. I will be using Woodrich Hardwood Wiping stain and probably HD-80 to strip the old finish off; if any of you think EFC-38 will be strong enough, let me know.

I've attached a couple of pictures of the deck in it's current state. Bear in mind, it looked like this after a couple of months (it was done Sept. '07). The customer is a good guy and just wants it done right. He knows Ipe is a yearly maintenance deal. I will be padding or rolling, then hand wiping it. The pictures just don't show all the mistakes that were made, but you can see some. End of boards not stained, drips between board, etc.

Any hard earned lessons you've had with Ipe will be appreciated. Call if you want.

Anyone from ESI can call me anytime; need to talk about delivery lead times and such. I am staining a large deck with Bakers Cedar Redwood tommorrow so leave a message if I don't answer. 817-372-3743

The season is off to a great start already!

[PressurePros 248]

That's typical for aussie oil. EFC should take it off but sometimes the tung oil in ATO is a difficult strip. Have HD-80 on hand.

[RPetry 564]

Pete,

If the new ATO is similar to the old ATO, Ken is right. Something in the stain is difficult to remove and I think it may be the tung oil.

A decent NaOH strength and dwell time should get it off of the board tops without much effort. It is the ATO on the board edges between the gaps that is tough to remove.