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judeny_gw

Cleaning Neglected Ipe - It's Still Dark Gray Dirty Looking

judeNY_gw
12 years ago

I have a 6 year old south facing ipe deck in NYC that never had any type of finish applied. It initially grayed nicely but lately has gotten very dark and not so nice looking.

Following some instructions here, today my friend washed with sodium percarbonate and a fairly stiff natural bristle brush. A lot of dirt came out. He followed with oxalic acid (Cabots deck brightener).

Although the boards are much cleaner and some of the reddish brown color is faintly visible, it is still mostly very dark gray and black. It is not ready for finishing.

Can anyone advise on getting it clean? Can it get to the look it had when new?

Comments (9)

  • john_hyatt
    12 years ago

    Sodium precarb is a pain to get off I never use it.
    Ipe will darken over the years but I think your result came from a weak mix of oxalic and not enough scrubing. Try it again with the oxalic only and a scrub brush in both hands. J.

  • judeNY_gw
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Thanks John. We'll try that. I remember a picture you posted a while back of a very neglected deck that you brought back to looking new, so I figured it could be done.

    The boards are spotted and streaky black in a lot of places. The places where I had some terracotta flower pots during the summers still have the rings from the pots. Knowing that, do you still think it's the weak oxalic?

    In another post you described the oxalic working instantly. Are you recommending scrubbing because of how long since it was cleaned? What about power washing?

  • john_hyatt
    12 years ago

    I never use a power washer on wood for a lot of reasons.

    Oxalic is a brightner not a cleaner. The scrubing action is what you need doing it with oxalic would be just in case you dident get all the stupid pre carb off.

    Oxalic does its job on contact.Far as the black streaks no telling what the ipe picked up could be smog or something. Do Not Put Flower Pots directley on any decking.

    J.

  • judeNY_gw
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Thanks again John. The weather got sunny so he switched to prepping/painting the iron railing. When that's done we'll go back to the decking and try scrubbing with oxalic.

    So what do you use to clean a neglected deck if not sodium percarbonate? What do you think of the woodrich cleaner which I thought is sod perc plus strippers?

  • john_hyatt
    12 years ago

    What ever Woodrich puts into that two part system.

    Works.

    Dont overkill with the oxalic there is no need, leave it alone.Try a test area with the finish.

    JonMon

  • brooklyndecks
    12 years ago

    Jude,

    When all else fails, try sanding.

    steve

  • fredinva
    12 years ago

    Ipe is a very hard dense exotic wood. Light pressure washing will have no ill effects on the hard wood and it will get the wood clean.

    Sodium percarbonate is simply an oxeganeted bleach, it readily washes right off.

    Use the Oxalic acid wash again with a light pressure washing, it will come out nice.
    fred

  • judeNY_gw
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Thanks everyone. Taking next week off and will try oxalic scrub after that. Should the deck be wet or dry before applying oxalic?

    Steve, we were coming to that conclusion that we might need to sand. We'll probably go there if the oxalic doesn't work well enough.

    My friend knows to use a wide spray and not too much pressure on the pressure wash if we decide to do that.

    There's a small area - maybe 3"x4" bridging 2 boards that is very soft with loose fibers and gouged out some. It seems to have appeared over the winter. There was nothing that dropped or dragged to cause it and it was fairly protected - under the side shelf of the natural gas grill. Any thoughts about what caused it and what I should do about it?

    Thanks again to everyone for your help.

  • lindymike
    12 years ago

    Test everything first on scrap. I used something from Home Depot once. The first chemical turned my Ipe black, the second one turned it pine-white. Fortunately, I only did the step, and when I stained it with TWP, it matched the rest of the deck, but it soaked up a lot of TWP.