RPetry

Cypress. 5- 6 yr. old cypress. ~900 sq. ft. footprint of cypress. Email as follows: Rick, I am sad to say that I am ripping the deck down. My friends workers are beginning demolition today. I am so fed up with the deck, and it will be somewhat reasonable just to change the entire deck, and forget about any future stainings and work. I will save some of the cypress for you to experiment on. Thanks , Scott Scott, Sorry to hear that, cypress is a high quality wood. Hope you have a better experience with composite decking. Don't bother saving a piece of wood, I can always pick up some at the lumberyard. Its been fun and I know who to call if I ever want to trade some sugar! Best wishes, Rick -- Rick Petry 609.799.6093 wwoodcare@comcast.net Customer is a sugar trader in the pits of the NY futures market. Ripping up and trashing cypress for composite crap? My fault, its shameful, not being able to save a terrific wood. Shuflo busted this AM, cedar needs some work, and today was more than discouraging. Any wood psychologists out there? Thinkin' about going back and playing the market and ponies...

Hey Celeste, I stripped a cedar balustrade and percarbed a Trex deck floor yesterday. Stuff makes you feel more like a janitor than a woodie. I won't take jobs that are 100% composites without any wood work. Unless its August when it generally gets real slow! Not only did I want to work on the cypress because it is a new species for me, his trashing of the wood and installing composite may be my fault. Due to scheduled work, I just could not start the job until late May or early June. This guy is real hectic, fast talking and probably a bit impetuous. Wants everything perfect and wants it done RIGHT NOW. Oh well... Temperature is rising and I gotta go stain some cedar. See you later.

Dan, Nice find. As far as I know, household bleach as in Clorox for clothes and other disenfectant purposes is a pH of 8. Look on the label and you will see sodium hydroxide (NaOH) added to the sodium hypoclorite to get the mix down to a pH of 8. From what I have read, this is the best pH for cleaning clothes, but do not have a clue if it applies to wood. I, folowing others in this web site, have the idea that a conservative bleach mix is a good application for maintenance work on decks that have already been treated with a paraffinic oil stain. Is not as aggessive as a percarb solution and allows more of the oil present in the wood to stay in the wood. Not sure about the vinegar, maybe someone else with experience will help out. I do know that a bit of soap as surfacant and as an aid to lift out dirt is a good practice. Shane, Another potential member of the BDA certified contractors.

British Isles Tim, By neat, I assume you mean straight strength without dilution. This is I assume sodium hypoclorite or "Bleach" as it is known in the U.S. For wood, most go with a 3 to 4% solution as far as I know. That is about max. Do not have any idea of other surfaces or applications.

Hey Roger, Jim is a wealth of information and has been in wood for longer than most. Looks like you're a certified BDA contractor, see Shane for membership details. Couldn't get the customer to go for a clean and stain on the privacy fence? That would have really improved the back of their property. Sounds like you're busy with ~ 2000 sq. ft. of concrete, thats good. Take care.

Bill, You can do a Goggle search on CCA and ACQ woods. These are chemical compounds that the lumber industry has used over the years in pressure treating wood. The industry voluntarily stopped using CCA for pressure treating at the end of 2003 if I recall, due to complaints about arsenic in the product. Alkaline copper quaternary (ACQ) and copper azole (CA) chemical compounds are now being used. I have applied Ready Seal to ACQ pressure treated wood and have had no problems in stain penetration, color shift, or stain longetivity.

Lou, I like any solid acrylic stain in any color on any wood, but especially premium wood like clear cedar, ipe, mahogany, and redwood. No only does it hide the grain and natural beauty of the wood, it looks just like paint. And my customers just love the shine! Reminds them of that new car finish. And maintenance is so easy. When it starts peeling like a cadaver's skin, just rip out all the wood and start again. Much cheaper and hey, you have a whole new deck for four years. What could make more sense? Consumer Reports gives it a "Best Buy" rating! Who can argue with that? Any premium semi trans oil that penetrates into the wood with decent pigments is my personal choice. Ready Seal, TWP (some series, and I cannot get it), Baker's Gray Away, and there may be others. Paraffinic oil based with good resins and quality pigments. Good for the wood, looks even better the more times it is applied, and easily maintained. Never have to strip.

Hey Ken, Thanks. Did this deck 3 yrs. ago and the trex cleaned up very nice with straight sodium percarbonate at 8 oz./gal. My problem with BLEECH! is getting 12% around here and I'm sure not going to use Clorox. The cedar was stained with F&P which I used before Tom of ACR started carrying Ready Seal. So the strip is on me, no premium over normal cleaning prices. I would think your suggestion of a wet floor should be ok. F-18 at med. low strength is probably less of a worry than HD-80 at the same mix concentration. Will citric acid the whole job when done stripping and percarbonating. Thanks for the tip. EDIT: Hey, Shane, Ken, somebody... Tell me about BLEECH! Just got off the phone with another pool suppy company. They carry sodium hypochlorite in powdered form, $50 for 50 lbs. Is this what I should be looking for? Thanks.

Barry, It doesn't say anything about brightening fabrics? Someone better warn about 50 million American families using Clorox! Although Clorox does contain a small amount of sodium hydroxide, better known to the public as oven cleaner, Draino, and lye. But cannot see how NaOH could make any chemical safer to use or less harmful to the environment. Go figure.

Pete, Very nice work, especially for your first exterior wood job. When I started out, it took twice as long to do work as it does now. A few more decks and you will just be humming along. It gets easier, faster, and better with experience. Though I doubt any of us will ever match Shane's amazing 120 gals. of stain applied in 2 days, working alone no less!

Because the pressure washer is the "scrubber".

Hey Shane, Did not know Jack Welch use to make wood stain. Think GE ought to stick to foreign nuclear generating plants. That Behr solid is a real nice color and like how it looks almost like paint. Still cannot understand why anyone would want wood not to look like wood. To be honest, the Behr stain actually looks like it held up very well for 2 yrs. of Texas sunshine. Your stripper certainly did a good job and your Gray Away will sure resurrect that PT from the bowels of solid stain hell.

Hey Shane, So thats how you applied 120 gals. of stain in two days! A truck with a fire hose! I'm workin' hard to get 10 gals. a day into wood. Stay out of New Jersey, you will put us all out of work! You and your cohort are industrial strength stainers. With your last name, would guess you're a Cajun? Great food, wild women, and good dancin' Zydeco. Had more fun in La. for five days 30 odd years ago than anyone deserves in a lifetime. Fine country. Guess you know cypress, I think it grows in Southern swamp lands. Just do not see it up here. Feel like a little kid, trying to work on something new. Customer has 2 coats of solid Cabots oil on the cypress. Stuff is peeling like a foul acrylic. Test stripper worked ok so not too concerned about getting the Cabots off. May take some sanding but if cypress is anything like cedar, its 60 grit at low speed. So your advice is that cypress is very similar to cedar. That I can deal with. With Ready Seal, those color samples are near identical to the final look of the wood. I'll post a picture when done. If my friggin' legs can move after too many hours of ladder work.

Hey Jim, Isn't old cedar a treat? You can actually get some oil into it. Attached pic is Ready Seal Natural Cedar on the left, and Light Brown on the right. Had a bit of a go round with the customer but finally convinced them on the Natural Cedar. I think it will look good and I know the wood is ready for some heavy staining! Thanks for your help on Saturday. Just got a call no more than a half hour ago for that cypress job that i called you about. Looks like its a go. Meeting with the customer again on Sun., probably go with a 2 tone job as the balustrade is cedar with two coats of solid Cabots oil stain. I know I can get the Cabots off the cypress floor, but solids on vertical cedar are tough to completely strip. If anyone has some good pictures of Ready Seal stain on cypress I would appreciate an email attachment. This is a new wood for me so any prep and staining advice would be appreciated. Love something new. Psyched on cypress!

Brent, Nine foot is too long, especially on a ladder. Could hardly control the monster but it did work out ok. Did not fall. No hot tub here but a whirlpool bathtub is where I am headed, pronto!

Ken, At the beginning of this thread you mentioned some jobs not worth doing. This is why I did that lousy shake roof. 18 yr. old clear cedar that had to be stripped of some unknown Cabot stain. I really like cedar, the older the better.

Finally can put the ladder away. Stained the cedar shakes this morning with Ready Seal Natural Cedar color. Took 6 gals. of stain and could have easily used another 4. The shakes were bone dry. Came out pretty good as compared to the 1st picture on this thread. Earned the "Wood Restoration" on my business card on this one. Very tired of climbing that ladder, glad the roof is done.

Ken, To be honest, I think that old wood looks pretty good. Maybe its just the sun angle but the wood is brighter than I would have expected. Jim, Shane, or Jon could give guidance on mix strength. I'm just an acolyte in the BDA myself. Don't you just hate those shadowbox dividers on townhomes?

Thanks Beth, If I don't fall off the ladder, I'll get it stained today. Should take a lot of oil, the shakes are very dry.

Aw geez Jon, come on, Unless you are eating acid or thinking about the good old days, the cover song to The Dark Side of The Moon is pathetic. Sing songey mystical lyrics. Bad use of vocal echo. No one ever thought of covering such self serving junk. Stairway to Heaven is not much better. Rock is visceral. Rock is toe tappin, gyrating in the pants stuff. "The Bird" had more covers than your pansy, self glorification music ever could hope for. It ain't intellectual, its gut. How's that for trollin' for replys! Come back.

Adrian, Careful. Hope you are not superstitious. Not ready for that yet. You are way ahead of me. Just got Sirius radio in Dec. for my Stern addiction and think that "The Bird, Bird, bit..bit.. The Bird" is the the finest song ever written. I read that Jack White dumped his tight drummer wife. Clarification. By tight I mean riffs. What, he got married to some half Hollywood porn star? Frick, there goes the music. I scream everytime I hear any cut off "Moon". Enough already. Music, especially rock music, should be new, cutting, an expression of youth and energy. That's rock. Don't get old. No chance I'll ever see the Tonight Show. Friggin' work puts me to bed at 10:00. This is lots of fun.

Adrian, The wife is away and I'm bored, so I'll take a shot. Dark Side of the Moon was played on FM stations so much, and still is, the sound has become trite. What about Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, even Jack White of the White Stripes? Now there is a fairly new duo that is hard to beat. I'm over 50 and think a lot of the new music is better than most of the stuff we grew up with.

Hey Roger, No, don't need any conversions. We are still embedded in the avoirdupois standard. Scientists here are the only ones that know and use metric. The English still use MPH for speed? That is surprising. I thought the EU was suppose to change all that. But then again, you Brits didn't peg the pound to the euro. Probably a smart move. I would not want to see the dollar lockstep with the French franc. Near rioting in the streets of French cities for the employers right to fire or lay off in the first two years for 25 year old new workers? Shocking. This is not the time of the French revolution, it is the beginnings of a world economy. Go short on the French. We are all so friggin' parochial. Oh yeah, and how about the English pint? Is that just used for beer in the pubs? Hope its more than one half quart. Might just have to fly over and test the waters myself. Your beers are worth the trip. We Americans get all confused when we go north of the border into Canada. They measure petrol in liters and then there is the currency exchange. Being geographically isolated for so many years for Americans was a comfort. Not anymore.

Roger, Take care and do not allow pieces of steel wool to get embedded in the teak. They will eventually rust and be noticeable. Liters of oil? 30 yrs. ago the U.S. was suppose to adopt the metric system. Fat chance. Of course you Brits have or had the Whitworth(?) system. Bought a Triumph motorcycle in 1969 and needed metric, Whitworth, and avoirdupois wrenches. Yards, rods, fathoms and more. How about cubits? The Egyptians built pyramids with it, should be good enough for us. Why can't the world standardize measurement? Welcome to the BDA. Its a growing, retro, international phenomena. The secret handshake will have to be virtual. Diamond Jim, Shane, or Jon should be able to bestow the sacred honor. Now that its working season, just want to have fun! See 'ya.

Brent, Thanks. That rebar trick is a very good idea. This early in the season I work alone and have to be a bit more careful. Don't mind heights if I know things are secure, but am becoming unwilling to take chances on injury just to do a job. Not sure if it is mental, I prefer to think of it as wisdom with experience and age! Jon, The shakes turned out better than I expected and did not have to clean a second time. The nine foot wand with the 90 degree flex extention worked well, although it was a bear to control. I've had good results previously with straight sodium percarb and it again performed well. Wanted to hit the roof shakes with a bleach mix after the citric acid but have not found the proper sodium hypochlorite yet. All the gazebo and deck cedar is stripped, brightened, splinter and spot sanded and popped nails driven. Weather permitting, staining starts tomorrow. I'll post a pic when done. Thanks for your help.