Is it just me or does everyone have a deck that’s been through hell and back and expect it to look brand new after it’s done?
1988! That’s when the deck was built. Never stained. In Alaska weather. They wanted it to look good for their daughters wedding. I told them that I could kill the organic growth. They wanted all the black gone from the board.
I pre rinsed, hit with 3%, let dwell and re hit again multiple times. Then used oxalic acid afterwards l, let dwell and then rinsed. Some of the black cleaned up but the outer layer had turned mushy so I didn’t want to remove. This stuff was not looking new unless it was gouging the wood so I backed off. Every deck I do it’s the same story. It lightens up. I’ll get some pics in the next day or two and see how it looks dry. I told them if they don’t want me to take that top layer off (they didn’t) they could sand and then stain the deck to look better but you can’t polish a turd. I’d probably just throw down new wood at this point. It’s lived a hard life…it’s tour is over!
I told them I’m not a miracle worker to set expectations but I’m never satisfied with how it looks and I’m sure they aren’t either. They paid me and all organics are dead, I just think they expected the thing to look brand spanking new.
Sorry about the rant. I’m trying to hang in there and get better at these decks but holy ____. What a pain in the ____!
I’ve read through deck cleaning 101 and your guys stuff looks way better. I’m wondering if you guys are just slicing that mushy layer off and if you are, is it leaving lines? This stuff was for sure, I tried using pressure that would cover a whole board but it wouldn’t do anything unless you were right up on that sucker so it was inconsistent.
What tips and psi were you using? Wood done properly shouldn’t leave any lines. Start at one end of a board and don’t stop till you get to the other end in one continuous motion, avoid stopping in the middle, if it’s not coming clean repeat that board with the same process. Wooden decks are more of a project than a quick in and out clean, take your time and charge for that time, it’s a process.
Tip. Don’t use oxalic acid on dirty boards, it brightens the clean parts witch magnifies the dirty parts. Oxalic acid should be the cherry on top once it’s properly cleaned and free of organic matter.
I don’t mind wood as long as its a flat deck. I hate wood railings that’s for sure. Sounds like you need to use pressure. I usually use about 1000-1200 psi on wood after hitting it with a 1.5ish%. And yea you have to get right up on that wood to knock the crap off. If its super bad than yes crank that pressure up and blast it off lol. Even strokes keeping the wand about 4-6” off the wood no back and forth with the wand do the full legth of the board at a time and you don’t have to worry about scarring. Post treat with oxalic. Also sodium hydroxide works great on old decks too its a bit more powerful than SH. As long as the wood isn’t rotted out it should clean up decent. Post pictures
Always take a before pic. We can’t guess what it looks like to give you much feedback other than the excellent advice you just got.
On really bad ones I’ve had great results with my SC set at around 2000psi. Tried it once on an old rental house of one of my regular clients who was thinking about replacing it a year or so ago just to see what would happen. Turned out so good he kept it. Have tried it on 4-5 since then with great results. Only on what I call ‘throw away decks’ and just pt wood, not cedar and with disclaimer to customer. No striping or furring, in fact I’ve been amazed at the results myself. Usually takes a couple of passes.
Here’s one I did a few weeks ago, about 15years old, had never had anything done to it and under bunch of trees. Mildew was so bad, literally so slick when wet, could not walk on it w/o handrail. Lady was resigned to putting down new boards. I told her, let me try something. Put down down about a 2.5-3% mix, let dwell about 15 min to soften it up, then ran surface cleaner over it twice. Even I was amazed. About a 12 by 24 deck, took about 15min for the floor.
Then started to get nervous when that wasn’t removing anything. I bumped up to my white 40 degree tip and like you had mentioned made multiple passes over the 20ish foot long boards doing the whole length and still nothing. At this point you could see the top layer being mush and I could remove it with my nail but it wasn’t coming off from water.
The customer said it was sunwood from 1988 so I hit the rest of the boards with that 40 degree just to clean the boards as best as I could without leaving the marks. I didn’t want to increase the pressure as I was afraid I was going to gouge the hell out of it. Maybe thats my problem. I need to get some dedicated tips that do 800-1000 psi on my 4200psi 4gpm washer.
Wow that looks good! I don’t know if I can do that with this one as he said it was sun wood so not pressure treated. Some pt wood was mixed in there as this deck was a little Frankensteined.
I think I’ve just been under charging for these but with my current level of expertise it makes sense. Still have a lot to learn. I’ve saved your list you made on deck cleaning 101 to my phone and will come back to take that deck again like the roof I did
I’ve got my first deck job coming up soon here in Melbourne Australia… (weather permitting as it’s been just rain after rain)…
I’m not gonna lie but I’m more nervous than excited doing it after reading how time consuming and the ups and downs that everyone has doing em… But yes Deck Cleaning 101 has really helped… Think I’m just gonna go with racers recommendation on how to go about it…
Will post a separate post later explaining my order of process and hopefully I’ll get some valuable information that may help you too…
Like yourself I’m afraid to apply too much pressure but hey I guess we’ll never get better if we don’t keep trying hey…
Got any pics? Just start off on the weak side and increase chems and pressure till you get what you need. Every one you do is different. The more of them you do the better you’ll get at it. No matter how many you do, it’s always a learning experience with decks.
After reading your thread on deck 101… I’m thinking of just going with how u tackled your first post as it was not as dirty.
I noticed you didn’t mention what strength SH you went with, but we’ve only got 12.5% here where I am in Melbourne Australia…
So I’m currently sitting at my desk, it’s 1037pm here and trying to find what mixture I should use in my 5 gallon bucket… I’ve only got an xjet for now unfortunately… But I think it’ll do the job…
The deck is not in such a bad state, I honestly feel as if water and soap will do the job rinsing with a 45 degree tip… (correct me on the tip size if I’m wrong pls)
BUT, if I was to use sh, (this is from all I’ve read on tonight and watched about 30 videos so far haha) correct me if my process is wrong… I was thinking of going light first so even if I had to do it twice, I’m not really fussed…
I’ve got a 4gpm machine…
So I’m thinking in a 5gallon bucket should I mix 50% of 12.5% SH and 50% of water… That would give me a 1% strength mix? (Please correct me if I’m wrong here again) my brains so fried from all these calculations… I think this was if you’re using a downstream injector… Then I understood there’s a diff between downstream injector and xjet…
Make sure I only apply pressure to about 1000psi…
Like I mentioned, trying to follow your steps there @racer, I’ll do the oxalic treatment too… They mentioned the decking had been oiled twice and the lady time they did it was about 6 months ago… So really it’s just a light bit of dirt on it atm… But I want it to stand out hence the reason I’m wanting to apply some OX…
The bloke showed me a pic of the deck when it was last oiled, think stained too:
I didn’t see in there what sort of wood it was…but anything that is “oiled” (at least here) usually means it’s a high-end wood species (often hardwood). That could be good or bad, I’m not fully educated on that end of things myself, but I’d definitely take the time to make sure you have all of those details that you can get…it may even make your process easier,
In Australia almost every house has a decking… Theres tonnes of work for it… This one seems like a pretty straight forward clean so I’m kinda glad to give it a shot and if it works out well there’ll be plenty of work…
Getting into the industry is good to show people that I can do a variety of work… Then if worst comes to worst working with decking and it’s too difficult I can always turn the job down or take it… At least I’ll have that option… Good money in it too…
Go read up on cleaning an IPE deck. Similar wood. You may not need to use brightener if no tanin stains and it was just sealed 6 months ago… I’d seriously just use Sodium Percarbonate on it, on and wash off at about 1000-1200 psi and see what you have. Then try some ox on just a small part to see if it helps than much. That deck is in great shape. All you need is a light cleaning. You don’t want to have to reseal it since it’s just been 6 months
I rekon I’m gonna go light… I actually just bought some deck cleaner that mixes 4 to 1… It has ox in it as well… So will hit it with that… I can’t go wrong with that stuff and some light pressure…
Will upsell them if they wanted to oil it again as that will give it life again…
So as you can see it’s got 10% oxalic acid in it already… Hope it’s works on one go and don’t have to do it twice…
They did recommend that if I didn’t want it to dwell for 20 Min I could mix some sh in it… Cross fingers… If theres anything else I’m missing pls let me know but thanks heaps for all the info… Will definitely be reading a lot and a lot of repeats before Monday I can tell you that haha…
Before you mix SH with this, please take out substantial life insurance policy with me the beneficiary. Who is 'They"? You need to find a new source of info. Seriously it will explode if you do that. Never, Ever, mix an acid with a base. One of 2 things will happen - it will explode and/or create a toxic gas. Both will ruin your day.
