RPetry

Matt, An old time trick is to use a tennis ball to hold the trigger on the gun. It is kind of a safety feature in that if the gun is dropped, the tennis ball pops out and the water pressure stops. May prevent a nasty gash to a leg, HP eye squirt, damage to siding.

Jon, I purchased 50 lbs. of ACR 760 stripper yesterday. Cost was $180. No shipping involved as I was at their shop but is that expensive for 50 lbs of high grade wood stripper? The ACR 633 booster should work fine with any NaOH stripper. We use it on tough jobs with good results. I think some guys (MMI and Plainpainter?) are cobbling together their own mixes to give extra punch to the NaOH. Something about glycol or RV antifreeze? May want to search this site. Whatever is on that wood in the pictures looks very nasty. Multiple acrylic layers? You may have a good bit of sanding in your future.

Ron, Probably the largest and most successful exterior wood contractor in the U.S. to date. For all time. Mark is one amazing and fine fellow.

Daniel, Yes. The ipe' would have held WT and RS, maybe even other stains, better or "longer" in 6 months if the ipe' had weathered longer or been beaten to death on the horizontals with sodium hydroxide. The stain in the pics is WoodTux. Note. This was, or actually is, a "new" ipe' deck. Treated since construction. Look at the 5 deck boards to the left of the pic, next to the balustrade. Held the WT color better. Why? Due to the friggin' non-drying batch of WT early last year, that wood was stripped twice. Unlike some here, I have an ipe' deck. In 5 yrs. of maintenance, I have a close, long term experience with my wood. ATO, WT, RS, percarb, NaOH, citric, sanding, this ipe' has seen a workout. It gets full sun most of the day. When we get a breather from customer work, WT, RS, Defy, Armstrong-Clark, and a new BM hardwood stain will be applied to the handrail. Similar to the oxalic-citric test last year. Should be interesting in 6 months.

Beth, Hah! That is the 2nd straight time we have agreement. Guess a few yrs. in the wood business experience climbs towards the peak of the pyramid!

Paul, Different business models. Many, if not most specializing in exterior wood, build long term relationships with their customers. By definition, that means maintenance. By gross sales each season, that means a skewed geometric business growth over time. Most of us can make ipe' look like God's gift to man, day one. WT, RS, BM, Assie Oil, Penofin, Messmer's, Sikkens, F&P, Behr's, CWF, does not matter. What matters is value to the customer. Attached are two pics of WT on unweathered, "unseasoned" ipe'. Six months of NJ weathering over the winter. No sun exposure to speak of. Job was ~ $ 2K out of his pocket. Not a stain fault, a wood prep fault. Think the customer is happy? Think again.

Beth wrote: Yup. We are now advising customers with new ipe' to let it weather for a year before finishing. Either that are we are going to beat the snot out of it with sodium hydroxide. Don't know of any other alternative if you want a finish to last more than a heartbeat on new ipe'.

Hah!, ain't that the truth. My main man Chris, or "Cricket" as I call him, is off in Bath, Great Britain, attending a wedding this week. Another college kid will get out of school next week so this old man will be able to rest up a bit.

Matt, We have whips on our guns, maybe 20" long. Not sure if it will help with the tennis elbow, I still need cortisone shots once or twice during the season. Just watch it when working around railings. The QC tends to bang up the wood.

Hi Nate, You may be the first poster, or at least one I can remember, from South Dakota. Have fun, there is a lot of info here. Do not do homes, only wood. What in Lord's name caused that foul multi-brown stain in the 3rd picture? Sure cleaned up nice. Guess the calvary is gone. Could not get enough of those old westerns with the Indian fighting. Teddy Roosevelt loved South Dakota. The Black Hills are a National Treasure. Hope to see more of SD someday.

Jeff, There are a handful of high quality, competitively priced specialty exterior wood stains with qualities not found on any retail store shelf. For many reasons, we almost exclusively use Ready Seal, but there are other fine products. Once you adapt and get use to using RS, I do not think there is any stain that can compete in sq. footage per hour of labor. And maintenance stainings are a breeze. For most woods, in most climates, IMO paraffinic oil stains are probably the best thing you can put into the wood.

Jeff, ACR Products Inc. 555 Uhler Road Easton, Pa. 18040 (610)253-8005 office ACR PRODUCTS acrproductsinc@rcn.com Ask for Tom or Barbara Vogel. Terrific people. I'm not sure I would still be in this business if it was not for the chemicals, stains, equipment, and repair service they provide.

Daniel, Makita 9227C's with 3M pads for the mahogany floor, Porter Cable and Rigid 5" random orbitals with Klingspor 60 grit papers for the cedar.

Ken, Thank you. For all that you have given helping this small but growing industry, a thumbs up from you is much appreciated and valued. Craftsmanship costs. You have to both educate and sell to these types of customers. What is a deck like this worth? My guess, in todays dollars, even if you could purchase this quality of wood, maybe 70K? I priced this job knowing that the mahogany would need a hand buffing after stripping. The cedar would need a serious sanding for prep. A "blow and go" guy might get the job on price, but only once. Quality still sells, but it is a long term commitment. One has to be able to be able to hang in there for a few years, knowing that your craftsmanship and reputation will prevail.

Jeff, Guess we are lucky, am not aware of any manu. changing product composition on us. Started with HD-80, went with Bob's F-18, and now use ACR's 760 stripper. Tested a few others for different manus. To be honest, most NaOH strippers are very similar. The main reason we use ACR's is we can purchase in 50 lb. buckets as I make a run up to Easton, Pa. a few times during the season. 760 is also much cheaper, and just as effective. Same with stain. Changed over to Ready Seal about 5 years ago. Aside from an improved mildewcide formulation this year, AFAIK, the product has not changed one bit.

Hmm, my guess is the 2x4's are redwood. Really like 2x4 construction for deck floors. Very nice deck and wood.

Jeff, Jim made a good point in another thread concerning stripping. Some stain products are becoming more difficult to remove due to reformulations, either to conform with VOC regs or just manufacturing costs. The species of wood can also be a factor in stripping difficulty. Attached are two pics of a job we did last week. The full balustrade is composed of clear western red cedar, the floor and fascia of true red mahogany. Two separate coats of Cabot's ATO, mahogany flame color, were on the wood. At least one of those were the VOC compliant product. The mahogany stripped out nicely with 6 oz./gal. of ACR 760 NaOH only. The cedar needed 8 oz./gal, ACR's 633-ADD booster at 8 oz./gal., plus a thickening agent. Even at this strength, some sanding needed to be done. At that, a close look will show traces of ATO still remaining.

Matt, There is an extension wand for the gun that you can purchase. These are useful when spraying floors. No bending, just walk along laying down stain while a helper back brushes. With Ready Seal, use a razor blade knife to cut a large "X" in the top of a 5'er. Stick in both feed and return hoses and you are good to go. Use a heavy duty bungee to hold a 5'er to the unit. The fold down handle makes it difficult to move. Couple of parts to have on hand. Replacement tip for the gun, the tiny plastic seat for the pressure regulator, screen filter for the feed hose, spare fuses.

Matt, Most auto parts/supply stores should carry them. The decker hoses are identical to air hoses used with compressors. Fittings are the same. Might consider going with quality. I purchased an American made Gates last year as a replacement. Think it was around $70 for 50'.

Beth, I think Jim may be email challenged.... I sent him the PDF file from here as a backup. Jim, The cover picture has a monster white pergola. So that's Port Orford cedar? I want some...!

Thanks Beth! I'm emailing the pdf to two booked red mahogany customers now. Will keep them interested until we can get to their wood!

Beth, Do you know if Cleaner Times sells reprints of articles? There was a 1 pg. article in July 2007 on a tough restoration job we did. Along with this exotic woods article, reprints might be good selling tools. Jim, Is that the infamous "Defurno" on page 6? Rest of the photos are ours except for the cover. Is that redwood or some type of exotic cedar? Nice looking wood.

I want full credit for using Alka-Seltzer to clean exterior exotic wood. Writer needs to bone up on her per's and bi's.

Matt, Excellent post. We have been doing estimates in the way you describe for several years now. Many customers are curious of a price at the time of meeting. As I always take measurements, it does not take long to give them a "ballpark" figure. This is always followed up with a written estimate/contract within 2 days. A customized estimate, with your company logo, address, job description, materials list, etc. not only looks professional, it is professional. Very easy to setup on any word processor as a template, and is of benefit to you in accounting and operations standards. We always include a cover letter, and usually pictures of similar jobs, before, prepped, and finished photos. The best saved for last. 90% of the time, the bid package is emailed. No printing, postage, need to find a mailbox. Fast, efficient, and customers are impressed. Not sure if this approach helps much in scheduling. At the moment our next available opening is 7 weeks out, and at that I reserve a 7 day window for a projected start date. With weather and wood here in the Northeast, just cannot nail it down finer than that.

That is a serious consideration. A big project, possible one time customer verses many smaller jobs and many more customers with maintenance every few years. Depends on your business strategy. I know we would not attempt to tackle this job, at least until a period like August when things slow down. And at that, being a small shop, would probably partner with another contractor.