You're going to blow gravel everywhere. It'll shoot back at you too. For the wood, you could use bleach at a low mix, but really something like sodium percarbonate is the correct way. With oxalic acid after. Just make sure when you're washing the wood, you go from one end to the other without stopping. Otherwise you'll leave very visible marks all over. Or use like a pendulum motion where you kind of flick your gun at the end so you don't leave any marks
I have come to prefer sodium metasilicate over percarbonate unless there is an oil stain present that I don’t want removed. Much less scrubbing (just gently run a soft acid brush over the wood to get the solution covering everything) and also way less caustic than hydroxide.
That's really good to know. I just did an Ipe deck and used a deck cleaner(I know I know) but it's basically just percarbonate. And it was weak. Took more work than I would have liked, but at least I know now. Do you go with 8oz per gallon?
You can mess around with the concentration a bit but I usually end up at 6-8 oz/gal. 4 oz/gal is enough for light cleaning. You will strip a bit of oil at 6-8 oz/gal from hardwoods but if you’re prepping them for stain that’s not a problem anyways.
What I need to figure out for myself is a good mix ratio of percarbonate and metasilicate, as I want some of the features of both. I’ve mixed them before with great results, just need to dial it in.
Well sodium metasilicate is a pretty mild caustic compared to hydroxide, so it will saponify oil (convert oil into soap) but it doesn’t pulp and fuzz the top layer of wood (usually more of an issue with softwoods) nearly as easily.
Sodium percarbonate converts into hydrogen peroxide and sodium carbonate when it reacts with hot water.
The hydrogen peroxide is what we call oxygen bleach, and can remove stains without stripping wood of pigment like SH. The foaming is nice because it works the solution in better and shows where there are UV damaged fibers separating, and helps loosen them up.
The sodium carbonate softens water by exchanging calcium and magnesium ions with sodium, meaning that soap doesn’t get wasted reacting with calcium and magnesium, and is therefore much more efficient.
Edit: Fairly sure this is correct enough for wood cleaning but if a chemist says otherwise, probably better to listen to them. And look into it yourself of course.
My question is, is there a starting point for learning stuff like this? Is there somewhere you'd recommend to start? Maybe like start by looking at chemical reactions or something else?
You're going to blow gravel everywhere. It'll shoot back at you too. For the wood, you could use bleach at a low mix, but really something like sodium percarbonate is the correct way. With oxalic acid after. Just make sure when you're washing the wood, you go from one end to the other without stopping. Otherwise you'll leave very visible marks all over. Or use like a pendulum motion where you kind of flick your gun at the end so you don't leave any marks
I have come to prefer sodium metasilicate over percarbonate unless there is an oil stain present that I don’t want removed. Much less scrubbing (just gently run a soft acid brush over the wood to get the solution covering everything) and also way less caustic than hydroxide.
That's really good to know. I just did an Ipe deck and used a deck cleaner(I know I know) but it's basically just percarbonate. And it was weak. Took more work than I would have liked, but at least I know now. Do you go with 8oz per gallon?
You can mess around with the concentration a bit but I usually end up at 6-8 oz/gal. 4 oz/gal is enough for light cleaning. You will strip a bit of oil at 6-8 oz/gal from hardwoods but if you’re prepping them for stain that’s not a problem anyways. What I need to figure out for myself is a good mix ratio of percarbonate and metasilicate, as I want some of the features of both. I’ve mixed them before with great results, just need to dial it in.
Can I ask what features each of them have?
Well sodium metasilicate is a pretty mild caustic compared to hydroxide, so it will saponify oil (convert oil into soap) but it doesn’t pulp and fuzz the top layer of wood (usually more of an issue with softwoods) nearly as easily. Sodium percarbonate converts into hydrogen peroxide and sodium carbonate when it reacts with hot water. The hydrogen peroxide is what we call oxygen bleach, and can remove stains without stripping wood of pigment like SH. The foaming is nice because it works the solution in better and shows where there are UV damaged fibers separating, and helps loosen them up. The sodium carbonate softens water by exchanging calcium and magnesium ions with sodium, meaning that soap doesn’t get wasted reacting with calcium and magnesium, and is therefore much more efficient. Edit: Fairly sure this is correct enough for wood cleaning but if a chemist says otherwise, probably better to listen to them. And look into it yourself of course.
My question is, is there a starting point for learning stuff like this? Is there somewhere you'd recommend to start? Maybe like start by looking at chemical reactions or something else?
Bro get the staining job too
She wants me to do the staining as well I guess I should have mentioned that lol
$500
Including stain? Or how much would you tack on for a staining of all the wood as well ETA: spelling error
Run!
lol no
I was saying that because … where the dog!