RPetry

Trevor, Scott is a business, good business, but honestly, tested Defy yrs. ago on my own ipe' deck. Not good. Scott Paul does not carry Ready Seal. He does distribute Armstrong-Clark stains. Call Pierce Fitchett, sales manager of Ready Seal at (757) 880-6737 or Jake Clark, the owner of Armstrong-Clark stains on the west coast at the contact # on the website.

Hi Trevor, Scott Paul (Sealer Store) is a terrific guy, and may be able to help you. To be honest, I'm not knowledgeable of the difference between trans-oxide and iron oxide pigments. A good reference on iron oxide pigments can be found here: http://www.pcimag.com/articles/86750-using-transparent-iron-oxide-pigments-in-wood-finish-applications We have been using Ready Seal stains for the past 13 years with much success. Ready Seal uses iron oxide pigments. I'm not sure if it is shipped into Canada. Armstrong-Clark stains, which the Sealer Store carries, is also a very good product that is formulated with iron oxide pigments.

Trevor, Did the wood have an old stain on it before servicing? If so, it has to be stripped. Easy or hard, dependent on the old stain. Applying an acid brightener without doing a sodium percarbonate cleaning or sodium hydroxide stripping is, IMO, a waste of chemical and time. Privacy fence and fascia look good. Older, weathered wood will stain darker, but does not need to be "blotchy" as show in your pic. I can see the stain is wet in the pic, but doubt if it will appear much better after curing. I'm just guessing, but I think it was not prepped correctly.

This one is going to be fun. Well built, older red mahogany deck with multiple existing stains (see pic). Tested under the handrail on a small section with EaCo Chem's stripper cream, a highly caustic paste. As can be seen in the pic, worked well until it hit the base coating which is marine varnish. I'm pretty sure that Back to Nature's Multi Strip will remove the varnish, but the product is costly and worse, it is extremely labor intensive to apply. Anyone have a better solution? Thanks.

Jason, They did not offer a gal. and I did not ask. The job is not pressing, probably sometime in August. After 10 yrs. as a boat anchor in the garage, I'll have to find the time to tear down the Binks Super Bee, clean out the filters etc., and see if the old gal still works well. Its a brute, almost weights as much as my portable Hydrotek PW. I appreciate the heads up on Dorato Strip.

Jason, Wow, eureaka, a stripper that removes multiple waterbased coatings that does not require a $9K commercial airless to spray! Talk about labor savings, this is huge. Thanks so much, I'll call them a bit later this morning.

Hi Jason, I wish I could post it. I let Beth know of the problem sometime ago, I must be on some kind of system limit. Anyway, I have heard of but never used Dorado. I'm assuming your suggestion would be Dorado Strip 3031. Yes, a bit pricey at $272 a fiver as Back to Nature Multi Strip can be picked up at my local Sherwin Williams store for $221 a fiver. And I know that Multi Strip will work. What has me intrigued is that you say Dorado Strip can be applied through an airless. Multi Strip can, but with a large, minimum 1.9 gpm commercial airless. Must remove all filters, larger diameter hose, etc. Any idea of the minimum gpm for Dorado Strip? I've got an old Binks 1.0 gpm collecting dust for the past 10 yrs. The deck is fairly small, about 540 ft. sq. of floor and 90 ft. of balustrade. I'll post the OP and pic over at the PWRA site in the wood forum. http://pressurewashingresource.com/

Top of the morning Beth, I still cannot attach picture files.

Bobby, Hard to believe the idiocy of some consumers. Pay for a new cedar deck (not cheap wood) and throw this stuff on it. Anyway, you did a very nice job removing this stuff off of the horizontal cedar. The vertical cedar is still a nightmare. Go or call your local Home Depot. There is a product called Back to Nature Multi Strip. It may work on that abortion of a coating. Buy a quart to try, make sure you put it on thicker than that "concrete colored with diarrhea". Allow to dwell 24 hours and PW or scrub with water for a test. I'm working on a quote of a hard strip of a large red mahogany deck with numerous built up stains, including a base coat of marine varnish. I know the original owner of Back to Nature (sold the company 3 yrs. ago to Sunnyside Corp.) and just spoke to his son. He assured me that Multi Strip is the same formula as the old BTN BFS II that I used many time to strip multiple layers of foul acrylics. Might work.

Beth, Bring a load down to D.C. in August. Ask Thad, get 10 or so minutes to make a presentation. Have a book signing, like BookTV on CSPAN2! It will be a hit, offer $20 or so to a selected charity for every book purchased. Contractors, your efforts, and those in need will benefit.

Joshua, Find a mentor that has been doing the work that you want to do. Go on a few jobs gratis, learn a trade. Hands on. The last thing we need is State or Federal governments regulating our business. Do good work at a fair price. It is simple. It is American.

John, Good for you. I recall your trials and tribulations over many years with PW orgs. Too much time, energy, and passion expended for little return. Take care of your business, family, and self. We're getting to that age when it is time to smell the roses a bit and enjoy life. Be well my friend.

Beth, Get it on Amazon and in e-book format! Congrats, it is a lot of work writing a book.

Jason, Yup. That is how the world perceives it. Very bad karma. Any one who knows anything about exterior wood exposed to sun, rain, snow, and god knows what else knows better. Hard to fight big money marketing and uneducated customers. But that is our job. Funny, I'm so old I can remember hippies fighting Dow Chem's production of napalm for the war in Vietnam. Nice company to do business with.

Diamond Jim, aCRYlic, I get it. Hah!, I'm afraid many don't. Makes things a bit more expensive for many of our poor customers.

Hilarious Shane! Though have to admit, we'll use them on previously acrylic stained verticals when the customer balks at the cost of stripping, and just wants the wood to "look nice".

Wow, 20 years! We are getting long of tooth. Congats, there are not many that can claim that long of a track record. Either do your craft right, or go work for someone else. Simple.

As far as clear western red cedar, consider the following picture. 9 yrs. old. Three applications of foul acrylic stains. The wood is rotten. Not only the horizontals, but the custom spindles. Many were only "held together" by the friggin' plastic stain. I could poke a finger through them. Shame, new owners. As far as red mahogany, as long as the board end cuts are sealed when built, not a problem. Otherwise, butt ends will eventually rot unless maintained every two years. Never mind, 50 MB pic file limit is in effect. I'm done.

Bingo! Over these many years, too many miracle stain products that long time contractors and newbies flock like vermin. AFAIK, over a few years, they fail. Seen it over and over again. Real wood does not change. Only the BS of marketing. And contractors that believe in a holy grail. If you have to add mildewcides, driers, or other stuff, either the stain is not appropriate to your climate or your prep is bad. Woodcare is not calculus, it is proper cleaning/stripping, neutralizing, and application. Anything else is just fluff.

Beth, Please re read my post. The opinion expressed is focused on horizontal exterior wood exposed to moisture. I have seen more than one < 10 yr. old deck literally rotting from acrylic stain use. Including spindles! Cedar and mahogany are especially vulnerable. One had to be over $30K replacement cost. Care to elaborate on acrylic stain "good ones"?

Beth, Check your link above. I'm running Fedora Linux w/Firefox and your embedded link takes me back to this page on TGS. Try: http://www.cleanertimes.com/books/bb2015 ShoutBox link works.

Oh boy (blood pressure goes through the roof and eyes bulge out of their sockets). The only excuse to use any acrylic stain is on previously foul stained exterior wood exposed to moisture is to "make it look nice". Otherwise, its garbage. Does nothing for the wood itself and is a nightmare to maintain. OK for vertical posts, spindles and fascia if you have no other choice. Acrylic exterior stains suck. The devil incarnate for exterior wood. Its a great coating if your want your wood to rot.

Jesse, These wet wood, throw it on and go type stains have come and gone in the past 8 -10 years. This is not to claim that Everett's stain is not to be used, but the track record of other formulations is not positive. I was at Everett's location 3 or 4 yrs. ago when he introduced his stain formulation to a group of contractors. My only impression was the resulting pigment after application was not attractive. But then again, it had just been applied and had not cured. Kind of looked watery! How bad is the typical rain pattern in Western N.C during wood season? Here in the Northeast, yeah, we get a fair share of no stain days. We just learn to work around them. We have been using Ready Seal stains (a paraffin oil based stain) going on 13 years now with great success. Jake's (Armstrong-Clark) stains are also very well formulated and manufactured, being a hybrid of paraffin and linseed oils.

Yes. There is no one wood marketed as "African mahogany". This is not a mahogany. It is a marketing term for various species of African woods, substandard compared to real mahogany. True mahogany is only found in the Western hemisphere, ie: Central and South America.

Very good advice. From a wood only perspective with decks, as long as the outlets have a solid hinged cap, not a problem. We're not washing siding, only horizontal wood. A mounted appropriate fire extinguisher in your truck is a must. Errant smokes, linseed oil soaked rags, etc. can be a catastrohpe just waiting to happen. Ask Greg R.