I'm about to lose my mind removing thompson's water seal over latex stain!

[sloanmilliken 14]

I'm so frustrated I almost don't want to write about this...

I'm a painting contractor that occasionally does decks. All the decks that I have done have been stain over new wood or the stain has been easily stripped. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that someone would have put thompson's over latex semi-transparent stain...and it wasn't even DECK stain! Just furniture/fences/etc...

So, I thought this deck was going to be straightforward. Acrylic solid over latex semitransparent. Then we pressure washed it and found the Thompson's. They are trying to stay on a pretty tight budget...their main concern is having it look ok for a rehersal dinner at the house in six weeks...but I'm concerned about doing work that will be worth my time and their money!

At this point in time I have scraped and hand-sanded the 12x20 deck, and I have rented a drum sander and removed all the stain under the 12x20 screen porch except around the very edges. The edges still have some thompsons, as do the horizontals around the screen and the door to the screen porch. Some of the outside deckboards still have remnants of the watersealer, as do the handrails.

I'm basically trying to figure out what to do. Obviously, I would love to get everything off, but I'm not sure the homeowner is ready to spring for that. What would happen if I use acrylic over the thompsons? Or should I just get that drum sander back and sand off as much thomspons as I can? If I used stain stripper from the paint store, would it remove the thompsons easily? Any suggestions would be helpful...I'm trying to avoid using heavy chemical strippers due to the time and cost...and b/c I'm concerned they'd discolor the screens on the screen porch.

Thanks!

Edited June 3, 2010 by sloanmilliken

[MMI Enterprises 289]

Sounds like everyones nightmare job... I would have advised a deeper/stronger/boosted/more suitable stripper mix during washing before proceding onward to any drum sanding or defurring procedure. . Now you've sanded it and if ya rewet and strip you'll be back to square one on defurring or smoothing er out. Good reason to always try and have enough chem on hand for worst case scenarios. If a good 15-20 minute dwell isn't working then it's time for more concentration and boosting of chems with more caustic,solvents/surfactants. If it drying on ya then mist on more chem or just water or you can take alternative method of laying plastic over the areas giving you the most problems to acheive better dwell time. Never start rinsing until you can scratch through the gunk with a wood stir stick or such.

If areas left to do are just spot areas then you could paint on epoxy paint remover type gel and hand scrape it off after few minute with putty knife or rag and then run yer sander in order to avoid rewetting or renting the drum sander again. Showing some pics of situation may help others in suggesting best route to take...

[Greg R 82]

Im a little confused as it should be the latex that is the bear to get off. Thompsons water seal comes off easier than most of the store bought products out there. Any sodium hydroxide based finish remover will emulsify the thompsons and allow you to wash it off easily. I assume your rePAINTING the deck?

[Curb Appeal 14]

Try Stripper Cream from Ecochem. It will take anything off. Brush it on, dwell and rinse off. You'll have to neutralize and defurr again after. Watch out with that stuff! It will burn you!