S.O.D. aka curious dude,

The RAD cleaner will remove the dirt and contaminants that the ipe will pick up during milling, storage, shipping and building. The brightener will set up the proper pH balance so that the ipe will accept that TWP and hold onto it longer. I would just seal the ends when you seal the whole deck with the TWP. Less problems and from what I hear and also believe to be true using any type of glue on the ends causes more problems than it serves to alleviate.

Son of Dude Person..Way to go with the 116!! if you really want to get at it lay the ipe up with stickers inbetween the layers and run a big fan thru the pile for a couple of days or so,all of this under cover like a garage or something.Anchor seal is a joke, or depending on what side your on its a trageted marketed product.Seal the Ends,,,,,,decking projects have two Ends,,, one is a butt joint, I dont do anything to the butt joints besices making them tight and good looking ipe expands in width not leangth, you could use tightbond111 on the butt joints it sets up brown and sands not bad. The other end is all around the deck, I use endgrain trim usually 1 1/2'' glued/screwed on so the ends are sealed but I dont do it for that it makes a really nice detail with an ogee router bit on it, ipe is going to surface check on the ends if it wants to no matter what a Person does. Use Tightbond 111 all around the deck if ya want,finger tap it in,sand a little, put the finish on. Im pretty sure using the Ken's stuff before you put the twp on would be a good idea. J

Unfortunately the wood did not arrive today. Shipping company screw-up. Their delay is costing me a lot of money. Grrrrrrr

John, how much information can you condense in four lines? Gosh man, I had to read your response many times to get it through my skull.

Ken and John, you guys are awesome. Here is an idea for you: Get together and write a book. I'm sure it'll be a hit. There are gazillion books about Âghow to build a deckÂh. But there are no books about handling different kinds of woods, decking tips, maintaining decks, gazebos, etc! I know you guys donÂft agree on 100% of the issues, but it would better than super cool and advantageous to deck-dummies like myself to see how two top notch experts like you two disagree on few issues and yet agree on so many other ones. IÂfm warning you, if you donÂft do it, IÂfm going to mine your collective experience from this forum and make that book myself. DonÂft worry; you will take most of the royalties ï

Thank you again. I will keep you posted as I progress. Surely I will have to keep admiring the framing until the decking material is here.

Meanwhile, I'm gonna place the order for RAD. Thank you Ken.

Curious, The Son of Due

" ipe expands in width not leangth"

all woods expand far more in tangential and radial than normal.
The problem is that end grain exposes the vascular structure of the wood and wicks far worse than any type of side grain.
I have seen any number of decks with 'coke bottle' shaped planks in almost every wood. Thin in the middle and swollen at each end.
Not sure what the real answer is. For trim on houses i soak the ends in Minwax wood hardener. It fills the wood with resin and stops the water almost completely from entering through the cut ends.
I have not tried it on decking yet, but will get around to it sooner or later.
It may cause uneven staining. Next on the list of experiments.

I talked with a guy with furniture maker background, (sort of like Norm Abram on this old house), and I "think" I recall him saying that he was sealing the ends with wax before install. Said it splits if the ends aren't sealed. He seemed very knowledgeable and his general advice for those who want Ipe is to make sure to get someone with experience with it. The project was at his own place, about 1000 sf over 3 levels w/ pergola, a long trellis (arbor?), furniture, stairs and accessories. (Nuts, I should have asked him the retail cost of that job!)

i've not heard negative info on Anchor Seal before. I get calls every day from people with Ipe decks and may of them have told me that they DID NOT use Anchor Seal and they have checks and cracks at butt joints and that they wish they had used it. I have been selling anchor seal for a few years now and have never had any unhappy customers. The only question I get is "do I have to keep it off the face of the board so it doesn't mess up the finish?"

Here is a link that might be useful: Anchor seal, fasteners, bow wrench

When it come to endseal i do it every time as fast as i can i once left a 5/4x6 out in the sun for one day with no end seal and the amount of end check that happend in the board made it unsable. As per Advantage Trim and Lumber end seal every thing you cut we used Anchor Seal on all of our projects. John i dont understand you dont see any end checking in the material that you use from george at east teak?

Well Folks,now you known everything I do,,Youall use that wax if ya want. J

Moisture content, not neccessarily the sun is what causes wood to warp, check cup or what have you.

After reading a bit here, I'm going to seal the cut ends with TWP. Does anybody know here in Mass can I buy TWP?

Thanks,
Bob