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acegot

IPE' Deterioration

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These photos of a deck I worked on a month ago. THIS IS WHY HARDWOODS SHOULD BE MAINTAINED (sealed) & THE END CUTS WAXED(sealed)icon4.gif Don't know how old the deck is, but it had 2 or 3 coats of something on it for 3 or so years.

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Here are more pics of the restoration. This deck was/is hammered. I did a quickie to make it presentable for a party. Cleaned, light sanded, color matched & blended into what wasnt down to bare wood. Overall looks decent.

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Edited by acegot
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Lyle, with all due respect I don't know if I agree with your cause and affect assumption on this one. In my opinion 5/4"x6" flooring built that close to the ground with no ventilation is what is causing the issue and would have occurred no matter what species of wood, sealed or unsealed.

Any type of even remotely film forming finish is never going to have a chance on that deck.

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Lyle, That doesn't look like IPe ? The degradation looks like what happens to Mahogany and Cambara type hardwoods which I've seen both. You cannot force a screw through Ipe and the end cut doesn't look like Ipe.

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Lyle,

Have to concur with Jim on this one, that top and end grain does not look like any ipe' that I have ever seen. There are so many "hardwoods" on the market today, especially different "mahoganies" that are not mahogany at all, who knows? These woods may be true hardwoods in classification, but can be very poor for decking material.

If curious or need a positive identification, the Forest Products Lab offers free species analysis of wood, up to 3 samples per calendar year.

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It didn't look like ipe to me either but there are so many grades of so many hardwoods, its hard to tell anymore. Rick do you have an address or website for FPL?

Ken,

The home page for the FPL is Forest Products Laboratory - USDA Forest Service

The specific link for wood ID procedures is Wood Identification Procedures

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Lyle, That doesn't look like IPe ? The degradation looks like what happens to Mahogany and Cambara type hardwoods which I've seen both. You cannot force a screw through Ipe and the end cut doesn't look like Ipe.

Yea, I know. I should have named the the thread Hardwood deterioration. (I was half asleep when I posted) I think it is Mahogany, even though it looks different than the other 2 Mahogany decks I do. One of the other Mahog. decks I do has the kerfs in the bottom of the board also to reduce cupping.

The point of this thread was to emphasize the importance of maintaining all exterior wood deck types.

It looks like the predrilled, just not with a countersink bit.

Edited by acegot

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Lyle, with all due respect I don't know if I agree with your cause and affect assumption on this one. In my opinion 5/4"x6" flooring built that close to the ground with no ventilation is what is causing the issue and would have occurred no matter what species of wood, sealed or unsealed.

Any type of even remotely film forming finish is never going to have a chance on that deck.

Ken, I still think if the deck had been maintained the first 10 years or so it would be in better shape no matter how low to ground. The center 10 boards of the deck are the worst. So the sun dried them out so bad to allow the cracking, then the topical water gets in to aid in the deterioration. Uv protection would have been key on this deck.

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That wood is also extremely porous. Most likely wood take RS up to 50 /75 sqft per gallon. Been there done that same type of deck.

I applied an Armstrong Clark - Preserv-a-Wood blend. The Preserv-a-Wood has faster drying oils.

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Here is a Cumaru deck I cleaned & brightened (oxalic) on Saturday. It was scheduled for its first main.(with light sand) this spring, but the homeowner had a new fireplace insert put in & the Co. that installed it decided to trim the metal sides & top with a cut off wheel on the new deck. Here are picks.

I'm still doing the first maint. in the spring. Dont know if I'm going to use Messmer's - Defy for hardwoods or Wood Tux.

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I will second ipe as the wood in the pic. After a bleach or acid clean.

Did you open the second pic? For some reason it uploaded different, I tried it twice.

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Lyle, yes it opened and I was able to actually blow it up larger. Thumbnail and larger image were the same. What are you seeing?

I'm using Firefox.

Ken, Click on attached image, it is an after pic.

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Just for fun, what wood is this?

Lyle,

Looking at the first pic, aside from the bad cracks in the one deck board, and the deep end checks in another, the grain looks like ipe'.

But the second stained pic does not. I'll take a wild guess, some type of meranti?

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That deck is 2 year old IPE. It is sealed with WTW WHGold. I'm supposed to sand it this spring when I redo it. They didnt want to spend the money for sanding this year. Thats the 2nd IPE deck Ive seen out here that the board color is all over the place. (dark to light) Ipe is usually med. to dark boards, not real light like "sap" wood. The coloring of that deck looks more like the Cumuru deck. I think were getting all the IPE seconds out here, if there is such a thing.

Gotta go to work, later all!

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Lyle,

Have never seen ipe' that varied in color, and in the past few years, have serviced a lot of ipe'.

Speculation, but I know that tree farming ipe' plantations were established in Central and if I recall, South America sometime ago. Its possible that some of this young, immature wood has been coming into the market.

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