Thanks for posting this. It takes some stones to post a job and let everyone monday morning quarterback you.
My questions are these:
What was your dwell time? Sometimes you have to let things dwell a lot longer if the deck is bad. everett talks about letting things dwell for a long time. An untreated deck after 6 years is going to take some cleaning.
When you walked the boards, did you keep the gun/lance the same distance from the boards the whole way?
Was the surface like an ice skating rink when cleaning/brushing? Im my estimation it gets slick when the crap is coming off. In the first pic I see a lot of the crap on the deck (footprints) coming off, but that isnāt all of it.
I apply the stripper, let it dwell, then do a scuff test with the toe of my shoe to see if it is coming up or not . If it isnāt I know I am going to brush and reapply. Even the scuff test isnāt perfect, you do a rinse then see areas the stripper didnāt work on, so then you reapply and brush again if needed, then rinse again. This forum reads like magic sometimes and would lead to the impression apply stripper, rinse, apply neutralizer, rinse, collect check. It doesnāt really work that way many times.
My experience is that you wonāt get a mat stain out, but you can lessen it. That should be in your initial discussion with the homeowner. Set expectations as they say. If you painted/stained the deck afterwards it would really be almost unnoticeable, but with just cleaning it, well, your going to see it. Sure you can sand it, then you have to blend it into the existing wood or you will have a reverse mat look.
If they had some type of covering, letās say an umbrella or table and chairs, that section of wood would see less light and be more green than the others. Iām leaning towards it being green from the runoff from that roof though, but I am not there. (no gutter above deck = tons more crap to remove).
Good luck to you and hit up @SurfaceTherapy or @MDA1775 they do a lot of decks and have been extremely helpful to me with my last monster deck (3 levels over 4k sq ft).
Ok, the next time you get a deck like that one try increasing the dwell time to 15 minutes (not letting it dry of course). For as bad as the deck was, you were likely going to have to brush it. Everett talks about the distinction between stripping and cleaning. Stripping (depending on variables) has a much longer dwell time. If stuff is coming up, generally speaking, it isnāt clean.
Did you mask those posts and door? Hydroxide will strip paint. Iām cautious with stripper, I can paint but I donāt want to repaint stuff I am not getting paid for.
I donāt want you to think I am knocking your work, I was just giving feedback from my point of view.
Edit: Maybe upsell a stain or paint job (if your into that) or make a referral to another company. Decks should have a coating on them. THe type of coating varies depending on customerās desires.
How low at night? Your handle is southeast, so I am guessing high 40ās which would be ok. We are getting a heat wave tomorrow, going to hit 52, then back to a week highly of 41 with lows in the 20ās. At least we arenāt in Canada
How long has it been on there and and how much has it faded would be my first question. I have had good luck (relative term sometimes when removing TWS) using Deck Restoration Plus (DRP). Itās sodium hydroxide, sodium metasilicate and butyl. You are going to need the butyl to boost the sodium hydroxide and I prefer to not mix chems anymore if I can help it. You are going to have to go back with either oxalic or citric acid to neutralize after it is striped. DRP is supposed to be coming out with some type of super stripper this spring for the really stubborn water based products.
DRP is out of NJ, IDK if they can or will ship to Canada. You mix it yourself. You need Sodium Hydroxide and Butyl (the sodium metasilicate you can probably get away with not using it). In fact depending on how broken down the TWS is you might try just using the Hydroxide. If you have to go strong with the chems, it will probably fur the wood so figure sanding into the bid as an if than it will be xx.xx more. Orbital floor sanders make short work of it and donāt have the potential problems that a belt sander does, if you have not used one much.
Practicing my deck stripping skills so I can add that to my inventory. This is on my own deck. Its 20+ years old and the stain is 5+. I started with 8 oz of f18 to 1 gal water in pump sprayer, let dwell for 10-15 mins, then washed at 1200 psi. Didnt get much stain off at all. Applied again at 10 oz, same process. Applied 3rd time with 12 ox and half cup of SH and had best success though still not great at all. First 2 pics show area I was working on and last shows area I havent started. Noticed where the stain was already pealing up it worked pretty well but where it was solid in hardly worked at all. Applied f8 at end of it all. Any recommendations to help remove stain in spots its not budging. Should I just keep upping the f18 concentration? Also what are recommendations for removing stain from spindles? Like I said this is my house and likely will apply same stain but want to practice completely striping decks. No clue what stain was used but from my test it is oil based.
What about reapplying on top of old stain? Would that look bad? Also aside from experience how are you able to determine the type of paint from the photo? thanks!
Did you do a test on the coating before trying to strip it? denatured alcohol? Did you do a splash test?
two things, 1 increase dwell time and do a scuff test before rinsing. Make your dwell time 30 minutes, and donāt let it dry. You may need to add something to make it stick to the verticals longer. By a scuff test, take the tip of your shoe boot and scuff the wood, if the old coating is coming off then rinse.
2nd, try and up your mix to 12 oz per gal. I donāt know what an f18 is other than military aircraft. I use hydroxide because it works.
Some coatings wonāt be completely removed when done, you have to go mechanical to get rid of the rest. Chemically striping is much faster and saves so much mechanical time.
Edit: you can also try metasilicate or add a butyl boost. SO many options really. If none of those things work you can get (osha description) " Methylene chloride , also called dichloromethane , is a volatile, colorless liquid with a chloroform-like odor. Methylene chloride is used in various industrial processes, in many different industries including paint stripping, pharmaceutical manufacturing, paint remover manufacturing, and metal cleaning and degreasing." but it has been outlawed/banned but you can still find it in odd ball places.
I donāt stain decks and donāt want them about because of decks like the one you posted. I just rebuilt my deck this winter because itās easier than stripping.
