Installing And Refinishing Ipe Hardwood Floor.

hawaii

Hello.
I have a project here in Hawaii to refinishing hardwood floor. where I will be using ipe wood.I have read that this wood is extreamly hard to finish , plus can cause some serious respiratory problems.Have you ever refinished ipe flooring?


Any advice would be appriciated.

s. donato

hawaii... I take it is installed inside a home?

i have never had to refinish one but i have sanded deckboards before to get scratches out and it does take forever. plus the dust is pretty noxious. if i was doing an interior job - i am a good drum sander system would work well, but it is just a guess.

its odd they used IPE and not a Brazilian cherry or walnut. i would imagine you should be able to treat it just like either of them. i know IPE is a Brazilian wood and i would think it should finish out the same but since its, so hard i would be worried about penetration of the poly. i oil all my IPE decks and they look nice but it never really penetrates deep enough for my liking and that's usually why i am back every year or so to re-oil them.

to me it just seems IPE would be a bad choice for an interior floor JMHO.

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hawaii

Donato.
Thanks.This is what I needed I have found info about this wood and looks like this is bad idea to use unfinished ipe wood .I have allready contact the contractor asking if they want to make a changes since it is a little bit unusuall.
I like projects like this so if anyone have done it that would be nice to here about the materials they have use.
Thanks Donato. Hawaii Hardwood Flooring