We sealed all the cuts we made on all boards.

I stained mine per Pressurepros and JH's recommendations.

Wait till 2 or 3 rain sessions - and then 3 days of dry weather for drying.

Hey there not a contractor or bulider just a home owner doing some do it your self projects some times getting in over my head....But dealing with Ipe your going to want endseal all the open cuts that you make I let one of my boards sit for a day with out end seal and checking and craking started after less than 24 hours. When talking to John at Advantge Trim and Lumber he told me that you can finish Ipe at any time with in 2 years of it being down and bring the color back. When we finished my first deck it was as soon as we got done we power washed the deck to get any saw dust or dirt out of the grain and then used Messmers UV plus suggested by John once the deck was dry and I LOVE the way it looks.

You need to seal the ends, even if they are not very exposed, because they will still be exposed to air. I sealed most of my ends with TWP 300 series (varnish). It sucked into the endgrain quite readily, and I applied severaql coats. Some of the ends I used Anchorsesal on, but grew wary of it because all of the boards came from the lumberyard with anchorseal, but many had severe endchecking. So far, I have not had any end checking problems at either end, deck installed last summer / fall.