• new wood surfaces -- to remove invisible surface barriers such as mill glaze on Cedar or Redwood, or paraffin wax still present on pressure-treated wood,
• uncoated, weathered wood surfaces -- to remove grayed wood fibers, ground-in dirt and mildew stains,
• weathered, previously coated wood surfaces, when the same finish coating is being re-applied -- to remove any remaining water repellency to ensure the next coat will penetrate properly.

WOLMAN DeckStrip^® Stain and Finish Remover should be used to remove an existing oil-base or water-base stain, toner or clear water repellent if:

• a different color or type of water repellent coating is to be re-applied,
• the current coating has weathered less than one (1) year, since new coating applications must be removed before re-finishing, or
• multiple coatings of different products exist that are too difficult to remove with a wood cleaner only.