Finishing IPE Decking

rocketdoctor

I installed an IPE deck last fall but the weather changed so I didn't get a chance to seal it. I would like put a sealer on it now that I have sunny days. The deck was used over the winter so it has some irregular coloring from water, sun and traffic. I was thinking of renting a floor sander and sanding the entire deck to get a constent appearanc and then putting a hardwood sealer like mesmers on it.

Does this sound alright? any recommendations on sand paper and steps to do this?

kwikfishron

You shouldn’t seal Ipe unless your trying to keep the brown color and preventing it from turning the beautiful rich silver that it will.

In all of your attempts to keep it brown in the end Nature will win.

Google “sealing Ipe” to learn more about why not to do anything to it.

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RoyalAcresRod

If you sand Ipe it will not take the oil....opposite of other woods. You may clean it with oxalic acid...an ingredient of many "wood renewal" products. After drying yo may finish it with Messner's.

As Ron stated, there's a plethora of info on Ipe finishing on the web. It'll be worth your time to spend a bit of it looking at it. the garden web site has a nice discussion.

rod

rocketdoctor

Yesterday I did a thorough cleaning of my deck and it looks like I won't need to sand to get a consistent finish. I really would like to finish it to keep the dark rich look and protect from sun damage instead of the natural silver finish. I have alot of wood finishes on my home so Im use to regular maintenance. If I was concerned about that I would have installed that plastic decking stuff.

I did do some research on to seal or not seal IPE and There seems to be split decision on to seal IPE, I'll do some more

gma2rjc

There's a product called "One Time Wood" that's supposed to be pretty good.

www.onetimewood.com

Termite

Penofin is an awesome product for Ipe. I've used it quite a bit and it looks great and the color lasts.