Thought I’d check with you guys before I screw it up.
This is a long time window cleaning customer of ours that asked to clean her deck.
It’s called Ipe aka ‘Brazilian Walnut’ and is very weather resistant. I just need to know how to clean it. The grey is natural, hasn’t been stained.
I have a customer with Ipe that I wash every couple of years. They use an oil to make it look great after cleaning I have honestly had to throw as much pressure as possible on parts of it to get rid of the old oil before they reapply
Ipe is also called ironwood and can take a lot of abuse I’m also a woodworker and Ipe will dull a blade quickly when working with it I’ve actually used a turbo nozzle on it to get it clean if they wait too long before cleanings
Clean it right and it’ll look great when you’re done.
Sodium metasicliate, normal pressure, ox afterwards.
I’m sure sodium per carbonate would work fine, too.
When you say ‘normal pressure’ are we talking about my usual 1500psi fan tip?
Yep. 1500-2000 psi
One more question. I used powdered oxalic acid ONCE on a job a few years ago. Followed the directions, poured it in warm water and suddenly I got hit with what felt like mustard gas. It nailed me so hard I had to walk away for a few minutes so I could breathe again.
I keep hearing people say use oxalic but how do I do that without a trip to the ER?
I use a very good mask. It messes with me pretty badly if I don’t mask up.
Even a decent one is pretty cheap and worth it to save your lungs.
You can use citric instead of oxalic if rust isn’t an issue. Oxalic hits the rusty stuff harder. I don’t mind the oxalic as much as I do the sodium hydroxide after it starts to work on some paints. Really stinks. Especially with butyl in there.
I used the citric acid for about two years. I just was not getting the same brightening that I saw with oxalic.
I also didn’t like having to carry around two different acids since some jobs would have rusty nails requiring oxalic.
Not disagreeing with your assessment, but the citric will neutralize the PH (approximately) SH is 11-13 and citric is 2-6. Close to a 7 is all I care about. most of the ones I do are getting paint or stain afterwards. Edit: forgot to add I’d be sanding afterwards anyway for the furring and rounding over handrails.
That grey wood is dead wood brock, and it needs to come off. You should upsell them on an oiling. It is faster than you think, just some prep.
Well she changed her mind and decided to take that money it would cost to clean and put it toward Trex.
Wow she’s downgrading…..
for future’s sake I’ve cleaned ipe for over a decade now and the best method is with a first pass sodium hypochlorite and medium/light sodium hydroxide with rather heavy surfactant then brush that in and let it dwell a few minutes then pressure wash with wide fan tip around 1200 PSI. You can also use a surface cleaner if you so prefer with the pressure dialed down either with a regulator or a nozzle swap. Then follow that with an oxalic/citric brightening then its rubbing in your oil of choice the following good weather day. I like penofin or messmers but I prefer cutek (but it certainly is not cheap!)
that’s wild though that somebody would even contemplate replacing ipe with trex. I suppose the maintenance costs are a real detractor from keeping it but I’d have to guess the money they’d spend replacing it wouldn’t defray the maintenance costs over the lifetime of the deck…
