How to maintain your Ipe wood deck.

Ipe is a beautiful exotic hardwood that is commonly used for unique exterior decking and siding projects. Sometimes referred to as “ironwood”, Ipe is a very dense hardwood which makes the installation and maintenance of this product very different from other types of lumber. For those of you that have worked with Ipe, you know that you need to plan on using double the amount of saw blades and drill bits for any decking project due to the extreme density of this wood!

When it comes to the maintenance of Ipe, since the wood is so dense, you will never have an issue with cracking and splitting since the wood simply doesn’t absorb much water. Much of the maintenance of Ipe will hinge on how you want your Ipe to look over time. One option is to let your Ipe weather out and develop a beautiful white, silvery patina. This patina almost comes across as a distinguished platinum element that many seek when using Ipe. The second option is to retain the spectacular reddish brown character of your new Ipe with an annual oil application on the wood.

If your goal is retain color, you will be going on a program of oiling the wood on an annual basis. Please keep in mind, once again, that Ipe is dense. So dense that it will not accept coatings as easily as other types of lumber, so you have to go at Ipe with a different approach. My advice is to start with an 18 month plan to put the 3 initial light coatings of oil on your Ipe. Ideally, your first coat goes on in Spring, second coat in the fall, and then a third coat the next Spring. For the second and third coats, you will need to prepare the Ipe surface with a pre coating cleaning, using a mild deck and siding cleaning solution suitable for Ipe. This will ensure that you don’t encapsulate any dirt, pollen and other particulate when you apply the oil.

The absolute key to a successful coat of oil, is to go very light. It’s a simple, thin, light coat that will give you the best results. If you go too thick with your oil application, you will see it dry into a thick cake like coating which you will not be happy with.

If you apply too much oil at one time, you will get a “caked” on appearance that will take away from the natural beauty of Ipe.

Once the first three light coats of oil are on the Ipe, start an annual program of cleaning and oiling.

There are several oil and coatings products on the market that will work for Ipe and other exotic hardwoods, but I have had a great experience using Penofin penetrating oil, formulated for hardwoods. I’ve used brushes and rollers to apply this product, but I’ve found it easiest and most effective to use lint free cloth to apply and buff in the oil, it really just depends on how large of a project your applying the oil to.

Please reach out with your Ipe wood experience and what has worked for you. Also reach out with any questions about your upcoming Ipe project.

Thanks!

Sean Buino

Everyday Workbench