Leaderboard

Ps...I should have also mentioned that traditional latex stains were very prone to peeling. It was due to a couple primary reasons. 1) they didnt expand and contract with the wood as well and 2) they were not as permeable and humidity trapped under a deck could literally push the stain off. In the "days" a solid oil may have been a better option than a solid latex. The new hybrids like the flood product I mentioned doesnt behave that way. In my experience, it is very durable and holds up well to foot traffic, patio furniture, weather etc. It doesn't come off in strips like old school latex. It more less will scuff over time, very much like some of those oul based prodicts that have a less penetrating topical membrane. If you have a virgin deck, a deck with an oil or even some acrylics. .. stick with oil and sell the customer on it's benefits such as protection from within, ease of maintenance, fade vs scuff, enhancement of woods natural beauty and grain etc. On those tough to strip decks or ones that have a solid on them already you may want to consider water based as an alternative, one with an oil self priming polymer. GL!

I love seeing those scribble scratch jobs. 1st their using high pressure, but secondly, their just getting up there and shaking the wand around. That's just pure laziness

Personally I feel that a good penetrating oil based stain is best for exterior wood such as decks. Without getting into the chemistry and different types of oils let me just say even some of the oil based stains on the market still have film forming properties. In my state for instance (illinois) the EPA has forced the manufacturers into reformulated products that fail to penetrate as well as their "ancestors" one did. Obviously there are some very good products on the market that Are VOC compliant even in the so called "green states" that DO penetrate adequately. As fas as acrylics and latex ( waterborne) stains are concerned, there is a time and a place for them. Where oils are great for virgin. Wood or wood that has an oil on it that can be stripped. Water based products come into play for a lot of structures that have already been coated with such. Some may disagree with me but my personal opinion (there are exceptions) is match the chemistry. I've come to the point where a deck that has bern previously coated with a latex will get re coated with a latex. The strippers designed to remove said coatings are often times more dangerous to the ozone, vegetation and YOU than those "bad" oil based stains the epa want to get rid of. Not only that but often times stripping a deck coated with a latex stain can be time consuming and expensive and it's likely you will never remove it all. When I do use latex (usually solid) I use one with a good emulsifier in it or what is referred to as a "self priming stain". The deck gets power washed to remove any surface contamination, dirt, mold. Etc and as much failed stain as possible. I do not usually neutralize a deck like this. Number One, I'm using a milder alkaline to clean this deck, not a heavy duty caustic stripper. Secondly oil based stains prefer acidic surfaces whereas waterborne adheres better if the wood is left slightly alkaline Once the deck dries to an appro moisture level I scrap and sand to smooth out the edges and remove some of the chips/flakes that the power washer did not remove. I hesitate to mention particular brand names but will do so anyway. I use flood swf solid. It has their trademarked emulsibond (spellcheck) in it and I have had great success with that product. I live in area that sees blazing summer sun and artic winters and in three years time I've only had one deck fail and it was clearly an issue with the deck. Anyway hope that helps. :-)

We work on marketing in the dead of the winter such as now and we set goals for this upcoming year. I also tweak some of the equipment to get everything ready to roll once it's warm enough and the phone takes off.

Setting new goals. Make sure trucks are ready to go and going over marketing. Keep networking. Also hiring more people and making sure to keep sales going. Should be another good year as soon as it stops snowing. Look into other ways to make more money.