anyone ever tried a surface cleaner on a wood deck?

[Lee_Henderson]

I turned the throttle down on my rig @ a buddys house on an old deck drag got the following results. (deck is going to be replaced) I usedi hot water ONLY. No chem. I have a couple gal off Zepp fence & deck wash, but havent tried it yet. I've got 2300 sq ft of deck & dock scheduled for first thing sat morning. Any advice?

[Michael DeRose]

I have some advice dont use a surface cleaner on any deck.

[schrec]

ditto

[dieseldad97]

Ditto x2, and no hot temps.

[Johnson]

I agree.
Just saw a guy on FB do the same thing. Put pics up bragging about it.

[Christopher]

Using a surface cleaner on a deck is an opportunity to not only do damage to the wood but there is a huge opportunity to damage your surface cleaner if you are not careful.

Nobody uses surface cleaners to restore wood, they take the time, use the right chemicals, lower pressure and do the boards one by one. It takes time to do wood restoration, this is something that is not rushed if you want to do quality work.

There are many other reasons that the pro's here and on the other sites don't use surface cleaners on decks.

[apsurfacesolutions]

Ditto

[Pressurized]

I done it once on a buddies deck that was going to get replaced (boards were rotted) not recommended due to it will stripe the crap out of the wood if you dont keep moving and I was using 1503 nozzels with engine idled down

[Kiloman]

sodium precarb,with 2 oz sodium hydroxide with a touch of bleach if you have mold throw the zep stuff in the garbage and use what the pros use.

[Lee_Henderson]

Well that deck is getting replaced. So just to see what happend we tryed it out. Not having done wood before i'm scrambling the boards to cram for this weekend. Thanks Hal. It's a big lake house job.

[Christopher]

Careful how you speak on these boards, families read them and you can get penalized by cussing here. I will not warn you again.

We are trying to give you advice but you obviously don't want to take advice from any pro, anyone or people that have the knowledge and experience from this site or any other site you have made people angry at so I would tread lightly if I were you.

I was giving you some good advice but like the other board, you just want to hear what you want to hear, not reality or the truth. We don't lie here and sugarcoat things, we are going to tell you how it is so it will save you time, money and aggravation.

I will make your post a little bit more family friendly, keep the cussing down or you will get penalized, children and families visit here like I said.

[bigchaz]

I thought Chris's reply was remarkably professional and contained a lot of great information. He didn't say anything directed toward you at all. You got your answer about using a surface cleaner, but clearly you didn't like the answer. I'm going to assume you underbid this project, without knowing how to do it, and at the last minute you are scrambling to find out how to save your tail. I haven't been around forever either but before I bid somethign and schedule it, I usually have a good idea on how I'm going to clean it. Hard to set a price when you don't know your methods or costs??? Clearly you are intent on using the surface cleaner so have fun with that. And hot water is a terrible idea on unsealed wood.

[Johnson]

sodium precarb,with 2 oz sodium hydroxide with a touch of bleach if you have mold throw the zep stuff in the garbage and use what the pros use.

Hey Hal, the last time I mixed Percarb and bleach it looked like a chemistry project gone bad lol. Does the hydroxide neutralize the 2?

[Kiloman]

No there all bases only acids will neutralize them like ox after the cleaning the deck.

[bigchaz]

Don't mix bleach and percarb, both are oxidizers and will foam like crazy

[Pressurized]

Haha, I seen a "Pro Company" cleaning a wooden fence last week. Wood looked like new, so I went to look at it up close a few days ago and looks like they used hot water and about 3k psi out of a 15 degree nozzle.... Wood was tore up and furred really bad

[Lee_Henderson]

No im not going to use the surface cleaner. And i apriciate the advice of everyone one here. But Personaly i can do without any advice from the gentlman from Corpus Christie. He and i are starting to devlop a history, and a bad one. Fyi this deck is already been treated. Customer will retreat it after i am done.i didnt know if it was safe to usd a surface cleaner. Was the reason i asked. But i got an answer, an intelligent, professional answer and i thank you all for that. To avoid any further fueding witht this guy i'll just move along. Thanks guys.

[Scott Stone]

I looked at Chris' post, and saw no reason to be offended. I don't know wood, I don't care about wood, and I have never done wood, though I think I stepped on a deck one time. I am sorry if you were offended, but I think that Chris was trying to let you know what others in the industry, many who have been doing this very thing for a very long time, do to clean decks.

[Christopher]

I did not think I wrote anything that would offend anyone, especially to the point where they had to cuss at me and call me names. Wow.

I just offered advice to try to help him from making mistakes that would cost him time, money and some aggravation.

Just like I try to help others from making mistakes, I was only trying to help this person, wow, see what I get for trying to help?

There is a lot more to doing wood restoration than just pressure washing, that is why the wood section of this bbs has some great info there on what to do, what chemicals to use, precautions, etc..... just trying to help this person. Concrete on the other hand, not as much to be careful about, mostly not too much pressure and don't use muriatic like some want to use at the suggestion of people that don't give out all the details and then permanent damage happens.

As for this "history", basically the same thing over at FWA, offered advice, he did not like what he heard, again and wanted to call me names like here, again. Some people don't like advice even though they ask for it. O Well. We try to help, not tell them what they want to hear or sugarcoat things. We tell it like it is, even if they don't like the truth or what they hear, it saves them from embarrassment, wasting time and money and reduces aggravation.

O Well.

[Johnson]

Don't mix bleach and percarb, both are oxidizers and will foam like crazy

That was my experience with it Charlie.