Sikkens Cetol DEK fiasco on cedar deck!!!

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Here are some shots of a recent job. This poor cedar deck had Sikkens Cetol DEK unevenly applied to it by another contractor, and not regularly maintianed by the owner. This deck has heavy tree coverage over most of the deck. The Sikkens Cetol DEK was still very intact in much of the horizontals and the verticals. The deck was stripped with HD-80 at 6 oz. to the gallon. Dwell time was about 40 minutes on this heavy of a coating of DEK. The area of the corner of the floor needed a second pass with the HD-80, but it did take the product off. I'm attaching photos of before the strip, the clean dry deck, and the deck sealed up with Wood Tux.

Beth

[seymore 90]

Nice job :cool:

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Thanks Shane :)

Beth

[PressurePros 249]

Every multi-step Sikkens deck I have seen looks like that. Nice job on the restoration guys. Has anyone ever seen a Cetol DEK deck that was properly prepped and maintained and wasn't a peeling, flaky mess?

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Ken, we have several Sikkens Cetol DEK decks that we maintain with no issues at all. In our expereince it boils down to:

• amount of clearance beneath deck, we have learned to only apply this to raised decks.
  
• proper prep both in wash and sealing prep
  
• weather when applied
  
• continual maintenance is critical
  
• boards MUST be in excellent conditon. Should already have shrunk, but be free of major cracks and large splinters.
  

Hope this helps. We do not look for these jobs, but have successfully managed quite a few for years.

Beth

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

One additional note,

Cedar seems to be the most suceptible to failure from Sikkens Cetol Dek applications.

My Theory is that the wood is just to soft, porous and weak to be a viable surface for application of any thick film forming product.

Every time a person walks across the floor, they are literally crushing the wood fibers and due to the properties of Sikkens Cetol Dek being a rigid finish, it is dynamically incapable of flexing under these circumstances and fails much sooner than the homeowner is willing to get maintenance performed.

Wood Tux has performed well on cedar. Although I have not seen it peel or flake, I have seen it fade in the high traffic areas. A good regimen for WT on cedar is every 12-18 months depending on the frequency of use and exposure conditions.

Rod~