Trouble Stripping with HD-80

[GTRider245]

Stripped this deck yesterday. What I thought was one coat of semi transparent stain turned out to be 2 coats of semi transparent stain with spots of solid under the last coat of semi transparent. Stripped 3 times all together and the sports of solid would not come up. Supposed to be sealing Monday but I would really like to get these last spots of old stain up before. You can see it on the floor and under the hand rails.

[Beth n Rod]

Should have been an easy strip.
My questions are:
How strong did you mix the HD-80?
How long did you let it dwell before rinsing?
Did you neutralize?
How long did you let the neutralizer dwell before rinsing?

Beth

[GTRider245]

I mixed the HD-80 a 8 oz. per gallon. Dwelled 30 minutes each time. I did not nuetralize Friday, but plan to before I seal. Brought a tub of both HD-80 and Citralic with me to the job, but ran out of daylight after all the extra time stripping.

[Beth n Rod]

Next time, increase the dwell time to 45 minutes, keep it wet and do not wash until you see the entire deck go black.
Each time you wash and reapply you are diluting your solution. If it dries before the color change, re-apply.

Rod!~

[GTRider245]

Originally Posted by Beth n Rod

Next time, increase the dwell time to 45 minutes, keep it wet and do not wash until you see the entire deck go black.
Each time you wash and reapply you are diluting your solution. If it dries before the color change, re-apply.

Rod!~

Thanks for the tips. Will doing it this way strip all coats at once or will I still have to go coat by coat?

[GTRider245]

Went back yesterday and restripped this deck. There were some spots of semi that came off, but the solid under the rails and on the floor did not budge. Used HD-80 again, kept it wet and dwelled for 45 min- hour. Looks like I will end up just sealing over it. I dont know what else to do at this point.

[Tracy Handl]

The solid stain may be a water based product. In that case, a sodium hydroxide based product usually won't remove that. It isn't designed for that. Shear strength may take off water based products, but that's not really what a SH based cleaner is for. Lightly sand your problem areas with 80 grit sand paper and those areas should be fine. Do that prior to sealing. If using an oil based sealer, if it's a good penetrator, you may actually be able to sand if off after sealing as the sealer will travel under the solid stain in the fibers and loosen the old sealer. I've seen this happen many times with the sealer we carry. I would not seal over those spots without doing something to eliminate them if sealing with a semi-transparent. They will stand out.

[Beth n Rod]

Originally Posted by GTRider245

Went back yesterday and restripped this deck. There were some spots of semi that came off, but the solid under the rails and on the floor did not budge. Used HD-80 again, kept it wet and dwelled for 45 min- hour. Looks like I will end up just sealing over it. I dont know what else to do at this point.

Might be an acrylic.
Boost the HD-80, reapply to the remaining areas, wash, and neutralize. The alternative is sanding.

Beth

[GTRider245]

Went back today to seal after nuetralizing on Monday. Most of it came out great, homeowner was more than understanding that I got all of the old product off that I could. They were more than pleased with the end result. I will get pics tomorrow.

[drush]

Like Beth has said before, always manage your homeowners expectations & explain to them that you can probably remove 90-95% of any strip job. Then when you get more than that, they are more than happy. I just finished a tough strip of some Cabotts solid using HD-80 mixed at 12 oz. & added some lo-tox to boost, kept a wet dwell for an hour, aggitated with a stiff bristle brush & the stuff literally melted off... A bit of sanding, some neutralizer & it was ready for some semi-stain... Now if I could just figure out how to capitalize on "Cabott Ultra"...

[MMI Enterprises]

David, Nice to see ya posting up a little...it's been awhile.

Kevin, If ya search the forum for some of David's experiences with solids much can be learnt.

..my opinion on the solid acrylics is that ya have to have enough chem heat and penetration to break on through to melt or delaminate it. Is real hard to totally emulsify the exterior acrylics. Such is all about boosting with products that have been somewhat unfamiliar to the woodcare industry.

[RPetry]

Originally Posted by MMI Enterprises

David, Nice to see ya posting up a little...it's been awhile.

Kevin, If ya search the forum for some of David's experiences with solids much can be learnt.

..my opinion on the solid acrylics is that ya have to have enough chem heat and penetration to break on through to melt or delaminate it. Is real hard to totally emulsify the exterior acrylics. Such is all about boosting with products that have been somewhat unfamiliar to the woodcare industry.

Good post.