Cleaning and Refinishing a Cumaru dock
Cleaning and refinishing a Cumaru dock – another look at refinishing your hardwood deck
We recently were called upon to refinish a Cumaru dock. The same technique is used for any standard cleaners and finishers. The deck cleaner was an oxalic acid based. Finisher need to be made for Ipe. Be sure to look at the back of the can “Ipe” and it will work on any Brazilian Hardwood.
The dock is looking very gray. It definitely needs some TLC
A good way to estimate what your deck or dock will look like is to pour water on it. That will be close to what it will look like when you apply finisher.
TIP: If your deck or dock does not come back to color, you can try a light pressure washer. We have used electric, 2000 pound washer and recovered decks that have been ignored for a few years. Be very CAREFUL using a pressure washer as it can damage the wood fibers.
Applying Cleaner
We used a regular pump sprayer to apply the cleaner. Any deck cleaner will work but we have only tested the ones with Oxalic acid. They come powdered or liquid usually as a concentrate.
Cleaning was done Saturday Morning with the Finisher scheduled for Sunday Morning
Broom Applicator
TIP: To apply the finisher we used a broom from Home Depot. We found it in the broom section and it has nice soft bristles like a paintbrush.
If you do not have one, a leaf blower is a quick way to clean off your deck or dock. The ELECTRIC ones always start!
Preparation for the Finisher
Sunday morning, the deck is very dry and ready for Finisher
We put several gallons into a single 5 Gallon bucket. This both insure there is no color variation between cans and makes it much easier to apply.
Before and After during application
You can see the dramatic difference when applying the finisher
The dock is 700 sq ft and took 1 man about 3 hours from start to finish cleanup. 8AM to about 11AM
The week following the refinish the dock look Ready for picnic tables and chairs.