Why are you sanding your new deck?

I've built at least 50 Ipe decks and never sanded one. Spot sanding, sure, but the whole deck?

Even when we go back to seal a Ipe deck down the road we don't sand the whole deck.

John completly agrees with the Dooer.

well, I guess I'm the odd man out. My Ipe comes with sticker stains, scratches, anchorseal stains, etc...and if I plug, then I have to sand those too. I sand every deck that I do before I seal. My assistant and I go at it, 3 rows at a time, with 2 rigid ROS, with 40 or 50 grit paper. The ipe looks beautiful when we're done.
Lowes sell the 50 grit (black disks) in a 10 pack, and the 40 grit (red paper) in a 50 pack. You'll probably just need a 10 pack. You can do it in a few hours.

steve

Mark,

My decks are smaller, urban sized decks. Still, If I built bigger Ipe decks, they'd get sanded, as they should be. if you spot sand, you'll see it in the finish.

Because you have bad knees and an aching back, you skip the sanding phase. That's your decision. Maybe MrmichaelJmoore has good knees, or bad knees...but wants his deck to be special. I think he should get the best results for his time and $.

Mike...sand your deck.

BTW...I'm 57, bad knees and an aching back

steve

Hey steve...would you also sand a deck made out of garapa? I got a few sample boards to try out some TWP on, and there were banding marks causing a striped look. Would sanding be the only way to make it look even? Would sanding also help the boards to look more similar, as some are darker? Thanks! Decking goes up in 2 weeks.

Well, here's where I'm at the sanding issue....

I am planning on using Penofin Stain for Hardwoods. They make a product called "1st step prep." It's suppose to prep the hardwoods by "opening up the pores of the wood" to accept the Penofin stain.

I contacted Penofin and the tech said it wasn't necessary to sand the IPE because the "1st step prep" would accomplish the same thing......that is open up the pores of the wood, clean off any pencil marks, chalk lines, water stains, or any other stains.

But, with that being said, I think I am still leaning towards a quick once over with the ROS.

2 reasons why:

1. I wasn't able to pick out the decking boards.....some of them have scratches, scuff marks, and other marks that I would like to remove.
2. When I predrilled the holes for the Headcote screws, I took a piece of 100 grit paper and smnoothed the pilot hole removing the burrs created by the drill bit. I am a little afraid that the stain may come out uneven because of all the spot sanding across the screw holes.

So......
I think I may give the the Ridgid ROS its maiden voyage in this weekend.
Then, weather permitting, I'll do the "1st step prep" cleaner, then let dry and then apply the Penofin stain.

If you are interested, Penofin "1st step prep" msds label:
http://www.penofin.com/pdf/msds-firststepprep.pdf

One note: The Penofin tech did warn me that the Penofin stain will probably last only about 6 months. Apparently, it takes a few treatments of the Penofin to get some longevity out of it. She said all I need to do in the spring is clean the deck with a mild detergent, let dry, then reapply Penofin.

I don't sand any of my ipe decks. If the boards aren't nearly perfect I have AWDS run them thru their big industrial sander. It looks like a planer with a self-feeder, the boards look super when they come out. Why do it the hard way, ha.

Al

If I do have some spot sanding I use 50 grit on a palm sander.

On larger projects where the deck may get scratched a bit during the construction process, I rent a vibratory floor sander (NOT a belt floor sander). In fact, I am thinking of buying one.

One guy can sand a 1000 sf deck in less than 2 hours.

Jeff
www.thedeckpros.com

I'm of "thedeckpro's" opinion...

A 12" x 18" vibrating-plate sander can bring many a deck back to life again (walking area) in a short time.

I don't have knowledge of the "newer" woods mentioned here, but I'm pretty happy how my 11 yr-old Redwood deck looks! Sanded it 3 yrs ago. It's never in the shade. After 11 yrs. of some -30 winters, & a few 100 degree days every summer...I'm not complaining!!!
* Had to spend an hour sanding the steps again this year...darn Golden-Retreiver...;-) !!
* Applied my fave, Sikkens SRD#089 Redwood.
* If I had to choose ONE "prep" regimen...I'd haul out the sanders' every time.
* To ME, it's a lot faster than waiting DAYS for wood to dry properly.
* Sanding is the BEST way to EVENLY open-up wood fibers, and get rid of degraded material that won't hold stain anyway (for long!).

Faron

Well....I decided to go ahead and sand the entire deck with my Ridgid ROS.
I used 50 Grit paper. I was gonna use 40 grit but I couldn't find it in the velcro discs, only stick-on.

The sanding took about 3 hours or so. All in all, it was real easy. Just hold onto the sander and steer it in the right direction.

I was a little surprised though.....the sander didn't remove all of the junk on the deck surface as I was hoping. It did a good job on the water stains....But
The sander didn't remove all the pencil marks (I had a lot).....and it essentially just smoothed out the scratches...meaning you could still see the scratches...

Hopefully the Penofin cleaner will get the pencil marks...

But the deck looks good overall. I am still glad I did the sanding....
Tomorrow, we will build the stairs and do the stair railing.
Then, at the end of the day, I will use the Penofin "1st step prep" cleaner.

Hopefully, Sunday afternoon or Monday morning, after sufficient dry time, I will apply the Penofin stain.

Pictures of Before, halfway and complete are below.

The sanding marks in the before picture are where I used 100 grit paper and sanded the Anchorseal stains by hand. It worked better on the stains than the ROS.

Hey Michael-enjoyed looking at your pics. I am also at the sanding phase after screwing down most of the deck this weekend. I used a ROS with 60 grit on the stair risers and treads and plan on sanding the deck a little at a time throughout the week. My wood is garapa, so it is considerably lighter. Plan to use Woodzotic and will add some black pigmentation to darken it a bit. Do you know if there is a trick to using the ROS in terms of making it look even after the stain is applied?

No tricks found here.....I just ran the sander across the decking boards....

I sanded the deck 2 weeks ago, then this Saturday morning I used Penofin's 1st Step Prep for Hardwoods....
then I stained it with Penofin for Hardwoods on Sunday afternoon.

The 1st Step Prep didn't seem to do anything.....a waste of money in my opinion. the deck looked the same after the cleaner....

But the Penofin was easy to apply and it came out looking great. No lap marks and the coverage was even.
I will post pictures this week.

Hope this helps....

That came out really nice. I just had a deck built with ipe this spring and I am noticing some spotty black marks showing up on the deck. It looks like mold. It was sealed with Cabots Australian timber oil. Any suggestions on how to clean the marks off other than sanding them. I don't want to damage the wood although I know ipe is pretty tough. In other words I don't want to replace the black spots with some other color spot.

Greetings.. I'm trying to remove the old CWFlood UV from my deck with a powerwasher. It's coming off but it's leaving "laps". Is there any way to remove them besides going over and over and over each board again? thanks

use a stripper followed by a brightner. http://www.woodrich-brand.com/ sells good products.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ipe information

I'm about to rent a large upright sander to sand an 800sq.ft. IPE deck that was stained a few years ago. Should I rent a vibrating sander or a drum sander? What is a RIDGID ROS? Help!

first time i put IPE down, i sanded it to remove marks.sanding will make it harder for stain to sink in.
now this is my 4th year and NO SANDING .
i use pressure washer and after getting brightner off i can really clean wood bright.
but you have to be careful on lap marks with washer,I AM GOOD AT IT AND I DONT GET ANY.

leaving wood unsanded the stain will go in better.
if your lambswool catches on boards ,YOU NEED TO SAND.,if not,I WOULD NOT SAND IT.

Last week painters accidently applied Minwax interior stain to our IPE deck. Two years ago, when it was new, we used Cabot's Australian Timber Oil and it came out beautifully. Now the Minwax is a very opaque wine color, shiny and uneven in places. How best to remove this and restore the natural color and grain of the wood?

This is an older Ipe deck never sanded never stained. A floor sander is a must here as this this is easily 1500sqft or bigger. I cleaned it with 3oz/gal sodium hydroxide followed with oxalic. Question is: what grit on the sander?

How is it attached?

Why not just use a pencil eraser for pencil marks?

So I just finished sanding my 700sqft deck....I made the foolish mistake of applying a finish. Half went mostly gray and the other half retained the finish over a 2 year period. 4x24" belt sander and 60 grit paper did the trick in ~ 8 hours of work. I debated a floor sander and I'm glad I went with the belt. You really want to sand a board at a time as unless its perfectly flat your going to have alot of spot work to do. 80 grit works great where the finish is mostly gone......but 60 clogs less and goes right through the thick finish parts.

We used to use Penofin and have moved away from that product. We now use Messmer and it lasts a lot longer. They do have a deck cleaner and brightener that can be used every 6 months, but the stain is only used once a year.

Your deck looks nice! Did you get a final picture of the deck after the stain was applied? I couldn’t tell from the pictures above if that was complete sanding or complete project.

Cheers!

We just installed the deck and I hate to see the lighter spots where the guys sanded the plugs. They say the spots will disappear but I doubt it… what should we do? Thank you!