Yes I read through and wrote notes myself! Great info here. I feel better about the process and what to do next time. I posted the video by this guy who calls himself the wood wizard to have real experts here on this forum confirm his advice. I am going to read thru this thread every time I do wood again for a while to make sure I don’t miss anything.
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As usual, these types of posts mean squat w/o pics. Preferably before and afters. You didn’t even tell us what type of wood it is. Throw the wood wash and restore away. Go read the sds, doesn’t tell you what is in it at all. Need to know what you’re using when doing wood.
The white haze is probably from too strong and or too long long on the SH. A hw mix will remove or lighten a lot of stains. What type of stain was used on deck? Other than the general good sense posts about not using heat or letting dwell too long, everyone is guessing w/o pics and some facts.
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If I’m washing a stain deck I always tell the customer that it will fade some, loose some color, etc. it will 9 of 10 times to different degrees. Leaving the 2% on for two hours probably made it worse but definitely warn them ahead of time. If it doesn’t lose any color then they’re thrilled. If it does, it’s expected. If I were you I would read this thread a few more times with a pencil and paper. Your getting your chemicals mixed up in a major way and it shouldn’t be that hard. If you got them mixed up vice versa it could have been bad news for that deck and your safety. Sodium hydroxide vs oxalic acid is two different animals entirely.
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It has been raining for the last 3 days here.the one time it wasn’t was day before yesterday for just long enough for the wood to dry to see the final result and I was focusing on getting the restore on before dark again (it was 4:15pm) so didn’t take the time to get a pic of it. When went back yesterday the deck was still wet from raining all day and so after pics were useless. Below is a before pic before we touched it at all. (The first pic is the older part of the deck that had a lot of slime on top after application) the last two are the newer part that were recently stained) I am going to be doing a neighbors house next week and will stop by to get final pics then and post (it’s in a different town and in the country a ways)
After but wet
You can kind of see where it is dry under the little canopy in one picture showing the white color. That’s after wood restore too. My tech took these pics I should of had him get one of the dry area specifically.
I only used sh. Wood restore is just neutralizer and moisturizer. From my understanding percarbonate can be replaced with sh for a safer cleaning with less fibers being pulled up. Here is a couple pics of other decks I have done same way and they came out great! Don’t know why they are not straight. These did not dwell 2 hours. Color def came out on the big one but it was a lot of grime too and it had a nice natural color to the wood.
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@Seandz hey buddy do yourself a favor when you take before and after pictures do it from the same spot.
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This is what I read.
Talked to deck Restoration Plus and found out the sodium metasilicate is super expensive and only want to use it if you want to strip stain off or on raw wood. Looks like the best option for wood that needs to keep the stain would be sodium percarbonate. Like was told in another post can buy it raw for cheap and preferably from local vendors as @DisplacedTexan said.
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Haven’t been on here the past couple of days. It’s good to see you’ve gotten the right answers to your questions. Keep in mind SH does not strip stain that is in good condition, what it does do is break down UV damaged wood fibers and help kill organic growth in the wood. On older decks or fences that is what most of the color is so it appears to stripping the old stain when in fact it is bleaching out whatever does not have intact stain on it. Too hot a mix and too much dwell combine to create that white fuzz you are seeing. Though it could be it is probably not uniform since the stain was intact in varying degrees, wherever the stain is intact the SH wouldn’t do much. You are probably going to have to sand and restain that deck because unless you are going with a solid water based product the fuzz will show through. Sodium percarbonate with a scrub brush followed by an Ox rinse would probably have been a better way to go on that deck. I think I wrote in a previous note on here somewhere that I adjust the way I clean based on what the desired end result is i.e. solid stain, oil based penetrating etc.
Wizard of Wood - Everett Abrams - You asked about Everett, he knows more about wood restoration than anyone I know. His methods are solid and I use some of his methods just depends again on the desired end result. I love his wood stripper because it has everything you need in it and I don’t have to mix chemicals.The directions will tell you to use it straight, I seldom do though. If you use it straight it will even break down Thompson’s Water Seal (I hate that product).
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Ok so here it is dry. It is pretty white. Should I do an oxalic or citric acid treatment on it next? Would that help bring back the original wood color? I offered to stain it for him to make it right, but I want to start with an original wood color before doing so.
You can try using Oxalic or citrus on it to see if you get some of the natural color back. It does look like there is still some of the old product on the decking along the edges so that will be an issue depending on what stain you are going to use since that old product will probably show through anything but a solid stain like SW Super Deck. If you are going to use a solid it doesn’t matter what the boards look like when you start as long as the surface is stable.
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Finally got some pictures of it dry! The customer texted me the receipt for the stain he bought. It was called cutek extreme oil stain. Here is a link to the webpage: http://www.cutekextreme.com/
When he sent me a pic of the receipt the date was cutoff, leading me to think maybe it was older than 4-6 months like he said. Wouldn’t it be hard to strip this stuff off with a 2% mix that kept getting diluted over the 1 to 1.5 hours it dwelled?
I ordered some sodium metasilicate and the brightener from Deck Restoration Plus and it will be here this week. Gonna try a small area with it and if it works will use it on the whole thing. Then restrain with the same stuff.
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Did you test the deck before using SH? I’m going to further observe this thread to see what the pros are saying.
Hi You’uns (that’s Western North Cackylack for ya’ll), here is my first deck cleaning info. The specific knowledge I would like to gain, is whether or not I should have treated the Black Walnut stains in some other way.
~ I followed Racers (thank you!) recipes and techniques for both the deck and the steps
~ The pictures are both of the after process. You can tell the steps and deck look completely different due to the stains on the steps.
~ The homeowner (a friend whom I didn’t charge) chose to paint the deck after the lackluster results with the stains on the steps.
Is there something more I could have done to clear the tannin stains so that the homeowner could have used an oil based stain instead of paint? They were worried and I agreed a typical stain wouldn’t have covered the tannin stains on the stairs.
Thanks everybody. I feel less ignorant because of you!
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End result looks good. However on the steps, reason pics in advance helps, is you could have gone with stronger mix, and/or let dwell a little longer. With wood, no set formula, just starting points. Adding some hydroxide would have helped, and you can always use more pressure to kind of peel off bad wood to some extent - It may have made steps a littler lighter or even fuzzed a little, but a quick sand and an extra coat of stain would probably have fixed. Often times on wood you just have to keep experimenting till you get the results you want. But good learning experience for you. Like I said to start, end result turned out good. Thanks for posting.
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Thank you sir. When I arrived on site I developed some equipment problems right off and it threw me off my game and I didn’t get the intended before pics. Lesson: take pics before I start messing around with equipment and such.
Set the customers expectations from the beginning. Tell them because the decks are so bad that you will have to go heavy with chems or pressure and may cause the fuzzy appearance and may remove some of the natural oils from the wood. Under promise and over deliver.
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Shoot just saw this! No I didn’t test it. I never ran into this problem before not being able to rinse in time. I’m pretty sure the stain was way older than he said and UV damage was the real culprit I just uncovered it. The protected areas looked fine. I do have all the materials from Deck Restoration Plus now to clean with the metasilicate and then use their brightener. Going to test it on a small area of my fence.
Hi Max1
Where do you get your chemicals from as I am on the prairies in Canada and am having a hard time finding localy.
Thanks
