RPetry

Ditto.

Mike, Real nice bluefin! Here in NJ, if you bleed them right and get 'em on ice, the Japanese will pay a fortune per pound at the dock. Terrific catch! Wish you had not mentioned it, now, after 25 or so years, I'm getting TUNA fever again. Thought that was over long ago!

Brian, Nice deck, and a really craftsmanship stripping, sanding, and staining. Real nice work. Daniel, I've got NaOH additives in stock. Also, have some specialty strippers that laugh at acrylics. Only problem, those strippers are not only very expensive, they take a ton of labor to apply. Thus, two bids.

Mike, The *ell with Daniel, I'll come up for tuna! I'll even throw in BFS II specialty stripper for that deck. Wow, 220 lbs., was it a bluefin or big eye? Largest one I ever landed was a 135 lb. yellowfin, about 30 yrs. ago.

Mike, Nothing is written in stone. We have gotten rid on a single failed layer of acrylic with a very hot mix of NaOH plus additives and a lot of hard sanding. ACR carries a NaOH additive called 633AD along with a thickener/surfactant additive called "Booster". Together, along with 12- 16 oz. per gal. of their ACR 760 sodium hydroxide stripper might just emulsify that acrylic to the point where you will be left with less than a day of sanding. Give it a try. Some guys use other additives that might be effective. Maybe someone else will chime in. If you are going for a semi-trans, consider trashing the spindles and installing new ones. This allows easy sanding of the rail system and fascia. Spindles are cheap to purchase. $3.00 a foot for that acrylic, just in labor alone, seems on the low side. I'd test some strippers prior to making the bid.

Jon, Yes for the cedar, only that small rail & fascia, as well as 3 separate stair risers are currently stained. It strips off well with a boosted NaOH mix. See the right side of the last pic, on the fascia band board. According to the customer, it is also Cetol L & S on the ipe'. The "painting company" left a small sample container so I guess thats what it is. I cannot remember the last time I ran into Sikken's, it is just not used much on decks in this area. Man, I don't know about sanding that stain off the ipe'. I'm lazy, it would seem a bit less hard labor to chemically strip it. We do a lot of sanding/buffing of ipe', but its a light process, not a grind. Good point though, if I was 20 years younger!

Scott, Yeah, and us poor wood contractors have to do the work every year. Who's complaining!

Scott, I know I can get the Cetol off with the right stripper, it will just be more costly if I need to use stripper cream. We always lightly sand ipe' prior to an initial staining, not for stain removal but to remove the usual small fuzzies. An oil finish looks blotchy if you do not sand ipe' the first time, or after a hard percarb cleaning or NaOH stripping. If I get the job, which I should, the customer is already aware that we will be back next spring for a light cleaning and a light maintenance staining. The wood should not be pronounced "eee pay", but "you pay"!

Beth, Will do, although I promised an email estimate tonight. Scott, Not possible. Some "Home and Garden" magazine is scheduled for a shoot of this "outdoor living space" late this month. What surprises me is that the vertical cedar strips out fine with a strong mix but the horizontal ipe' appears to be tougher. One would expect the opposite. But then again, with ipe', its tough to determine the effectiveness of a test stripping until the wood is dry. I think I'll cover bases and do what I mentioned to the customer. Two separate quotes, one with the "boosted" NaOH mix, and one with Stripper Cream.

Just got back in from an ipe'/cedar estimate.

Joe, Good for you, that is an uplifting story. Contrary to what some say, your generation has got drive, gumption, intelligence, and do not shirk from hard work. I know, I have hired college kids these past 7 years. Two points out of many that could be advanced. First, set up a web site. With your college connections, this may not be too difficult or costly. When doing wood jobs, take plenty of pictures and slowly build up a picture gallery on your site. Second, do the best work you can do, each and every time, for the best demographic customers that you find. Ask for testimonials, again powerful stuff for the web site, and especially ask for referrals. You are on your way to a successful business. Please don't let a few bucks get to your head, by all means make sure you finish and graduate from college.

Daniel, For wood restoration, a good "rule of thumb" when estimating chemical quantities, is 100 sq. ft. per gallon. This would include sodium percarbonate cleaners, sodium hydroxide strippers, and citric/oxalic neutralizers/brighteners. Ounces of each powdered chemical depend on the condition of the wood that has to be cleaned or stripped. In particular, strippers are mixed to match the difficulty of the finish to be removed. With that being said, 6 oz. per gallon of each of the three classes of chemicals is a good starting point and often used in practice.

Jamie, I cannot help you on the sprinkler question, as we do very few fences and have never run into that problem. At least here on the east coast of the U.S., greying of exterior wood is most often UV damage, although accumulated dirt can be a factor. Mildew/mold/fungus is either green or black in color, not grey.

Todd, It is cypress wood, not cyprus.

Adrian, Sorry, I was just kidding around. A few years ago, Ready Seal had an inventory of extra tee shirts. Don't quite know why, maybe they over ordered for the guys in the plant. Anyway, got wind of this and called Peirce. Purchased 10 or 12 in my size. They were not cheap, but they are really good tee shirts, wear them all the time. Call Peirce and beat him up. I'm going to need some new ones next year.

Beth is a +10 wood minx. Now, if she could only get rid of that Rod guy ... ! Hah!

Adrian, You have to submit your first born to Peirce at Ready Seal. They brainwash the child at 3 yrs. of age, starting with pure paraffin oil to make their skin even more pure and smooth. After that the poor child is hooked, constantly crying for baby oil. Then, one must perform despicable acts down in Lewisville, Texas. Jeff is the man, you have to submit to leather, whips, and if he does not like you, friggin' chains. Be submissive, as the top dog Don is no one to cross swords with. A donation to an orphanage charity in Mexico can gain you a lot of points, and spare your dignity. Please, do not ask about getting a Ready Seal baseball cap. The pain and suffering cannot be described on a public forum.

Adrian, Yes, the Decker 5'er is a PumpTec HLVP pump. In fact the unit, including the cart etc. was assembled by PumpTec. I do not think they make them anymore... No, never tried a hurricane brush. To be honest, with the right PSI and flow setting on the gun, for PT we really do not need to back brush using RS. My original gun finally wore out this spring. Had Tom at ACR Products fabricate two new ones, one for deck floors and a shorter one for vertical wood and spindles. See pics. There is now real flexible hose that can be purchased. Got this nice lime green hose at a local auto supply store, about $30. Sure beats that kinky, non bending air hoses that originally came with the unit.

The Pump Tek HLVP decksters/decker 5'ers are the most productive and valuable piece of equiptment that we own.

It has now been ~ 4 months since this little experiment started. Pics as follows: Pic #1 - Four sections of the test cedar board. From left to right, untreated cedar, paraffin oil, boiled linseed oil, untreated cedar wrapped in plastic. Pic #2 - Closer shot of the untreated, paraffin, and linseed oil sections. Discoloration was evident on all three, with the linseed oil test section darker and most noticeable. To determine whether this darkening was dirt and/or mold/mildew, a 3% sodium hypochloride drop was applied to the three sections. Immediately below the "drops", a water/Dawn soap solution was applied and scrubbed with a toothbrush. Cleaning with the soap/water solution shows no visible difference. There is no doubt that this is mold/mildew. Pic #3 - A close up of the paraffin oil (left), and the linseed oil (right) sections. Initial conclusion: The untreated and paraffin oil cedar sections are virtually identical in appearance and mold/mildew growth. From a layman's perspective, it could be deduced that pure paraffin oil does not promote growth. The boiled linseed oil section is harder to interpret. The earlywood is clearly much darker in appearance than the latewood, which is to be expected as it is more "porous" and absorbs more oil. Visually, it could be concluded that there is more mold/mildew growth due to boiled linseed oil than either paraffin oil or untreated cedar. But other factors, for example discoloration due to UV or wood/oil chemistry changes due to environmental exposure could be the cause. It would take sophisticated laboratory analysis to find an answer. I'll put the test board back outside, and take another look next spring.

Dave, Call Tom or Barbara at ACR Products in Easton, Pa. on Monday. Phone is (610) 253-1899. They will gladly sell you Ready Seal stain.

For those interested in redwood furniture production, see the following video: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHFpEg5edqQ]YouTube - The Making of Forever Redwood Furniture[/ame] This organization is terrific. Ordered some old growth redwood last year to do some board replacement, and the service, quality, and age of the wood was superior. Their pricing was also much less than expected. This is a not for profit entity. Funds generated by furniture sales go into restoring redwood forests on the west coast. See: Restoration Forest Management

Another video from Forever Redwood, explaining their forest restoration practices. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLMpkQjBzTg]YouTube - FR FinallH 264[/ame]

Nice. Must be a joy in the AM. Looks like he has a pomegranate sticking out of his mouth! Also, time for a shave and a haircut!

Interesting. They claim that removing all the protein from the oil is what makes their "boiled" linseed oil different and mildew free. Part of their FAQ as follows: What is "boiled" linseed oil and linseed oil paint? Linseed oil paint is a collective name for many different products using linseed oil as a binding agent. Since the definition of linseed oil and linseed oil paint is loose, it includes many different kinds of products, creating much confusion for the consumer. Ironically, with all of our modern technology, it is in the knowledge of traditional methods that we find our best quality products. Allback linseed oil and linseed oil paint is made from cold pressed flax seed grown in a northern, colder climate. The product is 100% Organic. The cold pressed oil contains about 30% protein that is removed in a cleaning process. The removal of the protein is crucial for preventing mold and mildew. When the protein is removed, the oil can be boiled and sterilized. This is contrary to the linseed oil products available in most paint stores. These products are NOT actually boiled even though they are labeled "boiled". Linseed oil that has the protein cannot be boiled, it is technically impossible (the oil will become explosive when heated.) If the linseed oil is not boiled and sterilized it does not dry. Substantial amounts of chemical driers have to then be added to these "unclean" linseed oil products. The Allback linseed oil and paint is completely free from any chemical driers and dries naturally within a few days. You can apply the linseed oil paint every 24 hours at about 70 degrees ambient temperature. The longer drying time is one of the reasons why linseed oil paint is so durable and flexible after it is dry. It will not buckle or crack. Linseed oil paint "moves" with the material it is painted on (wood, for example, moves substantially during seasonal changes.) Link is at: Frequently Asked Questions: 50 Year Paint Made from Organic Flax