IPE help

[Jared 17]

I had a customer last week that has an IPE deck that is 2 years old. The home owner used an expensive oil based stain on the sun exposed deck. I used a light soap and bleach solution and light pressure to clean. The section of decking under cover did not look good. This section looked a little grey, like there was an enamel finish failing and flaking. I wasn't sure what was happening on this section of the deck. The area most worn looking was the higher traffic part near slider doors. I was concerned that the light bleach solution may have discolored the stain? But the strange thing was it looked more like an enamel than a stain. At the front of the house he has yet to treat the IPE on the covered patio. Here the wood looked good. What would you recommend for maintenance and to deal with what seems to be failing stain on the back? The home owner told me he spent over $100 per gallon? It seemed the oil stain was on top of the wood like a poly only on the shade covered area and the sun exposed wood looked ok.

[James 625]

Too late in the season to do anything with ipe. Without photo's probably over application of product(flaking). The more more you spend on ipe the more expensive the fix. The more u try to put down a product that is tougher and harder the more difficult to fix. If you use a very expensive product learn howto maintain it.