mold, mildew disaster

[tropical wave 22]

Earlier I posted the pics of this disaster....got it cleaned and defelted....I also found out that this deck isnt 16 years old, but its actually 25 years plus !!!! Built around 1980....found that out after a little investigating with the guy who built it....anyway, after 25 years of Chicago weather it is not in prime condition, but we're gonna give it the college try

[tropical wave 22]

got it cleaned and defelted......not a bad upgrade, actually cleaned up a bit better than I could have expected......this thing was really nasty...

[PressurePros 249]

Rail looks like you just built it. You are officially indoctrinated as a woody. They must put something in the water out in the midwest cause between you, Reed, Shane and others you're making us east coast guys look bad.

[Aplus 525]

Atta Boy!!!

Surprisingly, almost all decks can be brought back to life to some degree with right treatments.

Take lots of photos throughout the process. They will be invaluable as visuals for selling the next job you visit that's so nasty.

Rock On !

[Adrian 155]

Hi Tropical Wave,

What did you mean by defelted? Does that mean lifting off the fuzzies?

How do you get rid of those fuzzies, by sanding?

just curious as I had a deck this week that the landlord wanted cleaned only.

It was 12 ft off of the ground and shifted when you walked on it and the wood was so weak that I had to be careful where I walked or my 180lbs would crack the wood slats.

I tried to lean away from cleaning it all together because it seriously needed to be replaced (the entire deck), but the landlord insisted on cleaning it. The wood was so old it developed fuzzies after cleaning it. I could poke my finger through it if I tried.

I feel sorry for the new tenants, and I hope the landlord at least does some repairs.

The landlord was just looking for a good visual selling tool, which I gave them.

The deck looked somewhat newer and definately brighter and more natural, but , talk about a weak structure. It really had me worried while I was up on it.

Your restore job looks GREAT!!!!!

[tropical wave 22]

Ken....Thanks, but after I get another 10 years and a thousand decks under my belt, then "maybe".... LOL :)

Tony.....got quite a few pics, and I think your right about bringing wood back from the grave, I dont see many like this even standing after the neglect...whats kept this thing up is that the structure is super beefy....all the posts are 6x6's, and the deck boards arent the standard 5/4 x 6, these are all 2x6's.....very stout !!

AC, with the wood being soooooo old and UV damaged, there was nothing that would prevent furring the surface.....we remove the fuzzies with a Makita polisher outfitted with 9" 3m defelting pads, and a couple different type sanders with 60 grit

[tropical wave 22]

the beast from "HE-double hockey stix" is done....was so windy here today, made spraying tough, especially the top, I cant believe how much sealer this drank up.....this was so dry, after 25 years of neglect, I couldn't get the sealer to puddle even if I tried.....as fast as it went on, it was gone.....needless to say, made brushing hard too, no flow... :cool:

I'm thinking the next 25+ year old wood project will get a pass...unless the price is soooooo very right....

[tropical wave 22]

couple more.....at least it looks better than it did, and the homeowners where made aware of the realistic expectations of this being so darn old....just glad its over with !!! :)

[seymore 90]

Looks :cool: Mike

Hey Mike you dropped your wand ;)

[flimmy 14]

Look great :D Don't run from the next old deck just jack up the $$$$ if they choke on the price just show them the pic's of this deck.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

What beautiful results and a great transformation. Now share how you did it...

Beth ;)

[tropical wave 22]

Shane---Thanks, I had to grab the camera before I cleaned up, it was getting too dark, storms were coming and it was geting late... couldnt start early, the nights were really cool and moist, needed to start a bit later to get some sun beating down to dry it up....

Scott---Thanks, to do one of these bad boys again, the $$$$ will need to be there, and without making promises, it may be hard to obtain top dollar, but what the heck, I'd give it a try.....sometimes I like a challenge.. :)

Beth, Thank you----first trip out was really to see what I could do, escalated up the chem list from weakest to harshest....Percarb did literally nothing, where the wood was not severly UV damaged it cleaned it a little, went to the stripper which would have worked, eventually, really just furred the heck out of it (after 25 years, no wonder) but left almost all the black, crunchy mold-mildew...thats when the ShurFlo went out....I took a capful of straight 10% chlorine and poured it on the nastiest, blackest hardest area of rail and waited....and waited.....after about 3 minutes it started turning the burnt looking black stuff green, and eventually it removed it pretty nice....

as I said somewhere else, I certainly don't want to bring back the debate of chlorine, but this is what I did-----came back with a fresh load of 12.5% mixed it down to about 6% with soap and water...didnt do anything...finally a 5:2 mixture of chlorine to water and that got it done....about 600 psi, moderate fuzzing...the floor is in pretty bad shape anyway, lots of cracking and top layer was pretty rough....which really took its toll on defelting pads.....anyway, a nice oxalic bath and then waited and waited for the moisture content to drop....this thing was wet forever....wood like a sponge.....couple decent coats of RS and thats how this tale ends :cool:

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Thanks for sharing Michael! :sunshine: :groovy3: :dancing:

Beth

[CLASSICPW 14]

I have a theory on wood and the environment. Certain climates/areas can preserve the wood better or age it faster. In my area there's a dirty part of town that is built around a sewage treatment plant(Dundalk if you're near me). I have never had a deck turn out well in the area. I've done about 4 decks there and everytime they don't clean up well and the sealers/stains never lay right, every deck has turned out blotchy and looking like crap. I've had to take money off 2 of the jobs to keep people happy. I swear it's the pollution from the crap plant that does something to the wood, even the people there are different. I refuse every call from there now.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Sometimes you just have to bump a good thread!

This is a really wet year and the filth is in bloom!

Show us all your dirtiest of decks!

Eeeeeewww.... Aaaahhhhh!

Beth

[RPetry 564]

... Show us all your dirtiest of decks!

Eeeeeewww.... Aaaahhhhh!

Beth

In 8 years in business, this was our worst. Never had to prep a deck with a shovel!

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

We had one you could have played golf on once....nice mossy mound on the deck and rot underneath. I wish I had photos. At least I have memories! :lol:

Beth

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Here's another one for you ipe lovers who didn't know ipe could get this filthy....

Beth

[Tonyg 14]

I wanna play :)

Just getting started and you only seem to attract the ugly ones.

Kinda reminds me of my younger years :lgbugeyes

Deck 6.pdf

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Oooooohhh! That's a really yucky one! Cool!

Beth

[RPetry 564]

Ah, you guys and gals are pikers. Check out this one...

[RPetry 564]

... Kinda reminds me of my younger years :lgbugeyes

Tony,

Hah! The colors in your picture do remind me of some long past escapades. If I read you right, that is hilarious!

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Ah, you guys and gals are pikers. Check out this one...

Pikers are we? I'll see you some moss, and raise you to ROT!

Beth :lol:

Edited June 20, 2009 by Beth n Rod

[RPetry 564]

Pikers are we? I'll see you some moss, and raise you to ROT!

Beth :lol:

Beth,

Hah, good comeback! Your picture is going to be hard to beat!

Nah, you win!

Gotta' think, may have something.... Here you go, the scariest woodies I have ever seen... Hah!

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

You had to drag that up.... :lol:

I still like your deck you had to shovel the best. Only thing I have ever shoveled off of a deck is snow. Rod did an estimate yesterday and the deck was covered in land mines from the owners beagle. I'm kinda glad he didn't take pictures, or this thread would really have gone to the dogs!

Beth :cup:

[James 625]

I think I have some poop photos with mold forming ?