Decks and Porches
Deck maintenance is a major part of my company’s annual workload. Most of the decks that we service are exotic woods, like ipe or mahogany. This is rewarding work, because we get to light up some of the most beautiful wood species on the planet. At the humble other end of the spectrum are the […]
For decades, painters have wrestled with how to best refinish neglected, old pressure treated decks – without call backs. Pressure treated decks are common in the residential repaint segment, because the wood rarely rots, but often seems to take on every form of ugly just shy of rotting. Splitting and checking are typical in pressure […]
Due to the overwhelming response our ipe content has enjoyed on topcoatreview.com, the topic now occupies it’s own chunk of online real estate. If you are a ipe deck owner (at any stage of ownership) in need of professional guidance, we invite you to join us there.
Mark from CT asks: I am going to install an Ipe porch. I live in CT, two thirds of the porch will be open and one third will be under roof but exposed to the open air. I would like your recommendation on the type of oil to use. After the initial application, what prep […]
For a few years now, we have been sharing our tips on ipe deck oil finishing. Rule number 4 discusses the importance of maintaining the ipe deck annually. This picture show’s one of our annual ipe deck oil finish masterpieces, which Todd insists on personally servicing. This one gets inspected and worked as needed in the […]
Exterior Paint Prep with Festool Sanders Today, Todd was gracious enough to let me tag along as the oil finisher on a mahogany deck that he has been carefully cleaning up for a pre-winter maintenance coat in a harsh, lakeside exposure. We chose to use Festool sanders with extraction on this deck, rather than pressure […]
Ok, actually, stripping my deck. I am a paint contractor, but I am also a homeowner. With a never ending “honey do” list. This one has been on the list for…well, a while. What better time to tackle it than when the truck is already loaded up from wood restoration projects all over Chittenden County […]
Can’t say it enough…pressure washing is such a cool service to integrate into a paint contracting company. Today, we brought back to life a rather tired old tongue and groove porch floor in Burlington. We will be restoring this porch over the course of the next week. It’s beginning to feel a lot like […]
**Update: For ipe deck info, visit our new site, ipehelp.com** It comes every year… Exterior wood finishing season sure brings the bittersweet reward of intense immediate gratification after intensive prep in varying conditions. This is an example of a properly maintained ipe deck. Typically, we will apply oil to 6 courses of the deck at a time, […]
In my little corner of the northeast, ipe has built quite a presence as a choice decking product on homes. I’ve lost track of how many miles the l.f. translates to that we have handled in prefinishing and then field maintained.
As these decks age, and their finishes fade, homeowners are often concerned that what they considered to be a pricy investment has gradually started to look more like the silvery gray outdoor furniture.
For some reason, this season I have been asked more questions about ipe finishing by homeowners and colleagues than ever before. To the point that I thought it would be easiest to just create a post.
John Bertotti
Grant Bird
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