I have inherited a ver large ipe deck. The builder applied some type of oil by hand that look fabulous. He fell off the face of the earth, so I don't know what he used. I did some research and 2 years ago had the deck cleaned and had penofin put on. It looked great, but seemed to have problems in a few areas where it may have been put on too thick and it was sticky. I now know that it shouldn't have been applied in full sun and 90 degree heat. It should have been re-coated last year, or before, but wasn't. Now it is my "problem" and it needs attention. It is very dirty almost black. I thought it was mold but it comes off with bleach and a power washer on the railings. The floor boards are a different story, they look horrible. When I do get a clean board it looks great. I've use TSP and a deck brush and power washer on low. It is major effort to get a board clean. I have 2 cans of penofin left...how should I clean it and should I use the penofin again? The deck gets full sun (gets very hot) and I'm in Maryland. I will be doing all of the work myself...so please be specific with advice, and gentle. Thanks!

Deck guy finally came and met with us this morning. He sounds like he wants to fix the lower deck, but it isn't clear that he knows what to do. We've got him to see that he needs to raise the deck up off the ground, so there is some room for cross-ventilation. (As an aside, this deck gets full sun exposure, which is great for us but not so great for any wood sitting there).... We suggested, when he wasn't really coming up with anything, raising the deck up the equivalent of one step, and then adding that step back by the pool, and also pulling the deck back away from the pool. So there are still problems: 1. he says he doesn't want to go with face fasteners/IPE plug combination, because it won't let the wood move - but then he says he wants to fasten the IPE by running a bead of PL400 (some kind of glue??) and then just use a trim gun to kind of keep the wood in place while the glue is drying??? Somehow, I just don't get why this would be better than face fastening... 2. he did at one point mention something that sounded like John's floor vents - that he had used before somewhere else - which begs the question of why in the world he didn't put those vents in this framing that he had sitting right on the ground..... aaggghhhhhh 3. if we go with step down to the pool, then is there some kind of vent we can put in the facing that goes from the horizontal part of the step to the 'ground', to get ventilation that direction? sorry I don't know the technical terms for the parts of the step.... 4. since we are doing this over, we should get the ventilation right - have cross-ventilation, shouldn't we? we had to push him for that. and shouldn't we go with face fastening/IPE plugs rather than gluing??? 5. he wants to go with 1x4 instead of 1x6 boards, but I said that wouldn't decrease any cupping, but just make it harder to see any cupping... (we are talking about new wood as we can't reuse anything down there now.... zapped by the combination of no cross-ventilation, hot sun and EBTY clips not holding.... Comments are welcome. He's coming back to me on Wednesday with his proposal for what he wants to do.... I would like to know what we should tell him is okay and what is not.... Sure wish one of you guys were closer to Fairfield County, CT.... Then I could really find out exactly what we should do....

Collect all the wood? Why? Are you going to scrap the entire project? The boards that are unusable should be swapped out for usable ones. If you don't know how to use bowed boards, I recommend hiring someone. As you are building the deck, the boards that can't be made straight get set aside and returned. If you wait too long before getting started, it's going to be hard to argue your case that the boards arrived crooked if you let them sit around the jobsite for half a season. Start working right away. Do not sit on the wood. Install a couple of straight boards and then clamp one of the bent ones in place at one end and see if you can take the bow out with the tool you bought for that purpose (bow wrench). If the board straightens, screw it down and keep going. If it is beyond straightening, set it aside. Call the supplier back once you have all the rejects sorted and stacked, and your project is 90% complete. They will gladly oblige. If you call them up at this point complaining you are just going to irritate them...and make it more difficult on you.

Ken mon man!!! are you a chemist or did you stay at a holiday inn express last night!! LOL...(just some kind ribbin)...being a chemist and having 4+ years of pulp and paper science under my belt just wanted to clarify the acetone will indeed dissolve not emulsify the natural wood resins which are lipophilic (fat loving) extractives composed mainly of fatty acids, resin acids, sterols, steryl esters and triglycerides. So most of the surface resins will be completely removed with your rag,towel, or mop and what remains on the surface (acetone and residual resin) will have the acetone evaporate well before you get back to that area to coat with TWP or the like....thus the resins will return to their initial solid or semi-solid state....I think I know what you were trying to say but a little off in the actual chemistry...The other thing that will happen is that if a copious amount of acetone is used the resins will be solublized and penetrate further into the wood....effectively allowing more exposed "raw" wood for the coating to bind to. Acetone WILL dry out the wood as it is miscible(mixes) with water and will allow water to evaporate (azeotrope) at a lower temperature...it is often used in wood preservation where the wood is soaked 3+ times in acetone to remove ALL water and then dipped in a acetone/rosin mix.....then the acetone evaporates and leaves a rosin caoting protecting the wood.... Acetone is also frequently used in the pulp and paper mills to extract these types of wood resins to improve the strength of the paper products we use... so I don't think it matters about sealing immediately after acetone wash....but it may help to do the acetone rinse last to help with the drying process you require after the RAD treatment (1-2 day of warm/hot weather to get back to 12%?? moisture)...the acetones removal of water will be immediate and may speed the drying process as well as removing any residual oxalic acid