First Mahogany deck restoration ever...

[plainpainter 217]

Here are some pics of a mahogany deck restoration job that I got - I was a fish out of water doing this work. Ended up using wtw brown sugar. These are the before photos. Deck I believe was about 4 years old - house was built and deck stained for new homeowners.

[plainpainter 217]

Here are the pics of the deck stripped, brightened, and then sanded.

[plainpainter 217]

And the outcome....

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Dan,

Just a suggestion...go back, seal the PT support posts...

Beth

[plainpainter 217]

I totally spaced on that?!? I think perhaps they weren't sealed before? Should I call them up and tell them I was reviewing some photos - and noticed I hadn't done them?

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

I would, before they notice yes. The supports have ground contact. I would seal them. :)

Beth

p.s. the deck rocks!

[plainpainter 217]

thanks - btw, that mahogany drank the woodtux. It felt like a penetrating stain more than anything. I used 4 and half gallons of stain. I drenched the boards with a 4" china bristle staining mop - then after ten minutes dragged a lambswool applicator over the wood to 'even' up the stain. I had to hand brush all the railings and posts - had to cut round all those metal spindles. Took forever.

[James 624]

Dan, I hope those are bad photo's because it looks like allot of stain left in the wood. ?

[plainpainter 217]

It was totally stripped. I had a worker go over the floorboards with a portercable heavy duty orbital sander with 60 grit. If anything - some spots may have got missed - all the boards were cupped and really hard to sand evenly. I didn't even have to sand the boards really - just did it as an extra. But there was nothing left.

[MMI Enterprises 289]

Looks sweet from here!!

[RPetry 564]

Daniel,

Nice, I really like red mahogany. Starting a pretty big mahogany - cedar job on Monday that has to be stripped of multiple layers of Aussie oil. Thinking of paying Diamond Jim a consulting fee for the most effective stripper mix.

It would be worth it 'cause I know this is going to be a tough one...

[PressurePros 248]

Rick,

TheProSealerStore has a decent downstreamable (if that's a word) that we have been playing with. If you are not setup for downstreaming, a little eb (butyl) boosts sodium hydroxide strippers nicely.

[RPetry 564]

Top 'o the morning, Ken.

Looked into downstreaming stripper last year but concluded that could not get a "hot" enough mix that we need for many jobs. We do not "clean" wood with NaOH, so a light mix would be of no use.

Went over the M-jet with ACR Tom this spring for possible use in applying citric acid. Pretty much came to the same conclusion, just cannot mix strong enough to get the correct ratio on the wood.

We'll start the above Aussie oil strip with 8 oz./gal. of NaOH, 8 oz. liquid/gal. of 633-ADD booster, and some thickening agent. The hard part will be the balustrade. Getting Aussie oil out of cedar can be a chore.

[PressurePros 248]

Mornin' Rick.. 80% of our strip jobs are down via downstreaming. With the right chems and equipment setup, it works. When I update you on Monday for the other thing, I'll share what works for us. The only thing downstreamed chem doesn't work well on is solids and heavy acrylic/alkyd blends.

[plainpainter 217]

Rick - I downstreamed that deck - and it had a really nasty thick film forming arylic based stain on it. The stripper as applied was only like 1oz. of HD-80 per gallon. Totally stripped the deck clean - it was the addition of glycol and nonylphenol surfactant that really saved the day. The technique is different. You flood a deck as long as you can possibly stand it with water - and then downstream your stripper everywhere - and let it dry - reapply, and check for when finish is emulsified - then you can begin a an easy strip. Downstreaming floods wood so much you don't need as a high a concentration. And the method of letting stripper dry as talked about by Rod - really works wonders.