RPetry

Tim, The wood garden furniture looks great. What a nice intimate English garden. I can just picture sipping tea and relaxing, reading the London Sunday Times at leisure.

Ken, Early? 6:30 AM is early? Been up since a bit after 4:00. Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man.... What a crock! Probably should have been a farmer.

Conor, That is hilarious, I'm sure you know that Jon is kidding. Peirce is a great guy and customer service is one of the many reasons I use Ready Seal almost exclusively going on three years now. His tele. number is 757-599-4424. BTW, the pictures are great. You do very nice work.

Pete, I offer every color Ready Seal makes, including any 50/50 mix. I keep fully stocked with light brown, natural cedar, and medium red with medium red being the most popular. If a customer wants a color or mix of RS that I do not have in stock, I special order it from my supplier and recieve it the next day. The customer is charged shipping.

Doug, Congrats on the purchase of your Decker. For getting work done it is the most valuable piece of equipment I own. First thing, you may want to check the connection of the short black hose coming out of the outlet side of the pump and with the quick connect on the end. Make sure it is tight. If you are having any problem with pressure, make sure to check and clean the screen at the end of the feed line that goes in the bucket. The screen is very fine and easily clogged. That see through thing on the top right looking at the pump is also a filter. If you have to take the battery out of the battery box for any reason, make sure the unit is supported in some way or another person is holding it. I do not use the folding handle to bracket the feed bucket. Buy a heavy duty bungee type rubber thing with the hooks on the end. This saves time and makes it a lot easier to move the unit around. I cannot help you on various chemicals as my Decker has only been used for stain. Actually the pump has never pushed anything but Ready Seal stain. I set the pressure to between 35 and 50 PSI depending on the job. Take full advantage of the thumb pressure regulator on the gun, it is one of the best features of the unit. I guarantee after a job or two, you will wonder how you got any staining done and kick yourself for not buying it sooner. For wood staining, the Decker is priceless.

Jarrod, My diatribe was not at you or directed at anyone in particular. You are probably in the right, and the customer possibly being a PITA. No matter. What matters is being honest with yourself, and being a better and more valuable contractor than the next guy. If you (not you personally, all of us woodies) don't have some inate love, and pride, in our workmanship and trade, try concrete or parking lots or truck washes or something completely different. This afternoon, when I got back in from staining, had a call confirming my first 3rd time on a customer's deck. No big deal. Well, it is a very big deal to me. It means my small, often times 1 man show, has come of age. Six years and Iwill do everything up to beyond reasonable to keep this and other customers. I think the world of my customers, think I do the best work in the business, and will continue to try my best to do the best that I can offer at a price both of us can afford.

Rod said it best. The customer is always right unless you are absolutely sure, and without question know that your are. Exterior wood is an art, not a science. If you did the best that you can, and it does not work, fix it. No excuses, no but's, no blaming a customer or stain manufacturer for a product. You know when something is not right. Learn a lesson and get on with it. We have all made misjudgements and "do overs" in this business. If you are smart, pay attention, and learn from prior mistakes, you get better at your trade. Do everything to satisfy a customer, but more importantly, do everything to satisfy your own criteria of craftsmanship. It will pay dividends to both you and your business in the future.

Jarod, I would get over to the home at the earliest convenience. A current customer is a terrible thing to waste.

Diamond Jim, There have been a few days when I have thought the same thing. You say the cedar is a mess. I'm assuming you are using RS. Care to elaborate on the problem and any fixes? I've got a cedar job to stain tomorrow and the weather looks iffy.

Jim, Boy, your area is just getting hammered. Now I see, the lows are pushing moisture from the Atlantic NNW, and pounding New England. http://radar.weather.gov/ridge/Conus/northeast_loop.php Feel for ya, bad weather is one on the minus side of the ledger for exterior wood care. Hope the pattern just goes away.

Tim, That wasn't true when the English use to make Jaguar autos. The coachwork and paint on those old Jags was a work of beauty. Now the friggin' things look like Ford Tauruses.

Mike, FOC = "Free of Charge". Ok, got it, thanks. I try to keep that out of my business vocabulary.

Tim, Just did, actually two! Cannot stain today. Must be some Brit idiom. What is FOC? "Full of canaries"? (while staring at that bird on Diamond Jim's head).

Tim, Well, yes, kind of! There may be a slight benefit of replacing some lost oils and resins in the surface of the wood but these woods are just so hard, they weather like concrete.

Tim, Teak and ipe are near indestructable. Aside from appearance and possibly discouraging mildew (or as you say, lichen) growth for awhile, oil stains are not necessary. Both woods weather to a silver gray patina. Their grain structure and density is so tight, moisture, insects, and weathering just don't make much headway in deteriorating the wood.

I smoke two packs of Kool Milds a day and drink maybe two cases of Heineken a week. Been doing this for the past 30 years. Do not think I could stand the sufferings of life without decent beer and killer tobacco. Quitting cigarettes is possibly the hardest habit to break. Congratulations to you, Philip.

Tim, The wood does look like teak, but there are now so many different mahoganies and other strange hardwoods used for garden furniture, it is tough to say for sure. One clue is the weight of the wood. If the furniture is unusually heavy, and the wood is very hard, it is probably teak. Sometimes a metal plate is attached somewhere, with the manufacturer's name and stating that the furniture is teak. You are at a great disadvantage in the UK as aside from chemicals, the Brits do not appear to offer the numerous types of exterior stains that we have available in the US. There are teak oils in our market made for exterior use. They contain UV inhibitors and mildewcide. Something similar should be fine. I would not worry about putting exterior teak oil on a hardwood that is not teak.

Diamond Jim, I do not understand it. You are no more than ~120 miles from here. The past two weeks have been perfect weather for staining. Dry, sunny, only a few windy days, and pleasantly warm. Our weather patterns should be close to identical. In all honesty, this has been one of the best springs here in my 5 yrs. in the wood trade. The next week does show unsettled conditions with possible showers virtually every day. We had monster thunderstorms dump 2.5 inches of rain overnight, but for the moment the sun is out. Don't think cedar cleaned yesterday will be dry yet, but I could use the day off. Maybe my changing weather pattern will bring you good weather!

Greg, Bet they do with the premiums you are paying! Seriously, someday when you have the chance, you may want to write up a quick summary of your experience and post it in Chemicals & Safety forum. There are quite a few new contractors on this site that may not be aware of the dangers inherent in oil based stains. If I recall correctly, linseed oil is particularly volitile.

Doug, Thanks. Not being a painter have little exposure to latex. Thankfully, not much on customers exterior wood. Can you actually strip a single app. of latex with denatured alcohol? Cudas, listent to Doug. He knows a lot more about this than I do.

Cudas, Acrylic stains are a nightmare. We all go through this test of fire. This foul compound will either drive you crazy or broke. Welcome to the club.

Cudas, If you can get latex off with denatured alchol, you may be a wizard. Good for removing sawdust off wood or burning in camp stoves but I doubt it will touch latex. Let us know. Good luck.

This is a link on Trex warranty that was just forwarded to me. http://www.trex.com/Universal/product_info/workingwithtrex/careandcleaning.asp

Beth, Quote: how about a new thread, "lets bash Hillary Clinton?". Now that would be fun... Wow. Is our former first lady a member or visitor to this site? Are politial and fun stuff allowed in the Club House? Sorry, kind of feel like a little kid in the corner, waiting for a spanking.

I was on the phone with Ready Seal discussing other things and mentioned this thread. May be of benefit to problems in the future. The reply as follows. Hope this helps someone.