Hey there. I’m in a bit of a predicament with a wood deck I’m going to be washing. The client was bleaching his wood deck after it was getting mildew on it, went inside while he let the cleaner sit, and fell asleep before cleaning it off. So now the bleach has dried and the wood deck has this white “layer” on it. He’s shown me where he’s tried to power wash the wood and it came out okay, its kind of a large deck so he didnt feel like washing the entire thing :/. What are some things I can do to make this job look its best?
I’m sure everyone here will agree. Walk away. Easier money to be made. If you do take the job make it extremely clear and set the bar low. I’m no wood cleaning expert but fixing this is impossible. You’d have to apply the exact same damage he caused to the entire deck precisely outside of the damaged area. The best bet would to be clean it really well to prep it for paint. Or just live with the inconsistent results.
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You’re probably going to need to post some pics if you want some real answers. It will help the guys who do a lot of wood cleaning better understand the situation and develop a game plan to help you.
That “white layer” is bleached out wood fiber, you’re probably not fixing it unless you sand it. You might try a small test with some oxalic but my guess is there is no natural color left in the wood. We need pics to help and you need to search and find the thread @Racer started on cleaning decks. You will find it very educational. If you’re going to stain it I can probably help you with some suggestions but search and read first.
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Shoot so just found this post. The deck I did was applied with a 2% mix and dwelled for 1 hour. It never dried because we kept it wet until I was able to rinse off with 800 psi water. I have the same problem as mentioned in another post. Is 1 to 1.5 hours max way too much dwell time for diluted down 2% mix? (Started at 2% then rewetted a few times over the hour until I got to it with the pw wand). I’ve heard Everett talk about going up to 45 minutes of dwell time. Attached is a pic. Does it look like this will have to be sanded or would ox acid fix it followed with new stain application?
I have heard that from him, but he says typically 10 minutes if you are cleaning, 30 minutes or sometimes longer if stripping.
The scuff test will tell you if it is ready to rinse when stripping.
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I answered in the other thread. I’d try ox or citric in a small area and see what you get.
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Ok, I’m picking up citric tomorrow and ordered ox. Will let you know how it goes! Appreciate your help and input. Thank you.
@Seandz I clean my decks the same way I clean all my wooden fences. rinse down fence with water, let sit for 10 minutes for wood to absorb water, hit it with a 2% mix let dwell for 15 minutes and rinse with 800ish psi, with this methods the fence doesn’t absorb all the sh mix and cleans the top part of the fence which is what we want. Never had an issue. I think a lot of people on here confuse deck cleaning with deck restoration. 2 totally different things. A simple deck cleaning like mentioned above 99.5% of all customers will be happy unless there some wood enthusiast conceived in the woods on a prime piece of mahogany with the surname timber.
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Why would you want an hour dwell time? If the deck is that bad grab a brush after a 15 min dwell and scrub and hit with pressure. Just let the customer know what to expect. Customers with decks that bad are just happy to see wood again. The decks posted above don’t look like they need too much of a dwell. After a few wood decks under your belt you’ll see what dwell time you need and most likely that wood decks suck.
He didn’t intentionally let it set that long, he got to far ahead of himself with the SH, and it took him a while to get it washed off.
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Thanks guy’s. Yes I will not make the same mistake again. Working in sections from now on. I’m just really hoping that an oxalic or citric acid treatment will help remove the white. Even if it doesn’t I plan on re-staining it for him. (I can buy citric locally and get it faster, but may just wait for the ox to come in that I ordered). I’ll see what happens! The good thing is the initial 2% never dried and it kept getting diluted down with water until I could rinse off correctly with the pw. I feel like after 20-30 minutes the spraying of water to keep it wet would have brought it down to 1% diluted and even further after the next sprays to keep it wet. It’s hard to imagine that the sh is the sole reason it has that white look to it. Obviously the stain was old and there was UV damage otherwise it wouldn’t have all come off that easy. I wonder if that particular wood is naturally somewhat white to begin with. I am going to try and find a hidden area and sand it to see what it’s like underneath. Is there wood that people use for decks that have that whitish color as depicted in the pic above?
Yes, non PT Pine or Spruce
I don’t think the oxalic or citric will remove the white but, as Mark mentioned, it might bring the wood back to its more natural color. It might even out the darker areas. The oxalic will lighten the wood up even more.
I did a test awhile back using citric and oxalic to brighten. The fence was only a year so it was in good shape but I didn’t notice any different between the two. They lightened/brightened the wood exactly the same. I’m going to try it on older wood next season though.
I’m repeating a lot of what Mark said but I think what you’re going to have to mainly worry about is removing the rest of the old stain unless you go with a solid. If you go with a solid the color of the wood doesn’t matter as much because you won’t see it. If you don’t remove the rest of the stain along the edges you likely won’t be able to go with a semi transparent stain because it will show through. If you go with the exact same stain they originally used it might not be as noticeable.
Before proceeding with anymore cleaning I would talk to the homeowner and figure out what type of stain they plan on using. You’ll then know if you have to mess with removing the rest of the old stain, sanding the whole deck, just using some oxalic, etc. I think I would try and talk them into a solid stain. I think Mark mentioned you might have to sand the whole deck. That might be what’s needed in order to get all of the old stain off if the homeowner decides they want to go with a semi transparent. He also mentioned it in case the wood has any of the little white fuzzies. You can get more of those little white fuzzies by using to strong of a mix or letting it dwell too long. They don’t accept stain and can show through depending on what type of stain you use.
