If the stains are near the ends of the board, they are probably the result of hastily applied anchorseal. If they aren't at the ends, then it could be a stain from the stickering process. either way, you can sand them out with a random orbital sander, with 50-60 grit sandpaper. the entire deck should be sanded by your contractor. it's a standard procedure on all my deck jobs.

steve
urbanexteriors.biz

Thanks, Brooklyndecks. We do have some small darkened areas near the ends, as you described, but these do not really bother us. These stains I'm trying to describe are irregularly-shaped and look like spills to me (not sure what you mean about stickering, but what we have are like splotches localized in two areas of the flooring. We have a call in with the builders and are waiting to hear what they have to say about it.

It's really hard to say without seeing the deck and it's surroundings as a whole to evaluate. Most commercially available min spirits contain oil. A spill of this type of solvent can evaporate and leave a shadow.

Iris,

if your contractor applied anchorseal, or never cut the original ends off the boards...and the stains are at the ends of the boards...then it's probably caused by anchorseal.

When the ipe gets hot, as it will on sunny days, that anchorseal will melt a little (it's like wax), and it will migrate to the surface of the deck.

when they air dry ipe, they place sticks between the layers. they frequently stain the ipe, depending on which wood species they use for stickering. some of them are really difficult to sand out. stickering stains are usually not at the ends of the boards.

steve

Well, there are some of those anchorseal stains on the ends, and I'm pretty sure now that the big blotches that are random and mid-board are also anchorseal--spilled anchorseal. The deck got wet in the rain yesterday, but those end stains and the mid-board splotches looked water-repellent and were the same un-darkened color. The builder insists that it will weather-out, so we'll just wait and see. Thanks for your help.

I don't know about weathering out. If you are planning on any type of sealer that spot will look terrible. It needs to come off. Don't let him placate you.

Blueiris, what did you end up doing?

One of the crew spilled some Anchorseal today on the screened porch landing as he was laying the Ipe decking. Steve, is sanding my only option? Thank god it's not on the tongue & groove porch floor.

Natal,

I ended up doing absolutely nothing at all. This includes applying any sealer of any kind--we wanted to leave it natural.

It's been almost 1.5 years since I made that last post in mid-November '05. From memory, we had our first snowfall pretty soon after the deck was finished, so I didn't have too much time to do anything. Then around that time we had other renovation projects going on, so I pretty much forgot about the deck stains. If I recall correctly, it was a very wet winter with more snow than usual, and it was also pretty cold so that the snow stayed on the deck for quite some time. Then all of 2006 passed, and I honestly cannot recall when it was that the stains became unnoticeable. I live in the Northeast, so the deck has seen it all--rain, sun, heat, and snow.

I was just thinking a few days ago that the deck was looking nice these days (I happen to prefer the mellow, faded-out look--for the record, it's not totally gray or silver yet, it's a faint and weathered version of its original color). Anyway, I didn't notice the stains anymore, but then again, I wasn't looking for them.

Quite possibly, the stains have indeed weathered-out, just as my builder said they would. I'm pretty sure he knew that we weren't going to seal the deck, so maybe that's why he told me to let it be.

If you're planning to seal your deck, I'd listen to Pressurepros's post above, and make the builder address it. For what it's worth, someone on this board emailed me about this issue way back then, and the suggestion was to try scrubbing it out with Dawn dishwashing liquid. I don't remember the particulars of whether it should be done in solution or straight, because winter caught up to me before I could act on the suggestion. And it turns out that the stains on my deck didn't end up being a problem at all. But at any rate, I'd ask your builder about it. Good luck.

Sometimes it's easier to replace the board than sand off an anchorseal spill. Those boys need to put their anchorseal on a piece of cardboard or something.

Al

Blueiris, the builder is even less knowledgeable about the product than we are. It was our request to use Ipe in the first place. It's been a learning process for all of us. We want to eventually seal the porch floor, landing, and stairs, but it probably won't happen until the fall. We're getting ready to hit summer with constant high temps and humidity until October. Guess I'll take a wait & see approach to the spill and see how it looks come this fall.