Abused and neglected WRC deck

[RPetry]

Some customers do not have a clue to what they own. Looked at this job a while ago, and was appalled at the condition of this deck. The wood is knotty western red cedar. Have not figured out the value of this wood but do know that new WRC here runs ~$3 a linear foot for 5/4 x 6 deck boards.

Do the math and this deck is worth a ton of money today. Some schmuck put down a "Behr's" quality semi oil, and the owners followed up that mistake by applying an water base clear acrylic over top of it without stripping. What a mess. Shameful to abuse such nice wood.

Stripped with ACR 760, ACR 633ADD, and ACR's "Booster" surfactant. A bit of sanding was needed on the spindles and spots on the floor.

Stained with Ready Seal light brown, IMO a terrific color for knotty WRC.

[Beth n Rod]

Beautiful work, as usual!
Beth

[plainpainter]

I thought 633ADD was their booster surfactant?

[RPetry]

Originally Posted by plainpainter

I thought 633ADD was their booster surfactant?

Daniel,

You are correct, the 633ADD is their "strengthener" or commonly called "booster" for NaOH. It makes the mix stronger.

ACR also carries a liquid additive with the name "Booster". It is actually a foamer agent, that thickens the NaOH mix and keeps the mix wet longer. Great for vertical wood and difficult strips.

[billrt]

Nice work . Clean neat , now has a great look.
Bill
Regan and Son Power Washing

[MudDuck]

That WRC makes one heck of a deck. WOW....

[Beth n Rod]

Originally Posted by plainpainter

I thought 633ADD was their booster surfactant?

We just boosted HD-80 with it and stripped multiple coats (4 or 5) of solid brown, very intact paint from cedar shingles on a house. Ran off like melting chocolate. BUT - took multiple applications of stripper to do it.

Beth

[RPetry]

Originally Posted by Beth n Rod

We just boosted HD-80 with it and stripped multiple coats (4 or 5) of solid brown, very intact paint from cedar shingles on a house. Ran off like melting chocolate. BUT - took multiple applications of stripper to do it.

Beth

Beth,

We use ACR 760 NaOH as opposed to HD-80, but the results are similar. Along with ACR 633ADD "strengthener" at 8 oz. a gal., the mix will remove a single layer of acrylic or two of a solid oil stain in one pass. The ACR "Booster" foamer when added really helps on vertical wood and/or keeping the mix wet and working on hot, sunny days.

[Kirk]

Glad this came up. I have what is a pretty bad acrylic strip coming up on a pretty large deck. When I tested it W F-18 (pretty strong 8-10 oz/gal ratio) it moved but left small spots of stain underneath. This was after 15 min dwell using a scrub brush. I think I COULD do this with just the f-18 but I want to try the "Booster" to make life easer. I've kinda been dreading doing this strip. How destructive is this going to be on cedar? How many sq. ft in one bottle of ACR 633ADD? Thanks
Kirk

[RPetry]

Kirk,

ACR Products unfortunately named their products where it gets confusing. ACR Booster is actually a foaming agent. When added to an NaOH stripper, it thickens it somewhat and keeps the stripper wet longer.

Their 633ADD is the additive that actually makes the NaOH stripper stronger, or "boosts" the mix. On this job, we used both in conjunction with ACR 760 NaOH stripper, which is very similar to Bob's F-18.

On this job, we used 8 oz. / gal. of all three products mixed together. Let dwell for 15 - 20 minutes and pressure wash rinsed. Only one stripping on this job removed most of the old acrylic top coat and oil stain underneath. The floor did not "fir" up but there were maybe 10 or so spots that needed spot sanding to remove patches of old acrylic stain.

The vertical balustrade wood took more prep work. It does and did "fir" to a much greater degree than the deck floor, which is usual for cedar. In this case we quickly sanded the spindles/fascia with random orbital sanders, and used a Makita with 3M defelting pads on the 2 inside surfaces of the spindles.

Hope this helps.