Don't do this to your cedar ...

[RPetry 564]

What a shame. 1 yr. old, nicely built cedar deck. Handyman/painter applied Benjamin Moore's Arborcoat acrylic latex "stain", immediately after construction. Not only did it start to fail in 6 months, the cedar was an ugly orange!

A bit difficult to strip, the foul finish comes off in what only can be described as mushy spaghetti. Gets all over you, your help, the house, the landscape. And it is not cheap to remove.

DIY'ers, do yourself and your deck a favor. Use an oil based exterior wood stain.

[Tracy Handl 108]

I second that motion!

[Scott Paul 164]

A bit difficult to strip, the foul finish comes off in what only can be described as mushy spaghetti. Gets all over you, your help, the house, the landscape. And it is not cheap to remove.

Rick, what did you use to get it off?

I have seen some really bad BM arborcoats fail after one winter. Looks and acts like a paint.

[RPetry 564]

Rick, what did you use to get it off?

I have seen some really bad BM arborcoats fail after one winter. Looks and acts like a paint.

Scott,

A strong dose of ACR 760 NaOH wood stripper, 4 oz./gal. of ACR 633 "booster", and 2 oz./gal. of Tergitol NP9. With temps in the low 50's, needed a bit over 30 minutes dwell time.

This is the first I have seen BM Arborcoat stain. Both the customer and I do not care for the product!

[RSuds 24]

We just got done doing a big strip. I charged so much because I did not want to dio it and they called and said let's do it. We use ACR strippers and leave them on and keep it wet for a long time.

[RPetry 564]

The job stripped out well. The mix was very hot due to the foul acrylic used by a painter, so the cedar did fir up. Spent 6 man-hours lightly sanding. There are still a few areas that will need Duraprep stripper in the spring. We'll clean the remainder and probably stain with Ready Seal light brown, my favorite color for good WRC.