Karen, You will not harm ipe by not staining it. You may get a bit more checking of the wood, but it won't be significant. The Atlantic City boardwalk and many park benches in NYC are unstained ipe and they have been holding up in some cases for decades. If you want to get rid of the grey color then a percarbonate cleaner sold by Woodrich, EFC-38 would work well as it has some additional ingredients in it that act as a mild stripper. It is the exact same product as RAD, which is no longer for sale as far as I know. You would have to apply it, let it dwell 20 minutes, and brush it with a deck brush, and then rinse. Depending on how it looks you may not need to use the brightener, whose primary purpose is to neutralize the high ph of the percarbonate cleaner prior to staining. If you want to maintain the grey color of unstained ipe they you mostly want to get rid of any mold, mildew, and dirt. For this you could either use a straight percarbonate cleaner, which you can buy directly for very little from the Chemistry Store (chemistrystore.com) or use a mild bleach and water solution ( 1 part bleach 8 parts water) with a bit of dish detergent mixed in. Same method as percarbonate cleaner, let it dwell, brush it lightly, and rinse. By the way, the first time a stain is used on Ipe it typically only lasts a few months. After that you can usually get close to a year before you need re-staining. I use Cabot's ATO and now after re-staining yearly for 3 years have enough residual stain left on the deck that I don't need to re-stain it this year. The color has faded only a little and looks quite uniform in tone. The stain is duller in appearance though from when it was stained last May but looks presentable. All I did this season was to mop on the mild bleach/soap treatment. Hope this helps, Marty

BY THE WAY.... shocking comment.. but beware of stainless steel in some situations. If anyone out there is building a structure, porch, arbor, awning or such... please consider the galvanic chart. Stainless steel is made up of a few substances and needs oxygen to form it's protective film. Meaning... if you are building by a pool or clean your structure with a chlorinated cleaner.. it will react with the stainless steel.. pitting and corroding. A few structures have collapsed killing people because of this reaction. Stainless steel can be passive and active at the same time.. The top part gets air, the bottom doesn't.. add chlorine, or chlorinated vapor..(heat rushes it).. and it begins the corrosion process. So do your homework if you're using stainless with parts that hold things up... and watch how you clean them... remember chlorine, chlorine cleaners don't like stainless steel.

Joe had a good idea, drive some tapered shims between the boards until they are close to the right place, screw the decking down. This might take several shims,everything is going to want to move as you drive them in,just go slow, watch how the movement goes. You could screw down the few deck boards that are holding to give you something to shim against. Has anyone mentioned its a bad idea to use the clips??? John

First I'd like to thank everyone for the info on this site. Second this is an update to my Ipe deck project. I finished the back deck, except for the step, and am working on the front deck now (pics of that someday). Check the link below to see my photos. Weedy, how exactly do you post the photos directly in this message? I don't see any obvious way to do it. I guess you have to write some (fairly simple) html? This project is taking me forever, being a weekend warrior, having 3 young kids, and 2 unfinished bathrooms inside the house. So the staining will have to wait until next year. Should be ok, right? So right now I am having some concerns with the quality of the Ipe I got. Seems ok, but who knows, this is the one-and-only Ipe deck I have ever built. Some pieces are real dark, some are real light. Some are really really hard (dark boards), some are softer (light boards). Some are clear, some have a tiger-like grain to them. Some seem a bit rough when you run your hand up one way, then smooth if you rub the other way. 3 or 4 boards have lots and lots of checks, almost the whole 15 foot length of board. Most of the boards have no checks. I have one board that looks like it will destroy your foot if you walk on it. I think I'll have to replace that board, I don't know how I did not notice it, when I put that board down. It looks like the grain is sort of lifted, and could cause nasty splinters in your foot (See pictures 10 and 11). 3 or 4 few boards seem fine, but have knots in them (pics 13 and 15). Will these spots worsen over time? I bought 1725 linear feet of boards. There are probably six 15-footers that I probably should toss in the dumpster. Maybe six others that are usable but not the greatest. Not really sure about the rest, if it is so-so, good, great, top quality or not. Of course I was assured that the Ipe was top quality, all heart wood clear Ipe, blah blah blah. Would anyone expert here want me to mail them some scrap cuts to examine? Or even better, stop by and look at my deck? Just kidding… The railings. I chickened out on the Ipe railings. No way I get the project done this year. So I did the shiny PVC rail, and put an Ipe rail on top of it. I like it, I think the front deck I will do the same. The pics in that gallery are hi-res, so you can view full screen, or better yet download them and zoom in real close to see the detail. Any info appreciated, Jim. Here is a link that might be useful: Ipe deck gallery