Commercial Ipe Deck Refinishing Project in Los Angeles County

Okay, guys. So, this is the bocce ball court. And you’ve got this beautiful ipe bench. It’s really nice. It’s oxidized. It’s a little wet, but we’re going to fix that.

All right. So, we start off with a mild power wash to remove surface dirt and contaminants. Contrary to popular belief, power washing is a useful tool. It’s not a refinishing tool. It’s a washing tool. So, we want to wash off surface dirt and contaminants first because if we straight sand it, you’re going to get substandard results, and we just don’t want to grind dirt into the wood.

All right, guys. So, we’ve cleaned this area. Look at the big difference here. You still see food stains. What a difference here. It’s clean, but as you can see, it’s still gray and oxidized. It’s still dirty. It’s still not natural. And the blow-and-go finishing pro, that evil devil, wants to come in and just power wash and slap some finish on here, get a color change, and call it a day.

And that’s not the right way to do it, cuz you have this gray oxidized layer that needs to be removed. And the sanding is the hard part. Again, that’s what that evil devil wants to skip. He wants to come out, take your money, and call it a day. Or the less skilled handyman type. Hey, I can do it. I can do it. You know, power wash this thing and slap some oil or some cheap water-based coating on here. That’s not the right way to do it. Sanding is the next step. We’ll show you how to do that.

I do want to point out a couple things here. Dark board, dark board, two dark boards, dark, light, light boards here. This is natural color variance. Cleaning Teak Master, the lumber yard, the contractor, you know, even the blow-and-go finishing pro, he didn’t cause the color variance. Mother nature did.

And that’s the beauty of having a wood deck is you’ve got color variance. And sometimes it’s dramatic. Sometimes you’ve got super super dark boards. And it may not be exactly what you want. But unless you’re out there examining every single board inch by inch, lining them up and making sure there’s zero color variance, that is it’s not going to happen. You’re not going to get perfectly unnatural deck like it’s some cheap laminate floor that you’re putting in your bathroom or something. This is beautiful expensive ipe wood. Really nice. Deserves to be cared for in the proper manner. We’ll go ahead and show you the next step which is sanding.

The next step is sanding. We use small orbital sanders to just take off that microscopic layer of dead oxidized wood. Trust me, guys, these boards are at different heights. Sometimes they’re cupped. Uh, the orbital sander is the easiest way just to knock off that microscopic layer of dead oxidized wood.

And one disclaimer here, sanding is the most important step. It’s the one that the blow-and-go finishing pro handyman people that want to cheat and steal your money, these evildoers, they want to come in and skip this step. But you’re going to get subpar results. You’re going to still have that layer of microscopic dead oxidized wood. It needs to come off. It has to be sanded. It’s going to give you optimal results.

After we sand, we clean the deck to remove dust from the grain. And then we brighten. Brightening is basically like wood bleach. So, it’s essential because it’s going to brighten and promote color and eliminates contaminants like black mold, mildew, and algae. It’s an absolute necessary step. You want to apply the brightener while the wood is wet so it distributes evenly. Let it sit for a period of time. Don’t let it dry. Um, and then just hose it off. You can use a mild power washer like what we’re doing or just simply hose it off.

Uh, we thought it would be great to just power wash this. So, we just remove the any dust from the grain and underneath that could be embedded in this commercial environment. And, um, it works wonders. It’s an absolute necessary step.

All right, guys. The final step is applying the protector. We use penetrating oil-based finishes. For ipe wood, all hardwoods, even the softer hardwoods like redwood and cedar, we want to use the penetrating oils because they are relatively easy to apply. They look natural, they dry matte, and they’re maintainable. So, we apply it, we go from board end to board end. We let it penetrate for a certain amount of time, and then we wipe off the excess. This is a one coat saturating system. You never want to do multiple coats because it just doesn’t work. It’ll remain tacky and sticky. And more doesn’t mean better.

All right, guys. Here’s the finished product. Here’s the bar area. It’s just clean. All those disgusting food stains are gone. Here’s the deck. Just a world of difference. Now, it’s back to natural ipe color. You’ve got lots of color variants. And again, that’s natural. Light boards, dark boards, things like that.

A lot of people ask, “Well, can’t you sand this darker board a little bit to make it lighter?” No, we can’t do that. That’s the color of the board. And that’s the beauty of using natural wood. It It It’s meant to look natural. Using the clean, sand, brighten, and seal method just transforms all these exterior wood surfaces back to its beautiful, stellar color.

And look at the brilliance of this natural ipe against the stone with the background of the the green foliage. The fire pit just looks really really nice. Now this is going to need a little bit of upkeep. I’d say in about 4 to 6 months we should come out and replenish the wood by adding more of the protective coating. The coating is meant to gradually fade and dissipate. It’ll do so according to microclimate and weather patterns.

So, we can go ahead and get the commercial clients on a maintenance schedule so that these surfaces stay looking good all the time. They stay protected and you don’t have to worry about it. Just beautiful, clean, raw ipe.

Thank you guys so much for tuning in. If you like what you saw, go ahead and click the like button. Go ahead and follow us cuz we’re coming out with more videos just like this. Take a look at our website, teakmaster.com. It’s got a plethora of information on refinishing just like this. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. Tim Gilliam with Teak Master signing out.