WoodTux and Ipe'

[RPetry 564]

Stopped by yesterday to look at our 1st WoodTux - ipe' job finished about 8 months ago. Not too bad, the horizontal wood has faded quite a bit but the vertical wood has held its own.

For those that know, this particular WoodTux stain was the "corrected" or late season "no need for Japan dryer" version. The bad batch was initially applied to the vertical wood and had to be stripped off so the corrected stain could be used.

An interesting observation. When we first started the job, the wood was stripped of a failed Messmer's stain. Then the "bad" WoodTux was applied to the full balustrade, fascia, and stair stringers. This was when the drying problem became apparent.

Take a look at the 1st picture and the difference in color/stain retention of the left 4 floor boards as compared to the rest of the horizontal wood. These 4 boards were stripped twice, as I had decided to test the "bad" batch on the those 4 horizontal deck boards, prior to removing work already completed.

Food for thought. My guess that removing more "natural" oil or resins out of the ipe' by doing a 2nd strip helped in color and stain retention. Confirms the idea of letting ipe' just sit and weather naturally for a year or so helps in getting better service life from stains.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Thanks Rick for sharing these! :)

Beth

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

That helps a bit Rick. Nice to know that wt is holding up for the better part of a year for someone else too. We have seen it hold from 6-9 month for horizontals. Verticals as you pointed out always show better duration.

Rod!~

[plainpainter 217]

So do you folks consider this a success? What is fading in general? Erosion of the toplayer? Or is it color fade?

[RPetry 564]

So do you folks consider this a success? What is fading in general? Erosion of the toplayer? Or is it color fade?

Daniel,

I think I have learned something, so this job is a "success". The customer would probably disagree, hoping to get more durability from the stain since last August.

In general on the WT ipe', the horizontal wood shows little if any pigment or "top layer" left. This is especially true where the wood is exposed to a lot of sunlight. The ipe' has not "grayed" yet, but it is only April and I would expect at the 12 month mark the sun will have done its work.

However, where the wood was stripped twice, the WT appears to have lasted longer. One exception is a section of balustrade top rail, where there is a lot of sun exposure. If you look at the bottom of the 1st picture, you can see virtually no evidence of remaining stain. And the full balustrade was stripped twice.

This job is enlightening when compared to using Ready Seal on my own ipe' deck. The 2nd picture shows my top rail stained with RS medium red at nearly the 1 year mark. Certainly more pigment and I would guess stain remain compared to the WT ipe' deck. My floor also has a little more pigment remaining, note that it was stained with a different RS color mix, 50/50 brown - red.

This is not to say that RS outlasts WT on ipe'. Although my deck gets a lot more sun than the WT deck, I opted to let it weather for a year which helped remove some of the natural ipe' extractives. The WT deck has never really weathered, as the builder threw on some Messmer's stain immediately after construction. My ipe' is also ~ 3 years older.

At the moment, I would consider any durability comparison a wash. But I think it shows that allowing ipe' to either weather naturally or artificially by degrading with caustics helps in stain retention.

I've got an idea. Anyone want to donate a pint or so of "good" WT? I've got a few partial 5'ers of "bad" WT that should not be used.

I'll prep my ipe' and stain part of my top rail with WT, part with RS. Just like we did with the oxalic - citric - ipe' thread last year.

We'll let it sit for a year and monitor with pictures periodically. Might be interesting.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Daniel,

The pigments are bleached out and eroded by uv exposure. This is a success if one could call it that for this type of wood. Most products by this time have long since vanished and the wood would begin turning gray.

Rod!~

[plainpainter 217]

I have a mahogony deck coming up, does stain not last long on mahogony like ipe? I want to give customer realistic expectations. I think I will 'kill' it with caustics as well - and it is in the shade all the time, which should be more advantageous?

[RPetry 564]

Daniel,

Mahogany is much closer in nature to cedar than ipe'. No need to "kill it" with caustics unless you love to do a hard sand or buffing. With proper prep and a good stain, there should be no reason not to get 2 yrs. between maintenance service, especially with the wood being shaded.