RPetry

John, Jake's synopsis above sounds about right. Most of the previous oil stain manufacturers have had a difficult time getting their products to penetrate due to restrictions on the amount of solvent permissible to conform with the restrictive VOC regulations. The result is poor product performance. I will give a shout out to Ready Seal stains. As far as I know, due to their use of only paraffin oil, Ready Seal does not require a lot of solvent in their formula. Their stain was originally 250 VOC compliant before these regulations came into effect. They have not needed to re-engineer their product. Now, if they would only go back to the plastic 5 gallon pails ...

With night temps down below freezing, I've yet to take the equipment out of warm storage. Days are getting a bit better, but had snow yesterday. This time last year, we were running full bore with quite a few wood jobs completed. Granted, last year was a warm winter and an early spring. This year, I'm not anticipating even starting the season for another week to 10 days. The groundhog was way off in February! Aside from the Northeast, how's the rest of the country doing exterior wood weather wise so far this year?

Brian, Holy smokes! Is this the same guy who once stated, "I really don't like to do wood"? No matter what the size, 400 decks is a ton of wood! A/C should do fine with any remaining F&P prepped with a good wash.

This morning I was on the phone with a long time sales rep. of a major stain manufacturer that sells to a large number of professional contractors. He mentioned something that struck a chord. It has been obvious for the past few years here on TGS and has been in the back of my mind for a while. Where are the new contractors/companies? It is not a decrease of sales on his part, but an observation of the activity here on TGS. Aside from Charlie Soden of Apex DeckSavers,, there are few others that express a real interest or passion for the business. Why? Odd getting old. At one time, TGS was a hotbed of job photos, questions, debate, argument, banter, and comment. People were engaged in the business. The contractor industry appeared to be growing, and active participation here strong. Where did it go? Do not blame us old timers. We did our part and will not be here forever. Beth & Rod, Diamond Jim, Shane, Jake Clark, Russell Cissell, John T., and many others helped in establishing this business as a worthy endeavor. With little capital, hard work, and basic education/marketing/business knowledge, a viable path to making a good, if not effortless, living. At a time of high unemployment and lack of conventional opportunity, I would think that more would be considering exterior wood restoration as an attractive business. In better than average up scale demographics, business is good and in my experience, will keep getting better. Different perspectives encouraged.

We're Americans. We live in the land of innovation and progress. How is it that the British are now beating us to the punch on ingenious product ideas? [ATTACH=CONFIG]19911[/ATTACH] This is a terrific idea. Would make the perfect Father's Day gift. For more information, go to: Beer Suitcase - buy at Firebox.com

Diamond Jim, This British online retailer has to be one of the cleverest and interesting on the internet. Note the start date of this thread, 4/1 - April Fools Day. Firebox has a tradition of creating joke products to celebrate this fun day. In a similar vein, here's one from a few years ago. The product page can be seen here: Powdered Beer - buy at Firebox.com To check out even more crazy, arcane stuff, go to their WTF?! page here: Firebox.com - cool gifts, gadgets and gift ideas I really like the BBQ Donut Boat.

This thread was nearly 3 years old when it was suddenly resurrected the other day. My vote for a prize would be a 3 day stay in sunny Ca. with Jake. First day, relaxing on Jake's veranda overlooking the Sierra Nevada mountains and drinking as many terrific Ca. microbrews as humanly possible. Next day, a personal tour of the world famous Armstrong-Clark manufacturing facility up in the mountains at Long Barn. Final day, a round of golf at Pebble Beach.

Thad, Dead on. Jake is a great guy and a good friend. He does play golf too much and plays too well, lives in la la land, and puts linseed oil into his stains. Other than that, Jake is a near perfect, upstanding gentleman. And an honest, quality manufacturer of wood stains.

Barry, Fair enough. Your statement, "It would be nice (and probably more effective) if they voiced their disgust at both sides (sites) of the mud slinging. Otherwise, it seems a bit disingenuous." is up for grabs. I will give a shout out to Jake Clark of Armstrong-Clark wood stains. He has the cohones to post discontent. But I do not consider other manufacturers disingenuous for not publicly posting.

I respectfully disagree. No manufacturer would sensibly and publicly take "sides" on internal organisation disagreements. Not if they care to do business. Most are smarter than contractors concerning their business. Matt, Thanks for reminding me of this at the cusp of wood season. Due to distributor/retail outlets, RS has now gone to those stupid tin buckets. It may be time to retire...

Beth, Thad has the right idea. No matter how professional woodies bemoan the use of Thompson's WaterSeal, proof is in the pudding. Two cases in point. First, our two pups washed, groomed, and treated with a light coating of Thompson's. Look how their coats just shine. Our vet was appalled when they developed skin lesions, but they sure looked good. Note that I had not treated the ipe' with Thompson's. It surely would have looked better. Those Ready Seal and Armstrong-Clark stains are overrated. Second, yours truly at the track a few weeks ago. Cold, nasty weather, running against track prepared Porche's and nazi BMW's. I can't drive a lick but the "poor man" Lotus just ate them up in the turns. I can only credit the Thompson's WaterSeal topcoat with putting those $100K+ cars to shame. Slather your tires with the stuff and they grip like a bulldog. If you delve deeply into the Formula 1 teams, they all swear by Thompson's. Its a miracle weapon not advertised. Please don't tell anyone. Frick, I look older than I feel. My mechanic friend tells me that the car has to be stripped down to bare fiberglass and repainted, but no matter. You only get a few "hurrahs" at this age and they all count. Time to book some more jobs.

Brian, About $90 for a 5'er. Note the bottom of the bucket. Can be used for wood, concrete, brick, all exterior surfaces, hair conditioner for cats and dogs, roof shine, car varnish, fake snot for Halloween, etc. A real bargain. Just wear ski masks or cleverly pour into RS or AC buckets before showing up at customers property.

Nick, Nice water view from that cedar deck. Western Red Cedar can be quite expensive. Another option is to strip the solid stain off. First, you must determine if it is oil or water (acrylic) based. This is easy. Just test with a strong, hot sodium hydroxide mix. If it gums up, its an oil. That being the case, remove all the spindles and soak with a hot NaOH stripper in a tank or flat tray. Strip the deck, stairs, and remaining balustrade with the same mix, possibly twice. Sand any remaining solid stain off of the cedar before reattaching the spindles. Plan on the cedar firring, so a light sanding of the whole job should be priced in. If the old stain is water based, there are some expensive but effective specialty strippers. Report back and I can provide more info on what has worked for us. In either case, these are difficult jobs, far beyond the typical light strip/clean and stain projects.

Jake, An Ohio prosecutor beat me to it. Legal action is in process against that ugly, miserable, deceiving rodent. Hope he smokes when they attach the electrodes. See: Punxsutawney Phil taking heat for the cold, deals with 'lawsuit' and threats | al.com

Shane, Nice week of weather. Your weather app says "Spring". Mine still says "Dead of Winter". That's ok. Before you know it, you'll be in the dreaded June - September period. It gets hot and humid here in NJ at times but nothing like Houston!

Thad, Frick, if its cold and windy in Mississippi, what chance do we have in New Jersey? It's the last week in March! Somebody fix this south bending jet stream.

Yeah, good point. Could put a bit of hurting on sodium percarbonate cleaner sales. Hah! Clorox is rumored to become a major sponsor.

Carlos, Too easy in Ca. Nothing like trying to drive R-compound tires at the limit in 40 F. temps. Kind of like skiing. The northeast has it's lessons. Hard ones.

Carlos, You and Jake can just friggin' suck an egg. California, land of the lucky!

Tony, As Diamond Jim mentioned, depends on the wood species and condition. As you are in Virginia, I would assume most of your wood is pressure treated pine. I just quoted a typical clean/partial strip, old neglected PT deck/gazebo yesterday. The estimated stain cost worked out to ~ 14% of the total job cost. This is two separate applications on horizontal and one heavy oiling on the vertical wood. A 2 year maintenance on this job will take a lot less stain, generally about 60% of the quantity used in the initial restoration.

Adrian, We often get requests for "touch up" stain while on site. I usually give them a qt. or so gratis. If they need more either we did not finish the job correctly (impossible, I am not blind!) or they want to maintain the wood themselves. In that case they can order directly from Ready Seal or my distributor. I'm not in the retail chemical/stain business. Any customer that wants a "bargain" for a service/product will get what they pay for.

Tony, We invoice all material costs, ie: chems, stain, etc., as separate line items on all jobs. This is due primarily to NJ sales tax laws. As we pay tax when purchasing products, I can not legally, and would not morally, charge tax again to my customers. In addition, this makes accounting and sales tax reporting much easier. The customer pays for what is used on a job. Fair to both contractor and customer. During the season, we keep an ~ 40 to 60 gallon stain stock. We order in 30 gal. minimums, as shipping is "free" and we are in an area where Ready Seal arrives here overnight.

Adrian, Nice work, you are a multi-talented guy! Ran across a "This Day in History" article this morning. Purported to be the "1st" major rock & roll concert ..., way prior to your Les Paul guitar and even before I was born! See: Moondog Coronation Ball - encyclopedia article about Moondog Coronation Ball.

Shane, That is one of the primary benefits of using a paraffinic oil based stain!

Shane, Super Cedar is a real attractive color. That is also quite a nice property. What looks even better are green leaves, flowers, sunshine, and budding trees. It will be another 2 months before spring is in full bloom here.