Rust Stains On Real Wood

naturalwood

Hi,

We donated a bunch of decking material for a prize home, everything has been going along fine. Last week it rained over night and they left a bunch of old steel people guide rope holder things outside, the problem is that the rust from the bottom of them has stained the deck, about 18" circles, solid black stain. Beleive there are 6 of them.

Any idea on how to get that out, will try sanding but doubt that will remove it as am pretty sure has soaked right down in to the wood, not just surface. Will this do it everytime it rains, or just if left on after the fact.

Any ideas, people love the deck, but can't beleive big black spots will help our sales at all.

neolitic

Don't start with sanding.
Try wood bleach first.
Oxalic acid is usually the base.
Check with some reputable
paint dealers, not box store idiots.
Good luck.

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deckman22

I had something similar happen years ago.

A welder building a metal railing on a deck I built did not lay down a burn blanket or tarp. He left metal dust all over the redwood deck. We had heavy doo that next morning & all the metal dust rusted turning the entire deck black. It was freshly screwed down so I unscrewed the decking & ran it thru a planer then re-screwed it down.

Sanding may also work, the black stains did not go down far into the wood. If the chemical route Neo mentioned works that may be easier.

It's something we deckbuilders learn, sometimes the hard way, don't leave metal objects on any new wood deck.

Don't leave wood scraps on stone either, especially pool coping stones as it will stain the stone, at least cedar & redwood does.

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Ahren

Oxalic acid.

naturalwood

Thanks guys. I will let you know on Wednesday how I fared.

Lorne