Ipe deck

When pricing Ipe decks, does anyone price higher? I am biding one and was curious as this is my first rodeo with Ipe?

~Eric

Eric Calabrese
TopNotch Powerwashing & Sealing
Stirling NJ
Sent from my iPad using Pressure Washing Resource mobile app

IPE is easy to clean and easy to stain… Problem is no stain penetrates deep enough in one of the hardest most dense wood in the face of the planet.

So knowing that we don’t charge anymore to clean or stain IPE and tell your customer they may need it done again within a year. Usually when a customer has an IPE deck they don’t mind spending the money to keep it maintained because hey have Money to start out with.

In most cases you’ll still make more $ / hour on IPE even at your standard deck rate. It’s usually a breeze to clean. Yearly maintenance is the key.

Any detergents? sodium percarb maybe?

A good detergent will make the result much nicer. The existing finish of the wood will determine the best soap to use. A percarb will work great if the wood has a thin semi trans on it or if it is just weathered wood.

Yes, you should charge more for Ipe because it is a specialty wood and once many people hear how expensive it is they walk away. We usually hand scrub clean and brighten. We usually don’t use a pressure washer, usually not needed. Most people just let these go gray so cleaning is fairly easy. In these situations a cleaner with sodium percarbonate AND sodium metasillicate work the best, in my opinion. Then brighten for best results. If there is an existing coating it does not matter the wood strip and brighten. When you seal Ipe the trick is to not over apply. You should use a sock, old sheet, or some type of rag that doesn’t leave threads and dab or wipe excess as you go. The only exception to this is that if this is the first time the Ipe has been cleaned it is best to use a diluted down stripper and brightener because of the film that is on the wood the first time, when you do one you’ll see what I mean. Love Ipe decks did 3 this week, one on a commercial property where they have weddings.

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Washed this puppy with some F18 and brightened with F8, will grab some pics tomorrow but it seemed as though some of the gray was still there… Is that normal? I am tweaking out over here

Ipe after stripping, brightening, and drying.



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Thanks Everett, here is what it looked like today, did some restoration work on the railings

Do things look ok?




In my opinion it really needs to be stripped and brightened again. You still have too much on the balusters and rail system that needs to be stripped and on the floor it needs to be more consistent. The stripper and brightener have to be applied evenly and allowed to sit on the surfaces to dwell long enough to get a better result. If you want just give me a call on my cell 609-351-6117

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Don’t me to highjack this thread but how hard is it to remove stain from an Ipe deck. Our customer attempted to stain the teak bar which is on her ipe deck and dripped stain everywhere. We are cleaning all wood surfaces but never sanded ipe before. Any ideas? Thank you.
Regards, Jason.

Jason Fenstermaker.
Facebook/BBPWcharleston.com

Stripping depends on the type of stain that was spilled on the deck. Chances are that if it was teak that they spilled an oil base product so a sodium hydroxide base stripper should do the trick. after stripping apply a brightener and you should be fine. In this case like all others with stains if you try and clean/strip where the stain was spilled you will then have 'stained" that area and it will not look like the rest of the deck. Best thing to do would be to do the whole deck so that it looks uniform at this point. You could also sand the entire deck if you have a 12x18 orbital but I would strip and brighten entire deck and then seal. it will look great when finished!

I did not sand the decking on this but did strip it twice

Everett did help me out, like a Boss!





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Forgot to add that I used some AC Mahogany, I even called and spoke to the man himself, Jake Clark. Being able to get help from Everett & Jake on the phone settled my nerves and allowed me to build a repoire with a client who then had me do other work and said to call her in April for more work to be done. A many thanks to these guys!

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A Brazilian Hardwood, sometimes referred to as Brazilian Walnut, or even Iron Wood. Very high density of wood and actually has a fire rating. It is very heavy and extremely difficult to drill and cut. Beautiful in color and tone and restores beautifully. Also, very expensive but will last a lifetime and beyond.

Like the master said plus I found it easier to work on but my anxiety was raised a tad!

What’s the best stain for theses hardwoods

I used armstrong clark, Everett used to use a product from Mesmers but he may have switched to his own stuff that he is now using/selling. I just spoke to Jake today from AC as well

Good stuff