RPetry

This was one of the most satisfying projects this season. I just don't get it. Previous homeowners had the deck built approx. 4 years ago, with white latex for the spindles and a Benjamin Moore's solid acylid stain. Real attractive color, guess they were trying to match the stucco on the house. Insult to injury, it was "maintained" by a "natural" color Behr's silicone stain. Problem is, the entire deck was built with red mahogany! An expensive and beautiful wood. Mahogany all over, spindles, deck floor, stairs, fascia, rail system, stair stringers. Even the main joist is clad in mahogany. Why would someone spend so much $ for premium wood then paint it? This deck could have been built at maybe 60% of the cost with SYP. New owners knew the floor and steps were mahogany, and wanted it restored. This job came via the Grime Scene, and a referral from Beth & Rod. Thanks.

Matt, No, the stripper cream is pressure washed off the wood like most other strippers. In one area, the spindles underneath the deck going down the stairs, the stripper cream did not work. If you look at one of the stair pictures, on the left you can see that the spindles are protected from rain. Due to the orientation of the deck, this area never receives direct sunlight. The primer and latex in this area was extremely difficult to remove. Solution was the old standby, Back to Nature's BFS II. This is a specialty stripper, originally developed to remove multiple layers of paint in a single pass. Even then, still had to beat the snot out of the wood with the PW. Funny, the builder must have run out of mahogany spindles, about half in this area are PT SYP, along with the bottom gate which must have been added later. As mentioned, the stripper cream is viscous and clings to vertical wood. The ground cover underneath the deck is Pachysandra, a pervasive, tough plant that grows in NJ like a weed. Some leaves may have been spotted by dripping stripper, but I did not notice any. Certainly no damage. There are many woods marketed as mahogany, but are instead various types of meranti of the Shorea group, typically from Asia. Philippine mahogany is one such wood. True, real mahogany is American mahogany that comes from Central and South America. There is an African mahogany, but I have never seen it and apparently it is not as durable as American mahogany. My experience with meranti is that it does not take anywhere near the amount of paraffinic oil that true mahogany does. Maybe your "dry" deck is meranti.

Over the years we have had occasion to use a lot of different NaOH powder strippers, including Rip It, F-18, HD-80, and ACR's 760. To be honest, I don't think there is much of a difference between them. As Rod mentioned concentration and dwell time, as well as the condition of the wood and old stain, and species of wood, are different when it comes to furring. Hardwoods in general always come out better with a quick sanding or buffing. Western red cedar often needs defurring, especially if a strong stripper mix was used to remove the old finish. But I cannot remember the last time we had to sand or buff a SYP pressure treated deck after stripping.

Matt, 13 gals. of Ready Seal. Although a hardwood, mahogany will take a lot of stain if it has been exposed to the elements for a few years. EacoChem's stripper cream is very viscous, almost a pudding consistency, and is applied by hand. That is, unless you have a monster airless. No masking, we never mask anyway. Closest we come is tarps over the balustrade when staining.

Thanks Beth. This one was a lot of work but worth it.

Once the wood was prepped, stained with Ready Seal medium red color. As is our normal procedure for first time jobs, 2 separate applications on the horizontal wood, and a single heavy application on the vertical wood. The deck now looks like mahogany. Not a painted nightmare. And it will be much easier and less costly to maintain for many years to come. With good wood, it is worth the cost and effort to restore.

Knew going in that this would be a stripping nightmare. What was really surprising, the mahogany spindles were primed and then stained with white latex before installation! No doubt about it. The floor stripped out well with ACR's 760 NaOH and ACR's 760 additive. Applied, gave it about 20 minutes, scrubbed with a stainless steel pool brush, reapplied the mix, and pressure washed. Easy. As the solid acylid/silicone stains were already failing, not a big deal. The vertical wood was the problem. Latex with an underlying primer is not the easiest finish to remove. After a few tests, EacoChem's Stripper Cream proved effective. Still, it took 2 strippings of the latex enclad spindles to get most of that foul "stain" off. Used the stripper cream for the remainder of the job, including the railings, steps, posts, fascia, and main joist. Neutralized/brightened with citric acid, no rinse. Every inch of wood except the main joists and posts were then lightly sanded with 60 grit.

No one, really no one, had or has a voice like Roy Orbison, RIP. It was terrific that he hooked up with Dylan, Petty, Harrison, and Jeff Lynn (Electric Light Orchestra fame) late in life and reignited his long musical career.

James, Softwoods do not have "pores", only hardwoods. I would imagine being in Atlanta, you mainly see Southern Yellow Pine which is a softwood.

Randy, The Traveling Wilburys. They came out with 2 studio albums.

Sorry Florin, I knew the Northwest is pretty wet, but not that bad! In a pinch, I guess you could spot stain the bare wood areas with a paraffinic oil such as Ready Seal, TWP, or WoodRich to get through the winter. The problem is the cedar should be dry before spot staining. I know Ready Seal strips very easily and would assume other paraffinic stains are the same. You may also try calling Russell Cissell of Extreme Solutions. Their stain, WoodTux, is designed to be applied to wet wood. The possible problem is curing in temperatures in the 30's - 40's F. range. But give him a call, he may be able to help.

Florin, Cedar is fine, as long as it does not constantly stay wet. As long as the wood can dry out periodically, it should be OK over the winter. Otherwise, it rots, slowly but surely.

Jeeze Sir Knowledgewood, Taking your kid to a Who concert is like your dad footing the bill to see Frank Sinatra! Oh boy, are we getting old? Hah!

Matt, I used 9 gals. of Eacochem Stripper Cream for the first time on a job earlier this month. It is extremely caustic, much more so than straight NaOH, and care in handling should be taken. Safety glasses are a must. I cannot imagine the damage if any got into the eyes. Good quality chemical gloves, preferably long must be used. Keep a source of fresh water close, I used a garden hose and nozzle. Get the stripper off skin or clothing immediately by flooding with water. I kept a bucket of citric acid handy to neutralize after rinsing the affected area, and rinsing with water again. BTW, stripper cream is not recommended for removing acrylics. I used it to strip off a primer and latex, as well as a Benjamin Moore acylid solid stain with a Behr's clear silicone applied on top. You apply it thick to the surface you are stripping and let it dwell overnight. Don't try to "stretch" it out, apply it liberally.

EacoChem's stripper cream is some really powerful stuff. Still have a hole in both my right thumb and arm from that nasty chem.

Great timing. Put the 2nd horizontal application of Ready Seal down yesterday on the last wood job of the year. Today, it was snowing for a while.

Matt, You are one brave contractor. "Boosted" NaOH can be effective on some acrylics, but not others. Hope you tried a test before bidding. Looked at a job yesterday for next spring. People just purchased the home 6 months ago. Large, western red cedar deck, just covered in a nice two tone acrylic nightmare. Wood rot was just starting in a few areas. A hot, additive NaOH test application did absolutely nothing to the existing finish. Decided to pass, there are some jobs and customers that are not worth the effort.

Richard, You have an unusual way of misquoting what exactly you stated and further insinuated. You are wrong. This had nothing to do about "beliefs". It had everything to do about intellect.

Hmm, lets see. Nancy Pelosi in the House with a majority, Harry Read in the Senate with a potential veto proof, filabuster majority, and a newcomer Democrat as President and head of the Executive branch. We will reap what we sow. Hold onto your wallets and free enterprise is not dead. Not quite yet.

On a lighter note, received an email tonight from a manufacturer of woodcare products. Thought it was funny. Subject: Immigration Crisis on our Northern border! From the MANITOBA HERALD, Canada : A flood of American liberals sneaking across the border into Canada has intensified in the past week, sparking calls for increased patrols to stop the illegal immigration. The possibility of a McCain/Palin election is prompting the exodus among left-leaning citizens who fear they'll soon be required to hunt, pray, and agree with Bill O'Reilly. Canadian border farmers say it's not uncommon to see dozens of sociology professors, animal rights activists and Unitarians crossing their fields at night. I went out to milk the cows the other day, and there was a Hollywood producer huddled in the barn,' said Manitoba farmer Red Greenfield, whose acreage borders North Dakota. The producer was cold, exhausted and hungry. He asked me if I could spare a latte and some free-range chicken. When I said I didn't have any, he left. Didn't even get a chance to show him my screenplay, eh?' In an effort to stop the illegal aliens, Greenfield erected higher fences, but the liberals scaled them. So he tried installing speakers that blare Rush Limbaugh across the fields. 'Not real effective,' he said. 'The liberals still got through, and Rush annoyed the cows so much they wouldn't give milk.' Officials are particularly concerned about smugglers who meet liberals near the Canadian border, pack them into Volvo station wagons, drive them across the border and leave them to fend for themselves. 'A lot of these people are not prepared for rugged conditions,' an Ontario border patrolman said. 'I found one carload without a drop of drinking water. 'They did have a nice little NapaValley cabernet, though.' When liberals are caught, they're sent back across the border, often wailing loudly that they fear retribution from conservatives. Rumors have been circulating about the McCain administration establishing re-education camps in which liberals will be forced to shoot wolves from airplanes, deny evolution, and act out drills preparing them for the Rapture. In recent days, liberals have turned to sometimes-ingenious ways of crossing the border. Some have taken to posing as senior citizens on bus trips to buy cheap Canadian prescription drugs. After catching a half-dozen young vegans disguised in powdered wigs, Canadian immigration authorities began stopping buses and quizzing the supposed senior-citizen passengers on Perry Como and Rosemary Clooney hits to prove th ey were alive in the '50s. 'If they can't identify the accordion player on The Lawrence Welk Show, we get suspicious about their age,' an official said. Canadian citizens have complained that the illegal immigrants are creating an organic-broccoli shortage and renting all the good Susan Sarandon movies. 'I feel sorry for American liberals, but the Canadian economy just can't support them,' an Ottawa resident said. 'How many art-history and English majors does one country need?'

Richard, It has nothing to do about belief, it has everything to do about facts. Quite frankly, no one cares if you think your daughter or granddaughter is smarter than Obama. Neither one is running for the President of the United States. You posted an inane opinion deriding Obama's intellectual ability that had no basis in fact. The truth is Obama has demonstrated over the past 20 years that he is a very intelligent person. Anyone with even a clue to another's ability, or the capacity to judge fairly, can see that. BTW, I am not an Obama supporter. Quite the contrary.

No vote. 7 months, April through October.

Jeff, Actually, the federal deficit compared to the size of the economy, or GDP, is not at unsustainable or unusually high levels. To be expected, WWII was the record, at 109%. Today, the US federal deficit is at about 37% of GDP. The real killer comes in about 20 years, mostly due to unfunded Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security obligations. See: Image:Debt to GDP Forecast Chart.png - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Just what this country needs, further progressive income redistribution. In 2006, the top 5% of income earners in this country paid 57% of the total federal income tax bill. The constant and consistent rant against income tax cuts for the rich is a sham. The high income earners are the ones driving entrepreneurship, enterprise, and the economy of this country. And while we are at it, let's just raise the tax burden on all those greedy corporations. Problem is, every citizen winds up paying that bill when they purchase a product or a service, and at the same rate, regardless of income. It cracks me up when progressive liberals champion a very regressive tax.