RPetry

Charlie, Real nice job. After 3 1/2 yrs. of weathering, did the cleaner water look like it was mixed with blood? You are right, ipe' is awesome. Especially as it is a yearly service! Congrats.

The weather god must be blessing us in NJ. This past week has been mostly sunny, temps in the 70's, low humidity, and only a few passing showers at night. This perfect spell won't last much longer. At 7:59 PM tonight is the summer solstice. It is 58 F. here and fair sky at the moment. Makes getting up early worthwhile.

Adrian, Very interesting design. Not sure that 3 fasteners per joist was needed, with all the holes the middle looks like it was hit by a shotgun. I trust you posted the wrong picture, and the wood shown was before you stripped and brightened.

Matt, I would be real careful on this job before quoting a price. At minimum, test out some hot stripper mixes to see if you can remove most of that old acrylic without sanding for days.

Any tricks? We have about $80 worth of natural bristle brushes that have been soaking in paint thinner for 5 days. Combed and brushed a few times but still "stiff" from WoodTux use. Hate to throw them out. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Kevin said: Aren't you domiciled in California? Guess what!

Beth, You're not kidding. I would have posted a nasty diatribe on TGS if I had to throw those brushes out due to a stain. Kevin saved me ~ 3 cases of Heineken.

Kevin, Thank you very much. A quick combing in lacquer thinner, followed by a 30 sec. bath in Simple Green cleaned the WT out of the brushes just fine.

I always thought "stain" was the actual pigment of the product while "sealer" is the property of moisture inhibition, ie: oil rejecting water penetration in wood, of the same product. Sealing out water and staining the wood with coloration, all in one product.

Matt, You must have bigger cojones than I. Always wanted to try that in a commercial sized washer, but was afraid the NaOH would damage the washer or trash someones next laundry wash. Jim, As Beth mentioned, you can also use the balustrade to strip tarps. Hang them as you would when staining, and apply the stripper to both the wood and canvas. This has the added benefit of protecting plants from NaOH overspray. Pressure wash off along with the wood. The only problem with this is you can only hit 1/4th of the tarp at a time if you use the 9' x 12' size.

Charlie, As far as I can remember, bought them at Lowes or Home Depot 3 or 4 yrs. ago. Half the time the sprayer does not work, so you just remove the cap and splash the test stripper/acid on the wood. But it is weird. Sometimes after a few months, the sprayer will start working again. Kevin, Actually, I think I have a 24 oz/gal. test stripper mix in the kit. Thank heavens have not had to use that in a while.

rtate, Trash the electric power washer. You do not need a PW to clean ipe'. The "white" marks look like a combination of furring and wand marks from too much pressure. Buy a large, soft brush on a pole at Home Depot. Apply the cleaner and scrub. Hose rinse off. Throw on your acid, let dwell for a while, and rinse throughly. When dry, lightly sand all the ipe' with a random orbital sander, 60 grit paper is good. You can mimic WoodZotic by mixing equal quantities of Wood Tux western cedar and brown sugar.

Scott, No. It is old, trash wood with a garbage stain. New PT Southern Yellow Pine 2x2's are near dirt cheap. Not worth the effort or stripper expense. Dumpster material.

Good site and bookmarked. Thanks Charlie.

Pete, Holy smokes! What a great job on blending new and stripped cedar. Masterpiece of craftsmanship. Particularly with cedar. Hall of Fame work.

Ditto. At least in the wood business, referrals are king. Show up on time for estimates, be there to start the job when you say you will, and give an extra sidewalk wash, picnic table clean, or mailbox cleaning and staining. Something little in your time and effort pays very big dividends. Most customers will not forget free and gratis.

Matt, Do it in front of the customer when going on the initial estimate. Eyes literally light up when a nasty, dirty stain cleans up to great looking real wood. Use a nylon scrub brush to agitate the NaOH (for you, simulating a PW) and throw a small bucket of water on it when ready. Follow up with an acid. Ask your customer to look at the wood the next day. Works wonders.

Jim, Strip them when you are on a wood stripping job. The best method is to lay the canvas tarps out on the floor without folds. Throw on your NaOH mix and let dwell. If the tarps are real bad, turn them over and soak with your NaOH mix again. Hit 'em with a bit of pressure and rinse well. No need to neutralize! Of course, do not charge the customer for stripper used. Hang the tarps on the deck balustrade overnight to dry. Win - win for both. Your customer gets part of the deck floor stripped for free and you have usable canvas tarps.

Matt, We have 4, 6, 8, and 12 oz./gal. of NaOH strippers in spray bottles, as well as small containers of BTN BFSII and RemoveAll 310 specialty strippers in the truck. Also carry a spray bottle of citric acid. With the owners permission, a definite YES. Nothing like it to close a job. An old timer, now in the distribution business, gave me a tip on sales years ago. When quoting a deck job, he would do a huge test strip on the most noticeable part of the deck. Owners were reminded daily of how good their wood could look, with this glaring anomaly both a reminder and making the rest of their wood look like a eyesore. Very effective closing technique.

Florin, To be honest, it may be cheaper for the customer to replace that fence and have you stain it.

Big kudos to ESI, their WT stain does look terrific when first applied to hardwoods. Deck is red mahogany, stained last spring with some water based garbage by some painting co. Got a call three weeks later to take a look. Asked the customer to wait a year, and called in March. Booked the job this spring, partially based on a WoodZotic job picture we did on ipe' last year. Finished staining on Friday morning. Maybe the third time is a charm. We will see, this job is about 600 yards from my home as the crow flies.

Rafal, It is not the WoodTux stain, it is the wood. This is red mahogany. Most hardwoods show variation in natural grain and coloration.

Scott, The labor and materials on the job were quoted as a regular "hard strip oil solid and sand" job. Then discounted the labor by 1/2 the price of 2x2 new spindles, about $160. Customer pays for the rest of the spindle lumber. Thought is this. We all know that 2x2 spindles are very tough to strip off an oil solid as one cannot get a regular random orbital on the insides. In addition, with the tear out, the remainder of the balustrade is flat wood. Much easier to strip and certainly to sand. Even with tear out labor, mitre cut and reinstall with screws, I think labor wise as well as project wise, we are ahead of the game.

Beth, Thanks. Good wood does most of the final look. But the real question is... 1. How long will the stain last? And more important... 2. How easy is it to maintain?

Kevin, It is the old WoodZotic mix, or close to it. 50% western cedar, 50% brown sugar.