RPetry

Tony, Real nice work, I like that color. Thought it was cedar at first until your 3rd pdf file with closeup pictures. Terrific restoration, you brought old, beat up PT back to life.

Looked at a job last night. Hands down, the largest residential deck I have ever seen. Did not measure, but would guess somewhere in the neighborhood of 4500 sq. ft. PT SYP in decent shape. Unfortunately, stained 2 yrs. ago with a nice coating of Wolman's Extreme, a semi-trans acrylic. Failing on the horizontal wood, but very intact on the vertical wood. For laughs and customer awareness, put down a very hot, boosted NaOH stripper on two test spots. As expected, would not budge the acrylic. We have a stripper that will get acrylics, even multicoat acrylics off in one pass. But the problem is that it has the consistency of pudding, and a Binks 3/4 GPM commercial airless will not push it. It has to be laid down by hand. There are other specialty strippers on the market, Napier's Removall 310 comes to mind, that are apparently very effective with these types of tough acrylic stains. My question is two fold. First, has anyone removed Wolman's Extreme in the past without spending days of sanding, and was the stripper used able to be sprayed or mechanically applied? Thanks.

Beth & Rod, Thanks so much for the heads up on Dorado Strip 3031. It appears that Sherwin Williams distributes it, so I may be able to get a gal. for use in testing at a local store.

Mike, Probably bleach mixed with a bit of water.

Ken, Nice job on that stripping. Behr's new innovation is now leaving us with pink wood? Still see some mildew infested wood that they paid something like 180 million to settle. Dave, If it is an oil, it should strip with the right additives. If you are going to tackle something similar again, hook up with Tom at ACR Products, Scott at the Sealer Store, or Tracy at Sunbrite. These distributors have NaOH additives that can really help on tough strips. These pics are of a little western red cedar deck we stripped last week. Some solid oil, applied by a handyman 10 months ago. Stripped once with a 20 min. dwell and did some spot sanding for an hour. The stripper additives made it a relative breeze.

Chris, I have been testing various stains on a floor board of my own ipe' deck. Info can be seen in this thread: http://www.thegrimescene.com/forums/wood-cleaning-restoration-decks-fences-etc/14677-ipe-stain-shoot-out.html For appearance and color retention at the 8 month mark, I would reluctantly, but honestly, have to give kudos to the Defy Hardwood Stain. It is a waterbase, which I do not care for, due to numerous reasons. Second place goes to Armstrong-Clark stain, a true oil that is easy to maintain. It has held up very well compared to previous oil stains used in the past on this deck. Cabot's ATO use to be a good product for hardwoods prior to the VOC changes. Those products are all going or gone.

Ken, I never worry. I'm not smart enough to second guess manufacturer's recommendations. Granted, their guidelines may be conservative. But for what we charge our customers, they deserve specification work. As you probably well know, we use a lot of Ready Seal. It never, ever has been applied to wood over 12%. And we do a lot more than 12 jobs a season. The only penalty is new work. Maintenance wood still has oil in the wood and they dry out fast. New hardwood jobs are certainly not a problem. Especially ipe', that dries out in a flash.

Adrian, Probably what saved the PW and maybe your truck. Quick thinking and action. Found a good spot, right next to the side double door, up on the bulkhead. Real accessible, high enough to be out of the way of equipment, with a quick release bracket. Have a new guy starting Monday. I think a fire drill is in order.

Ken, Talk to Mark at AC, the technical guy for the manufacturer.

Ken, If I recall, AC optimum wood moisture content is 15% or less. Check with Mark.

Dave, Looking at the intact stain on the lattice in your photos, it does not have the look of an oil stain. 6 oz. a gal. of HD-80, applied 3 times with a hour of dwell, should have stripped an oil stain three times over. There is something foul on that wood. I think you just bought into a solid stain job.

Adrian, Glad you are OK. After that inferno, your PW was working fine and you were able to work? Thank your lucky stars. After reading and hearing various fire stories over the years, mounted an extinguisher by the side door of my E-250 early this spring. More for peace of mind, hope I never have to use it. A small one is inexpensive, think it cost less than $30.

Richard, You may want to look at your pricing for services. Sanding off a stain should be much more expensive than chemical stripping.

Daniel, Enough shown and said. Follow your own road. Good night.

Daniel, I'm jealous that you can read wood moisture levels by hand. Guess what? The surface of the wood has nothing to do with proper wood moisture when using paraffinic oils. You have a problem with your own deck with ESI's paraffinic Timberoil stain. So therefore, you state earlier in this thread: Which is frankly total nonsense. Diamond Jim has been in business well over a decade. I've been in the wood restoration business for 8 years. There are many on this board that use paraffinic oils, specifically TWP, Ready Seal, or old Shane and Baker's, that put my little business to shame. One retired lurker, that has never posted, probably at one time had the largest wood restoration business in the country, and used Ready Seal stains. Look at the TGS polls over the years. Paraffinic oil stains have consistently been the most used by contractors. Think all these contractors built, and remained in business, having to service all their customers every year? I suggest otherwise. You either have a prep, application, or specific stain problem.

Daniel, Richard may have a point. A very diluted bleach with soap should not be a problem, did you add TSP or something else? Otherwise, something is wrong, either wood prep, not using enough oil, or the stain itself. Did you check moisture before applying? ESI sent 10 gals. of Timberoil to us gratis last year and we gave it to a customer that we charged labor to prep and stain a 3 month old PT deck. Got a call back within a month, put down more Timberoil as it did not hold color very well. But it was new PT, low to the ground. Not sure if it was a stain problem, will check it this season. Mike, That is familiar, when I first started used Wolman's F&P. Wanted to use RS but could not afford friggin' 80 gal. min. shipments by truck. ACR Products came along and have happily been using RS since. Stripped every previous Wolman's job at my own expense, just to convert to RS. Well worth it over the years and it will take a miracle stain or detrimental product reformulation, to make any change. Living in a townhouse community, I have a few customers within a hundred yards. Got a request for a "redo" yesterday, located next to the "shaded" deck example earlier in the thread. Without the tree, this deck gets full sunlight throughout the day. Attached is a picture taken today. This wood was last stained with RS med. red come July, five years ago. As far as I know, it has never even been washed to remove dirt and mold/mildew. Sure, service is way overdue, but even so, there is still some pigment on the surface of the deck and also vertical wood. And I'll bet there is still some oil in the wood. Funny, I've got 4 beat up, 21 yr. old pressure treated decks in a row, with varying service dates. Same wood, same age, and poorly maintained for the first 14 yrs. Left to right, 5 yrs., 4 yrs., 3 yrs, and one next door, 2 yrs. All stained with Ready Seal medium red by us. A perfect longevity test!

Beth, Not sure what you are asking. Do not know about TWP, could never get the paraffinic here in my area of NJ. Ready Seal does not "bead" like those little droplets on that crappy OMax acrylic semi can, water kind of "sheets" off the wood.

Diamond Jim, That is cruel. It is a convoluted, afflicted mind that would post such a thing. Got to stain today for the first time in about 9 days. Things are looking up, only a 40% chance of thunderstorms and associated rain overnight. Some Springs, takes the patience of Job to stick with the exterior wood business.

Nikki, There is nothing easy in developing, establishing, and keeping a profitable, and growing, successful business. Takes a lot of hard work, many hours, financial savvy, marketing expertise, and some gumption to get to that point.

Hey, I'll take a kiss, and you can tell me any little thing you want. Just don't tell Rod, he'd wrap me up in linseed soaked tarps and light a match! We have only done two jobs with A-C. Compared with RS, it is not as easy or quick on application. A-C does spot and lap. Coverage is much better than RS on softwoods. For a partial linseed base, it does cure out quickly and with a shower, probably no problem. With porous woods, a downpour within two hours may not effect the finish at all. Argg.., you must have a lot of TV Thompson users! In 8 years, have never had a customer ask about beading as opposed to observed sheeting. Yeah, you are right, it is stupid. I must have smart customers! Maintenance with A-C is going to be key. We will know a lot more in a year or two. Post or private mail any other observations. It is the first exterior stain that contains linseed oil that shows promise for certain jobs.

Beth, Jeeze, don't tell Rod, hope he doesn't read this thread. He'll be out cruising for a new wood minx! Can't be the can, that old metal retro design doesn't hold a candle to your main squeeze. Could it be Armstong? Never met him, does he have more hair than Jake? Hah!, sorry Jake, could not resist a cheap shot! Like I can talk, can't hear a lick and my top front teeth are fake! Anyway, if you could elaborate on your new found love, inquiring minds would be interested....

Daniel, The "left" deck is in shade a good part of the day, and the wood had not been cleaned, let alone stained for 4 full years. There was a decent amount of built up mold and mildew, thus the sodium hypochlorite wash. But there was also a good amount of oil and some pigment left in the wood, it only took one staining. See the 1st picture which is a closeup of the floor prior to prep. The 3 yr. old "right" deck had little mold/mildew, due to full sun exposure, but due to an overhang by the back wall, the deck floor had a decent amount of pigment in that area, but little in the remaining wood. The verticals still had a lot of pigment. To get a more even finish, it was best to use sodium percarb and citric. See 2nd pic. The price differential is small, 4 gals. of citric, one more gal. of stain, and a little labor. The "right" deck was not stripped, just washed with percarb, which better preserves the amount of oil already in the wood. The only choice my customers get is the color of Ready Seal. They do not determine prep methods. Wood prep is very important. And yes, the amount of stain applied, especially the first time is very important for longevity. It depends on the wood. Some jobs we do a double application on the horizontals the same day, other woods we let soak in for the night and finish the next morning. Some woods will only take a single staining.

Daniel, Yes, the stain is Ready Seal medium red on PT. Of course it will not look that good in a year's time of weathering and sun, no semi-trans oil stain will. You know that. Attached is a picture of 2 RS med. red decks we did delayed maintenance on this spring. The picture was taken after cleaning. The deck on the left of the picture was last stained 4 years ago, and cleaned with a bleach mix. The "lighter" deck on the right was last stained 3 years ago and cleaned or in effect "stripped" of remaining pigment with a sodium percarb cleaner and brightened with citric acid. After 4 yrs. still a lot of RS pigment left on the verticals of the deck on the left, some, but not much left on the horizontals. Why? The solution is in the picture. Tree shade. Plus, when we restore exterior wood with RS, we prep the wood correctly and apply a lot of stain. These decks are builder quality PT SYP that were not maintained for first 14 yrs., and the wood is now 21 yrs. old. I know, as I've lived here for 21 years.

David, Pressure treated southern yellow pine can look quite acceptable.

Finally, eureka! Looks like an upcoming week of no rain. Time to catch up on staining.