[RPetry]

Wood restoration is a fun business. After 8 yrs. doing this, you can still learn a lot and get thrown for a loop on occasion.

Stopped by this afternoon to look at a call on redoing a small ipe' deck. Got all the info previously on the phone, the customers were not at home today.

Take a look at the pics. This stain has been on this ipe' deck for a little over 2 years. 2 years!. I have never seen an oil based stain last half this long and look as good as the attached pictures.

Part of the story is that the customer let the wood just weather after the builder threw on some Messmer's after construction. The Messmer's was gone in 3 months. The customer let it weather for close to 14 months before cleaning and applying a waterbased stain.

The stain is Wolman's EHT. It is water based, I called Zinsser on Friday to confirm.

Shocking, but interesting. If they take the bid, they want the same stain. Hard to change, as we have never deviated from oils, but I will comply. Should be interesting to see how it looks fully stripped, sanded, and restained.

Stripping should be fairly easy. Last pic is ACR's 760 NaOH at 8 oz./gal., and a dwell time of 10 minutes. A quick sanding, and a single china bristle app. of a Wolman water based stain. Never thought in a decade or two of years....