RPetry

Beth, Hah!, you are not kidding. Tried to start and end this job in late May. What is it, late July? A true nightmare. Seems to be one every season but this job will never be forgotten.

John, I'll be joining you in a few hours, but only for the weekend. After this stretch of work even two days off is a blessing. Hope you have good weather and just relax. Go fishing! Summer flounder (fluke in NJ) are around, fun to catch, and very good to eat.

I'll piggyback on Daniel's thread. This is my first hardwood WTW deck in progress. Ipe', 10 months old, stripped, actually parts stripped twice, and the stain in the picture is still curing. The color is a custom tint. Looks very good and I'll try to take a few more pics when it has cured. Will be back Monday for touch up and payment.

Matt, I'm in Reed's camp on this one. Been using RS almost exclusively for the past 5 years and have never had a problem. Does not mean it cannot happen, and maybe I've become lackidasical, but paraffinic oils seem to have a much higher "flash point" than linseed oil based exterior stains. As far as tarps go, do a search as this was discussed recently. Do know that I've kept RS soaked tarps both in my truck and garage for years without a problem. Just strip 'em when they get so soaked with stain that they become dripping nightmares. Caveat Emptor.

Andre, If the Ready Seal did not dry within 24 hours, the teak is not prepped and ready for a penetrating stain. The following picture is a teak set that we prepped and stained this year. Sodium percarbonate wood cleaner applied, followed by a low pressure rinse and citric acid brightener. Ready Seal light brown applied to the teak by hand using lambswool pads. The Ready Seal was dry and the furniture ready to be used in about 8 hours.

Rod, you said: I entirely disagree. You are using tarps to protect your customer's property. The balustrade method is advantageous to both. The customer's foliage is protected from NaOH and the tarps are cleaned. Those tarps will be again used to protect the customer's property when the wood is prepped and being stained. The water use cost of rinsing is negligible. No different than using a customer's water supply when cleaning out a pump unit switching from a caustic to an acid. Or mixing your chems for that matter. All normal procedures.

Just replaced a Shurflo with a Delevan on a unit, but am sure we will run into the same situation with sodium percarbonate. When first mixed with hot water, sodium percarbonate off gases a ton of oxygen. This is what initially "chokes" the pump and is the cause of "bubbles" in the line. If servicing a small job, we will just use a backpack pump up to apply. Otherwise, start with the backpack, and allow the mix to cool and off gas excess oxygen, then start using the Delevan. 10 to 15 minutes is usually sufficient.

Rod, A suggestion. We have been doing this for years with our tarps and Ready Seal. Don't see any reason why it would not be applicable to WoodTux. When using RS on balustrade, we always drape canvas tarps on the outside to prevent overspray from the HLVP. Sometimes also on the inside, depending on deck configuration. After many uses, the tarps do get partially soaked with stain. Many new customer jobs require stripping. Drape these "stained" tarps over the outside of the balustrade when applying your stripper. This helps prevent wayward stripper from harming grass or plants and cuts down on presoaking and rinsing foliage. Soak the tarps well with NaOH, allow to dwell, and pressure wash off the tarps, as well as the wood. Alternately, you can spread the tarps out on a large deck floor, apply your stripper, and pressure wash the tarps. This gets a lot of the stain out of the canvas from normal overspray.

Kevin, If you cannot tell by looking at the wood, see if you can "dent" the wood by sticking a fingernail into the surface. If it penetrates into the wood, its most likely cedar or possibly redwood. Cedar is much softer than PT pine or fir. Being from Ca., you should be able to recognize redwood by sight. The fastener discoloring will eventually come back. This is the fault and responsibility of deck builders that use cheap fasteners on good wood.

Wayne, Careful and watch out for a "bullseye" mark around any tick bites. From the small size, sounds like deer ticks which are potential disease carriers. Don't know if it has reached as far south as Tenn., but here in the northeast Lyme's Disease is a real problem. I contacted it years ago, probably from running my Springer in the woods behind the house. Very difficult to diagnose at that time and suffered for about 6 weeks. Not fun. Long pants and high boots might be in order.

Beth and Ken, Ok. Apply fairly heavy, let sit for what 10 or 15 minutes and wipe up any excess? How do you do this without walking all over the stain application? Or do you walk on it and wipe out the inevitable footprints?

After a nearly two month delay, we will be using straight WTW for the first time, by customer request, on a 10 month old ipe' deck. Late May we prepped the ipe' and stained the balustrade, stair stringers, and fascia. In other words, all the vertical wood. It was then that we ran into the now infamous curing problem. At that time, the stain was applied lightly by hand rubbing with lambswool pads. No going back in 15 - 20 minutes to wipe out any excess, as the quantity of stain is very easy to control with lambswool. This past Thursday, stripped off that work and will begin restaining in about a week. The finish looked fine on the vertical wood using the lambswool method and aging 2 months. Have heard that the best method of application is to "flood" a small section of horizontal deck boards with WTW, allow to "penetrate" for ~ 15 minutes, and wipe up any excess. Can understand this when staining softwoods, but does this make any sense on a wood as hard and inpenetrable as fresh ipe'? Seems to be a very long process. If you can only do a 4 or 5 board course at one time, due to length of reach to wipe up any excess, staining a large deck floor would appear to take near forever. Or do you walk on the wet stain, and back brush or pad out the footmarks? What is the best method of application on the horizontal ipe' for both stain longetivity and production?

Charlie asked: Over the years, we've used 4 different NaOH strippers from 4 different manu's. Three are mentioned on this thread. For wood, to be honest, I don't think there is much difference between them.

Charlie, Due to hazardous materials shipping regs, some chems must be shipped in small containers. But you can order any quantity possible. For example, 50 lbs. of ACR 760 stripper might need to be shipped in 25 separate 2 lb. containers. I think Barbara Vogel is getting some type of haz. mat. certification for shipping that may help ACR to be able to ship some chems in larger quantities / container. I picked up 50 lbs. of ACR 760 in a single container last week. I'm lucky, ACR is only about an hour's drive for me. This year, the mix turns a nice green color which is helpful when using a Shurflo. Keep little kids away though, it looks like limeade!

Cabot's 7400 series oil-alkyd.

Terrific job Roger. Isn't ipe' a real nice wood? Hope you Brits can still get the "old" Aussie oil. Seems they have yet to get a decent replacement manufactured due to the nonsense VOC regulations here in the Northeastern US.

Beth, Thanks for posting that MSDS sheet. Talked to another contractor last week that had a truck fire and spill. Would have been fined mucho dinero without those at hand. Am now carrying all MSDS sheets in the truck. I like the "Evaporation rate: Slower than Ether". That is hilarious.

Matt, As I recall, straight sodium percarbonate when mixed with water releases oxygen. EFC38 contains NaOH if others here are correct, so a respirator may be desired. Oxalic acid has some health issues that you may want to review.

Kevin & John, Yes its a NJ thing. This state is nearly as bad as John T.'s NY. A sales tax of 7% must be assessed on labor.

Those flex wands are a must for anyone doing decks. Bought one my first year and still use it on every balustrade we pressure wash.

What a terrible thing to happen, not only to Dan and his wife, but the whole family. Tragic. If the other driver was drunk and/or "high", justice should demand some serious jail time.

"Nuttin' like sittin' on 'yer big deck lookin' at Uranus". As the guy bends down for a beer from the cooler. Pretty funny.

Matt said; RS med. red should look fine on that redwood. Just make sure to give the wood as much oil as it can take. http://www.thegrimescene.com/forums/wood-cleaning-restoration-decks-fences-etc/10744-best-stain-redwood.html#post105466 Link are some pics of RS med. red on very old, poorly maintained redwood.

Kevin, Take a look at the houses. Does not seem to be the demographics that most of us do work in. If it took us that long to clean a part section of half height shadowbox, we would be out of business.

Yaz, You are more than welcome. When new, often true. As hardwoods age, they will all take more stain. Shane hit it square when he said it depends on the wood itself. There is no hard and fast rule, even with the same species. One rule with RS on any hardwood or softwood is to get as much stain into the wood as possible.