I have about a dozen annual customers that I do their ipe decks. I love doing them, its one of the things I count on in the Spring coming around, its absolutely satisfying to refinish ipe (I can post up some pictures of my stuff if anybody is interested).
I’ve been prepping them with chem then using medium pressure board by board with around 1500 PSI…you really can use quite a bit of pressure on them but that range is sufficient.
My thought lately has been…what if I swapped out my nozzles on my surface cleaner for 40 degree tips and went up in orifice to around size 8 which would give me around 1000-1100 PSI and do a prep on the deck some light SH/surfactant/light sodium hydroxide and brushing then run the surface cleaner on it. Followed by a light oxalic or citric wash/rinse. I want to push myself to get the best possible product for my customers.
I think if I started out trying this I might go size 10-12 orifice and run sub 1,000 PSI, see how that goes first but I really think 1100-1200 would be a sweet spot (possssssibly more but I’d hesitate to try more than 1400-1500ish).
I would never dream of surface cleaning any type of wood other than hardwood/ipe but the more I think about this the more I think it would be a huge time saver/efficiency thing. In and out and out of their hair on prep days. Might even be able to time it strategically and hit areas early in the day that will be in sun so that by the time you’re done with all the decks (and they all always have multiple ipe decks around their house) you can start oiling up the area you cleaned first. Get one of these mythical $2,000 days
ha I dunno about guru but thanks for the compliment! I’ve been doing decks for a decade or a touch longer than a decade now but I’m still learning stuff. I used to do things the hardest way possible with the weakest equipment and the weakest chemicals but thanks to you and this site I’ve really upped my game this year. Things are going much MUCH more efficiently and coming out better too.
I just prepped an ipe deck today actually but I just ordered the nozzles today too from pressuretek so a couple days too late on this one. I’ll get another ipe here sooner or later and I’ll document that process. Asheville people love their ipe lol
Today I did 1% SH + a touch of sodium hydroxide (maybe like 1-2oz per gallon of mix) and small amount of elemonator too just because seeing suds feels good, dwell for like 5 minutes (or less probably, I get antsy) and did white tip @ 1500 PSI. Then I touched a couple stubborn spots up with an extra dash of the mix and I hit them again @ 1500 PSI. Then I did about 2oz oxalic per gallon mix and pump sprayed that on and let it dwell for 5 minutes or less and liberally rinsed off. Came out nice and crystal clean. Tabula rasa for tomorrow apply Armstrong Clark mahogany oil stain. Collect check and talk to them about becoming an annual client (they’re new to me) - that’s the gold I am really after guys. Love a big check but I’m really trying to build that repeat multi year to year business because that’s going to allow me to get where I want to get. I’m pretty hyper-focused on the long term game for my company.
One quick note about the surface cleaner…I’m not sure it would work for some of the ipe jobs. A lot of them seem to be decks without stairs and well elevated off the ground. I drop ropes so I can haul up my hose/gun but I dunno if I want to be hauling a surface cleaner up on a rope! And these aren’t really the kind of houses that I could bring a surface cleaner through to get to the deck. I feel awkward just bringing myself and a couple small tools through these kind of houses. So, I dunno if the SC idea is good in principle but in practice it might not work out too good.
id love to learn more about the IPE we have a customer that i want to wash it for but we have never done it. been washing decks for two years so shouldn’t be hard to do. is it all just pressure?
I’ve been cleaning hardwood decking since 2010, always rinsing with a wand and fan tip. On one job I did 25,000 square feet of ipe at a local resort this springtime. It was on the waterfront and all surrounded by bare silvered cedar sidewall and so any use of SH or sodium hydroxide was out because they’d nail me to a cross if I blemished that. So it was a sodium percarbonate and sodium metasilicate job, followed by pressurized rinsing, one big section at a time.
I tried so, so hard to get dialed in with a surface cleaner for the rinsing end. Different tips, different temps… although I was pushing through 500’ of pressure hose, the decking was downhill from my 8gpm machine and so flow rate out the business end was still pretty good. I spent half a day trying to get good results with the surface cleaner before giving up and just wanding it all with a 40degree fan tip.
Twenty-five thousand square feet.
They were thrilled with the finished appearance (zero and I mean zero rinse marks, stop/start lines, etc) but jeez, if anyone cracks the code and gets actually perfect results when dry with a surface cleaner, please share the tip info here.
mannnnn that’s not the feedback I was hoping for! I’m sure you tried enough combinations that I would try initially and the environment you were in was ideal for experimenting a little. Typically with an ipe deck you’re working on like the equivalent of a 2 million dollar home and the homeowners are there (retired) and I think if I was tinkering around with nozzles and pressure and configuration it would make me look amateur. I’d be more worried about them deciding this is the last time they want me working on their deck because I’m starting/stopping so much figuring out my equipment than boosting efficiency a little.
To be honest SH with a little NaOH (just enough to lightly activate the old oil) and medium light pressure with a 40 degree tip followed by an acid rinse is pretty damn efficient.
25k ipe is INSANE though!!! I’d have experimented with the magic formula too!!! If I get in the right situation I’ll give it a try but I’m always a little paranoid about losing clients off my ipe list year to year. I’m like nervous they’ll sell/move even and the new owners won’t hire me. I’d be hitting them up on the GIS and contacting them or even just door knocking once they’re settled in lol!!!
My tracker thing said I walked 26 miles… back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth..
