MMI Enterprises

very attractive Rick.. gotta luv teak!!... btw, word of warning to those with the glass tables... always have protective ring in table hole, umbrella in it's stand, and top collapsed during wind. Mine shattered a while back into a thousand pieces that took a couple hours to cleanup even with dry vac.

Also interested in more info and a supplier on this wand setup. No way I could ever question this things ability in the hand of a master as Shane but it may help some of us to know if it at times it may put out a drip or two from the tip while spraying with certain pump flows or psi ratings. I fear how much drip and over spray protection to plan for. I want to spray and not shower things. With hvlp adjusted properly I can get almost no overspray and 0 drips via thorough atomization. Whether the Shane wand/pump setup sprays or showers I surely see the production value and reaching ability of it...Just need to know what to expect is all. Seems if I decide to use various stains through a fickle system that I could have problems. Not saying it is at all fickle cause I never yet tried it of course but from what I see in hand brushing sample boards and garden type sprayers and noting product thickness difference between stains I can say I am considering not offering too many product choices to customers. As example, Cabot aussie oil is way thin and runs pretty good and but Spf is way thick. Omax a bit fickle on the runs also. Just takes more time to adjust system to be error free I would think. The smelly Penofin and RS type parrafinics seem the easiest to apply without runs or laps.. Shane, can you offer any more advice on what does or doesn't work with your wand/pump setup?

That sauce shows the wood nice...I'll take a pm recipe now thank you.. :) Hey you know what don't look bad also on ipe is Superdeck cherry... They got ipe wood chip samples displayed some places. Anyone hate or love Superdeck?

I don't know but.. "if i had a million dollars well i'd buy you a monkey haven't you always wanted a monkey?"

Ok so being inspired by Chris and his 'Apple Sauce' and Don and his 'Phelps Wand' I thought I would challenge myself to come up with a rename of a common product I luv and hold dear that also happens to be under utilized in the deck restoration field. You know sort of a claim to fame so to speak...:lgwave: The product I speak of addresses the need for a fast and efficient way to defurr/defelt/develvet/depeachfuzz/etc. large open decks following heavy chemical stripping. Until this product was found out by none other then King Kevster(the original Me Myself & I by the way) folks had to use sanding blocks, Ozborne brushes, random orbit sanders, angle grinders, screen sanders, and floor polish machine mounted scrub pads, etc. etc. I been into this item religiously and cleaned with it for near on 15 years of my 20 year career in the interior floor care business... Here it is... the 'King Kevster's 20" Velvet Elvis' ...unveiled for the first time ever for your commercial use. Just mount it to your favorite hook and loop sander of choice and you to can be like the King :lgmoneyey : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40 something view and not a single shingle thrown?.... feel like singing 'can't touch this' :lgbow::wave: :dancing:

Oh that is true isn't it...think I see the Pleiades star cluster in negative. :) Can anything be done to get it to blend better..like another shot or two of stain?

Paul, What product on your ipe deck pictured? Seems them rim boards just not wanting to take it darker like the rest....must be an ipe thing?

Alright.. below is pic of the real King Kevster's 20" Velvet Elvis. I use it on vinyl and concrete flooring to scrub or strip acrylic. They come in most sizes to mount to an industry standard floor polisher/buffer. They come in a few different grits with the bristles being impregnated with abrasive. A medium level one or a worn out one will work great on wood without leaving an abundance of swirls. Pads can also be used but they shread when they hit unlevel spots and don't last long...This thing will last you years and years and they goby the trade names stratgrit or nylogrit.. About the best source or price for one is from another King: CleanKing.com : Product Details : vacuum cleaners, janitorial supplies, floor machines

I know.. it is very tough.. I know cause I am the king of ipe...umm er I mean the king of Ebay.. umm er that didn't sound right... never mind.. carry on..

did it about break yer saw blade? haha :)

Kinda acts like redwood and don't show a whole lot of tone variation due to stain selection. I like first sample but the last one wtw honey gold looks like a beautiful IPE deck in Better Homes 2007.

Stain or distained due to looking so fresh and new? What they pic Greg?

WHY YOU NEED 30 GAL?. THAT IS A BIG APRON!!... About a cup per gal. straight.... For downstreaming you have to work the numbers based on your downstream draw ratio. So with a 20% (5:1) downstreamer you'll need like 5 times the amount of oxalic in yer supply tank. Problem you may find is that of getting the water to hold that much chemical. If you don't have a shurflow/flojet setup then you can use an all plastic pump up sprayer of even one of them plastic plant watering pitchers for the garden to get it on straight... Formula for figuring stuff would be as such: "take c (desired tank percentage) x the flipped fraction t (desired tank volume) over b (starting chemical percentage) " Formula being C x (t/b) for you it be something like this: c= 500% (considering downstream dilution), t=30 gal., b= 6.25% (1 cup per gal converted to percentage) which would = 4.8 gal of oxalic to 30 gal water.. I could be way wrong though with the numbers..sorry http://www.thegrimescene.com/forums/residential-pressure-washing/10204-12-5-sh-quesiton.html ------------- p.s. 7/13/09 WTF!..wish I knew what I was thinkin when writing this. Although the formula listed works for cutting stuff it appears I stuck wrong numbers in or in wrong places for concentrating the acid for downstream use. Thinking figure shoulda been like 9.35 gal if making an enormous 30 gal batch of concentrate.. But that could be wrong as well, LOL. How come people don't say somethin if they know math and it's use is wrong?

Great write up Russel!!! Have never heard it all in one place like this before. Truly supreme work!!.... Do you mind if I tack some of that info onto the ph level thread I did of common chemicals in the 'chemical section'? "This is an unnatural state for the wood and in a short time the natural colors in the wood will migrate or shift away from the surface of the wood. This can result in an uneven or splotchy appearance. In some cases the shift can be such that the wood will take on a whitish “dead” look." My RS test boards on redwood show a little white as described above... our main wood out here is redwood and cedar. Also, Russel.. I still have not received my samples????

For a non reoccurring one time job the salesmen usually gets 5-10%. If job is perticularly lucrative and salesmen really outdone theirselves then upto 20%. If job is reoccurring and to be on a new contract that you must actually sell to client then 3-5% per time. This amount usually gets padded into the new contract amount and so not you, your salesmen, nor your client is shorted.(of service) If job is reoccurring existing contracted job then company A can sell job to company B for some fair market value. Common is 3 to 6 times a monthly invoiced type job. (labor portion likely only apply in this field) Leads, one timers, and routine work are all different animals. Salesmen make bank on reoccurring stuff

Paul, To help head Larry's wrath off at the pass I'll advise you that you might have misread him. I think he neutralizes/brightens but doesn't rinse it off is all.. Only reason I rinse it off on the little bit of wood I have done is cause for one I've mixed it real strong and was using as a cleaner/pore opener prior to pressure washing very light graying or dirt off easy wood jobs. (Why use cleaner if it is already clean was the point..) And for two cause I have seen plenty of non rinse related issues with interior surface coatings. If these deck jobs that a bunch of you do were of the film forming type I'd about bet the house that most would see some ph issues. Just doesn't seem to matter to some here so maybe I won't bother rinsing the penetrating stain jobs.

For 2x8 the factor is closer to 1 : ..to correctly figure a 2x8 10' long you have to first convert the underlying inches ( 1.75 x 7.75) into decimal.... .14583 and .6458 . So then take 10' x .6458 x 2 sides =12.916' + 1.4583 exposed edge x 10' = 14.3743' per joist. A 200 sq. ft. deck- 20' x 10' deck having about 14 joist would be 201.24 sq. ft. of joist which is almost same as top or bottom sq. ft.

Ken, that sure is a power point..haha... couldn't resist the pun :) Seems valid enough way to consider a bid to me if ones sq. ft. rate is decent. When I bid other type of work I usually get very close to competition by taking an average between differing bid methods. If an average hourly production rate for Sq. ft. size is known or minute based production rate per item can be formulated we can average between the two. Apply the figure to a workmans hourly wage and we get job labor cost. Add overhead, taxes, and material costs onto that as a percentage and we get total job cost. Add this industries perticular profit margin as a percentage and we get total bid amount...But you know and practice all that for sure.. Been 60%,10%,30% fer me in other fields but this industry has higher material & labor costs with a differing profit margin so I got to change the figures a bit... For instance daily janitorial of 10k or larger offices had been based between 4.5 to 6.5 cents per sq, ft. per mon. In considering low wages of about $7 the total bidding was about $12 an hour for many years. So in that field if folks wanted contracts they would average between sq. ft. and hourly to get close to others bidding. Every time Ken speaks I learn a little more it seems. He dishes out all the important factors .. :)

In other words length x width = sq. area in anyones world but Neil makes sure to measure the inside and outside. Others will beg to differ of course and I am not one to argue with either as I am undecided on whether all the air space is taken up by all the facets or not.. :).. always a dang good question though..

I'd say it is if consideration of trying to keep a control in place during a test phaze or when dealing with some woods...As example there has to be a reason why some redwood only formulations pay attention to ph levels and/or seem to have goal of staying neutral...but back to topic :)

Might as well close this down then for posterity with pricing info... As low quantity buyer I paid $1.71 per lb. recently.

Newbie says no if you got through the dead stuff.... But why not go ahead and neutralize/brighten it?..They say some stains like more of a neutral or actually acidic surface to absorb into...and it may help all boards turn out more even due to varying ph levels between them..just a thought..

Daniel, After sleeping on it a bit I come back and immedietly think I see reasons behind the discolor besides the resins/tannins lasting better near the house due to more shade... In first picture it seems roof line has no gutter. The rain runs (or blows) right off onto deck if this is true and coats it with none other than good old fashioned asphalt oil. Second picture shows that roof design/pitch wouldn't call for any gutter but it seems to me that the roof still to blaim. Being the ladder is in the way it is hard for me to tell if area to the right is just as dark as near bbq. What time of day did you take pics? Did you have to wait for sunlight to fill deck in or did it fill in after? What direction does deck face? Depending on the time you snapped them maybe we can say that deck gets plenty of sun. Shadows of the railings and underneith would point to them being morning pics if it a North facing deck. Still not Summer yet so pics I took recently of North side decks show a shadow almost all day right now..Just makes me think even more that weathering is not main problem and the roof is to blaim.. A water sprinkle test for absorbtion along with hydroxide test (oven cleaner) perhaps could have told you to strip the deck as Ken mentions.... Not meant to be harsh... I think we all should help each other best we can and that's all I got.. :)

Doesn't apply since it runs with starting fluid but for what it's worth some engines have a low oil shutoff.