RPetry

Nice wood. Somewhat soft like cedar. Test stain before applying, can force the natural tannins out of the wood and turn black.

Hmmm... Not just sad, bad for business, yours and their own. Lessons not learned makes Jack experience challenged. Redefining customer service is not someone's strong suit. But then again it is Sunday and the Pope is in town. St. Anthony may be your best bet. Tomorrow is another day and by the way, "when's my order being shipped!" Sorry Ken, just kidding around. Things always seem to work out, and miracles do happen! Hang in there...

Ken, Ready Seal will stay on foliage and potentially kill plants just as effectively as any other stains, acrylics included. Percarb may work, just don't think it is as through in emulsifying oil.

Dependent on the plant, if it loses the majority of its' leaves, it can die. May seem contrary to common sense, but I would apply a light NaOH stripper to the foliage and rinse very well with very low pressure. This may remove any surface oil. Have yet to kill plants with stripper if wetted before application and throughly rinsed.

Jim, I think you have it backwards. Any women in the world would ask: Is this about men? :whoops:

Voted "other" although "ease of use" is high on the list due to increased productivity. Longevity is generally not an issue as at least here in the Northeast, premium stains, ie: WoodTux, Ready Seal, Bakers, etc., all seem to last about 2 yrs. on softwoods. Ease of maintenance is primary. The ability to restain time and time again without stripping is very beneficial to customers and is a real selling point. Consistent, high quality manufacturing standards. The stain is always well made, with the same ingredients, formulation, and performance qualities, year after year. Never a problem with the product. Availability. Never a delay in getting the stain. We try not to carry more than 50 or so gallons in stock at any one time so it is important. ~ 85% of our jobs are one of two colors, but we often need non-stocked colors quickly. Shipping. Hand in glove with availability, the product must ship quickly without delay. Thanks to ACR Products, our stain arrives on the doorstep within 24 -30 hours after the order. And free freight with quantities of 30 gallons or more. Can't beat that service.

Voted stripping off mystery product. In reality, dealing with those poor customers that have multiple coats of acrylics ruining their wood is by far the worst part of this business.

Wall of Fame advice for any small, growing business. Write it in stone.

Matt, Here, Here! Transforming an old, neglected, house washer concrete guy into a true woodie is a thing of beauty! Restoring wood is hard work but the satisfaction cannot be matched by any other pressure washing specialty.

Stopped by yesterday to look at our 1st WoodTux - ipe' job finished about 8 months ago. Not too bad, the horizontal wood has faded quite a bit but the vertical wood has held its own. For those that know, this particular WoodTux stain was the "corrected" or late season "no need for Japan dryer" version. The bad batch was initially applied to the vertical wood and had to be stripped off so the corrected stain could be used. An interesting observation. When we first started the job, the wood was stripped of a failed Messmer's stain. Then the "bad" WoodTux was applied to the full balustrade, fascia, and stair stringers. This was when the drying problem became apparent. Take a look at the 1st picture and the difference in color/stain retention of the left 4 floor boards as compared to the rest of the horizontal wood. These 4 boards were stripped twice, as I had decided to test the "bad" batch on the those 4 horizontal deck boards, prior to removing work already completed. Food for thought. My guess that removing more "natural" oil or resins out of the ipe' by doing a 2nd strip helped in color and stain retention. Confirms the idea of letting ipe' just sit and weather naturally for a year or so helps in getting better service life from stains.

Daniel, Mahogany is much closer in nature to cedar than ipe'. No need to "kill it" with caustics unless you love to do a hard sand or buffing. With proper prep and a good stain, there should be no reason not to get 2 yrs. between maintenance service, especially with the wood being shaded.

Daniel, I think I have learned something, so this job is a "success". The customer would probably disagree, hoping to get more durability from the stain since last August. In general on the WT ipe', the horizontal wood shows little if any pigment or "top layer" left. This is especially true where the wood is exposed to a lot of sunlight. The ipe' has not "grayed" yet, but it is only April and I would expect at the 12 month mark the sun will have done its work. However, where the wood was stripped twice, the WT appears to have lasted longer. One exception is a section of balustrade top rail, where there is a lot of sun exposure. If you look at the bottom of the 1st picture, you can see virtually no evidence of remaining stain. And the full balustrade was stripped twice. This job is enlightening when compared to using Ready Seal on my own ipe' deck. The 2nd picture shows my top rail stained with RS medium red at nearly the 1 year mark. Certainly more pigment and I would guess stain remain compared to the WT ipe' deck. My floor also has a little more pigment remaining, note that it was stained with a different RS color mix, 50/50 brown - red. This is not to say that RS outlasts WT on ipe'. Although my deck gets a lot more sun than the WT deck, I opted to let it weather for a year which helped remove some of the natural ipe' extractives. The WT deck has never really weathered, as the builder threw on some Messmer's stain immediately after construction. My ipe' is also ~ 3 years older. At the moment, I would consider any durability comparison a wash. But I think it shows that allowing ipe' to either weather naturally or artificially by degrading with caustics helps in stain retention. I've got an idea. Anyone want to donate a pint or so of "good" WT? I've got a few partial 5'ers of "bad" WT that should not be used. I'll prep my ipe' and stain part of my top rail with WT, part with RS. Just like we did with the oxalic - citric - ipe' thread last year. We'll let it sit for a year and monitor with pictures periodically. Might be interesting.

No one gets outta' here alive!

Kevin, Nah. I'll be riding my motorcycle drunk in a high traffic accident area while chain smoking cigarettes. Hope I don't fall off... :thinking:

Add in the natural oils and/or resins in the wood.

What is the most effective way to get jobs? Easy answer. REFERRALS.

Hah! Out with the Diamond Jim, in with Jesse James. Really picked up this week. Closed 6K in decks since Tuesday. Started operations today cleaning the first job of the season. Help! Worked less than 3 hours and I'm beat. Can't wait for college to get out. Its been a late start to the season due to weather, but my new business (1st time customers) is up from the past few years.

Matt, The MSDS or product spec sheets should list a flash point. AFAIK, Beth is right. Any product containing linseed oil should be used with care.

Pete, Aussie oil on ipe', to put it in Jim's terms, "Sucks". There is something about the product that is near impossible to remove. Especially in the gaps between deck boards. From your pics, looks like a light sanding (60 grit) to remove any surface errant stain is needed. After that, I would let it sit a year to weather, then a percarb clean and acid neutralize. But of course, your customer does not want to hear that. Get it prep finished and apply some WoodTux or WoodZotic or Ready Seal or whatever. Call him back in a year to redo.

Daniel, You should be getting 2 yrs. out of a parafinnic oil stain. 5 gals. for 400 sq. ft. is more than enough oil. Maybe differences in prep or moisture content when the stain was applied? What kind of stain and what color? Ready Seal, Woodrich, Bakers, TWP? The attached panoramic photo may be of interest. Same wood, same age, same exposure, and same stain which is RS med. red. The middle and right decks are the 22 month and 10 month old jobs as shown in the close up photos above. The deck to the far left was stained last April or 12 months ago. Observe that it is darker from a distance than the far right 10 month old RS deck. Why? If you take a closer look, note the large maple tree directly in front and centered. During the late spring, summer, and most of the fall this wood is shaded from the sun. Direct UV exposure takes a heavy toll on exterior stains.

Daniel, I made a note that 4/13 is the actual 1 yr. anniversary. It may be a while before I get to restaining, customers come first. The ipe' will get a simple bleach/soap/water cleaning, no acid, and either a single application or two (if the wood will take it) of Ready Seal. I'll post pictures here.

Daniel, Mike in the post above is dead on. The only reason to ever strip RS off of softwoods is if the color gets too dark for the customer's tastes after numerous maintenance cycles. ~ 85% of our work is either cedar or PT and our customers see us every two years. With hardwoods, depends on the wood, foot traffic, sun exposure etc. Ipe' is yearly, while many mahogany jobs last two years. Just depends on the job.

Daniel, 3 pictures, the first about 10 months after a RS maintenance, the second at the 22 month mark, both RS maintenance jobs with the medium red stain. Both decks are 20 year old pressure treated wood, with full sun exposure. I know as they both are my neighbors. It has been my experience that no stain will "last" more than 12 months on ipe'. 3rd picture is RS medium red on my ipe' handrail, 3 weeks shy of 12 months of an initial staining. As the others, full sun exposure. Maintenance prep on all three is 1.5% bleach and soap mix with low pressure, followed by a single application of oil.

Daniel, We are in the same ballpark as Greg, typically 20% discount in labor for maintenance work. With Ready Seal, stain material quantities are ~ 60% of the amount initially used.

Nice job Pete, that color mix looks great on the wood. Speaking of Baker's, anyone seen or heard of Cajun' Shane?