Cedar Deck stained with RS Pecan

[Patrick Rhea 15]

So far, I am not super thrilled about my project. Stripped the existing sealer with F-18 then brightened with F-8. It looked pretty good after stripping and neutralizing. I just don't like how the RS is looking a bit blotchy and dark on some of the wood on the first coat? It does not seem normal to me? Any feedback from an RS expert? It is almost like the stripper residue is left behind or something on some of the boards?

Did we not strip this old cedar to a good stainable level?

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[RPetry 564]

Patrick,

Your last picture, img_3839, does not look right. Was this taken during, or after stripping? Was the cedar floor sanded hard prior to staining?

I agree, that is a very blotchy stain result. Something is wrong.

[Beth n Rod 1,278]

That wood doesn't look completely neutralized to me.

It does look off.

Beth

[Patrick Rhea 15]

The first pic is dry after it was Ox ... Then stained. The last pic is the cleaning while wet showing the front cleaned and the back yet to be done... You can see that we neutralized it in the first photo before staining it...

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[Patrick Rhea 15]

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This is the stain coming off...

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This is neutralized with no sanding...

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With stripper before cleaning....

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After stripping and brighter...

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[NAPWO 21]

Your prep work looks god to me. You can see that the stripper darkened the wood , which isa normal. The brightened wood looks good. If, as you say it looks blotchy after the first coat, I would not worry. Ready Seal is going to look darken at first and can stay that way for up to a week. After a week I would expect you to just love the color it tones down too. I had that experience with my own wood I have done. The second LIGHT application will take care of any blotchy effect and even it all out. I do not see where RS is sitting on the surface so as long as that is not happening, then there does not seem to be a barrier to the absorbtion of the sealer. Sanding with higer than 80 grit sandpaper can cause this. Feel free to contact me for more help with this if you need. I have worked with Ready Seal over 15 years.

[Patrick Rhea 15]

I have sanded some areas that the old sealer didn't come off on the step faces and some around the railing tops and bottom....

The weird thing is the deck Looks spectacular wearing my uv glasses but looks like dipped in creosote without them....very dark

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[Patrick Rhea 15]

Sanded with 60 grit on the bad areas and some 80

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[Patrick Rhea 15]

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After two days ... One coat of stain. We will apply another after we finish the rest of the deck.

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It might grow on me as time goes by. I still have issues where some stain didn't budge and I have had to sand. Is this common?

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[RPetry 564]

... It might grow on me as time goes by. I still have issues where some stain didn't budge and I have had to sand. Is this common? ...

Patrick,

Welcome to the fun part of wood restoration. In your original post, the last picture, my description "wet after stripping", it did appear that some old stain remained in or on the cedar. As to your question "is this common?". Short answer is no, but not infrequent. We have run into many similar jobs over the years.

There are specialty strippers or boosted additives for sodium hydroxide strippers that can chemically remove the tough stuff. With Western Red Cedar, this is preferable in most cases to spot sanding, especially if it is a hard spot sanding generating significant heat.

Try a 2nd light coat of Ready Seal. It may help somewhat.

[Patrick Rhea 15]

Finally watching this project come to an end I think...

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A lot of it still looks a lot like re used oiled barn wood, but the color keeps changing daily. I learned a lot about cedar on this project for sure...

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[RPetry 564]

... I learned a lot about cedar on this project for sure...

Patrick,

Cedar is by far the most difficult common wood to restore. Most times, not a problem, but difficulties do arise.

Just ask any stain manufacturer!

[seymore 90]

All the black is mildew in the wood and knots? Bleach would helped that deck out so much...

[Patrick Rhea 15]

Mildew under the stripped wood that can only be seen once stained??

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[seymore 90]

It's either mildew or old stain not much else it could be to look so black like that?

RS is light and very unforgiving if the deck is not stripped and cleaned completely of stain or mildew.

[Patrick Rhea 15]

It's either mildew or old stain not much else it could be to look so black like that?

RS is light and very unforgiving if the deck is not stripped and cleaned completely of stain or mildew.

When to bleach?

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[seymore 90]

If you add a little bleach to the stripper it helps.

[RPetry 564]

It's either mildew or old stain not much else it could be to look so black like that? ...

Possibly, it could be both! Shane's post jostled my memory.

Patrick,

Do you know how old the cedar deck is? The reason I ask is that I ran into a similar situation on an old P/T deck many years ago. It was a fairly tough strip, with similar dark areas in, not on, the wood surface, that could not be sanded out. A leaky Shurflo unit with stripper left on the deck overnight actually did clean an "in wood" dark area, but we were not going to apply stripper for 14 hrs. straight to clean up those stains!

The owner found a can of the old stain, which was Behr's Natural Seal Plus. This stain, along with 3 other Behr stains, was the subject of at least 2 class action lawsuits, that were settled for at least $162 million. Behr knowingly put ineffective mildewcide into the products, allowing the linseed oil to promote mildew growth in the wood. The majority of the plaintiffs were located in the Pacific Northwest.

See: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Big-wood-stain-lawsuit-settled-1099677.php

[Patrick Rhea 15]

The original stain was a Cabot clear on this deck. There was an old 5 gal pail of it in the shed I found. The front porch had an attempt of another coat of some ace hardware version of oil and resin. It was a small section that needed sanding after stripping. It left an orange looking flaky top residue that sanded off easily. All the wood looked pretty good after being stripped except the darkened knots.

My first thoughts while staining were that the ox didn't neutralize the SH that soaked deep into the wood possibly. Or that I didn't utilize enough ox. If I had left the deck unsealed it would have looked almost like new cedar.. Except for the felted areas...[ATTACH]20405[/ATTACH]

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[RPetry 564]

Patrick,

Granted, it is a long shot. But how old is the cedar deck?

Those foul Behr stains were manufactured starting in the early '90's and on the market into the early 2000's. If the current owners were not in possession of the home 12 - 20 years ago, who knows what was applied and when? This debacle lasts forever.

WRC knots are always darker when stained with a true oil. And in my opinion, correctly prepped and stained, it looks terrific.

That is not your problem. It is the rest of the "darker, mottled" horizontal wood.

[Patrick Rhea 15]

No behr stain... The owner had the deck installed and she did not know what stain was used 7 years ago, but I found the Cabot under the deck...

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[Patrick Rhea 15]

No behr stain... The owner had the deck installed and she did not know what stain was used 7 years ago, but I found the Cabot under the deck...

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[RPetry 564]

No behr stain... The owner had the deck installed and she did not know what stain was used 7 years ago, but I found the Cabot under the deck...

Patrick,

Well, I said it was a long shot! No doubt, something beside RS stain is in or on that cedar.

Here are a few pics of a difficult knotty WR cedar job. New owners, some kind of crappy water based junk had been used in the past. A tough strip. After stripping and brightening with citric acid, check out the black marks. Corroding fasteners from a cheap or clueless deck builder.

Final pic shows the wood stained with Ready Seal light brown (now called "light oak"). Note the knots, they are darker than the surrounding cedar. This is normal.

[Patrick Rhea 15]

Here is a quick update after a couple weeks of the deck settling in and the second coat of stain around the previous stained area. We brushed Acetone on the area around the hot tub to try and get it to blend better since it appeared so dark. I have to say that the way this whole thing played out was unexpected for sure. It looks pretty good now but it was uncertain as went along. Thanks to all of you who pitched in pointers along the way...

 

 After all this we know exactly how we would do it differently for sure...Many lessons learned.

 

[James 624]

Not all of the prior stain was remove during stripping . When that happens the neutralizing process doesn't work in the ares which are dark . Why , because there is still finish there.

[RPetry 564]

Not all of the prior stain was remove during stripping . When that happens the neutralizing process doesn't work in the ares which are dark . Why , because there is still finish there.

 

+1 on Diamond Jim's post.  If it is not old mildew stains in the cedar, it is an old oil, or more probable, waterbased exterior wood stain.