RPetry

Kevin, Big 6" natural bristle brushes. Tight spots get the 2.5". Yaz, You are only saying that 'cause I hosted your pics! Appreciate the comment, this cedar was a bit of work. Larry, You are right on the DIY and Home Depot. And especially right on the referrals. That is where we get most of our new business.

Kevin, Nothing. An NaOH stripper does no harm to vinyl siding, citric you can lick off, although we do rinse. No need for anything staining, you cut in by brush 18" or so and start spraying with the decker 5'er at about 25 psi.

Kevin, I do not get muddy. My helper does. I pay him.

Yaz, Let me be the first to say REAL NICE JOB! The middle pic of the prepped deck floor and the stained balustade shows the craftsmanship and effort you put into this terrific premium wood. The finished pic speaks for itself. Yaz sent me a bunch of pics and I picked out three. First picture is during stripping. We talked and figured it was probably some junk Behr's semi trans originally on the redwood. Second pic is of the floor prepped and the balustrade already stained. That redwood is so bright it hurts my eyes! Last pic is finished job. Why don't builders use decent stainless steel fasteners on premium wood? Ready Seal redwood only formula, medium red. Results speak loud and clear. Congrats, Yaz.

Yaz, Email the originals to me and I'll post them using my web server tonight. I had problems with the Kodak site.

Daniel, I can comment on ipe' and extreme heat. My own deck is skinned in ipe' and gets extremely hot in the summer due to orientation. In four years, have never seen any "sap" leaching out of the ipe'. The wood itself after installation does have a lot of, I guess, tannins, or coloring that is mostly removed with a good cleaning. After that, the only possible effect that heat has possibly had on some of the ipe' 5/4 x 6 decking boards are some hairline cracks that may have been caused by excessive drying of the wood. Less expensive Asian hardwoods such as "Phillipine" mahogany will leach out weird stuff, sometimes sappy compounds, often a crystalized "powder" of various colors. Is your "problem" deck high enough off the ground with decent ventilation?

Matt, I have used the same 12 volt, large, heavy, deep cycle marine type battery on my decker 5'er for the past 4 years. The advantages are two. First, the same battery has lasted a long time without replacement. Keep it on trickle charge when not in use. Second, I'd near guess that you can spray for maybe three solid work days before needing a recharge. Can't recall the last job where when done, there was less than 75% charge capacity remaining. The PumpTec pump seems to be very efficient. Pete and Tracy are right, these batteries are heavy. When loading / unloading the unit from the truck, we move the battery on and off separately. Long flights of steps same thing. If the gel type batteries Sun Brite supplies last as long in overall lifetime, at half the weight and even half the charge capacity, you may want to try one. Especially if you are generally doing smaller wood jobs and not the miles of fence Shane stains in Texas.

Kevin said: Is orange stain color a big seller on exterior wood on the west coast? Knew Ca. was a bit weird, but that seems totally out to lunch.

Matt asked: No, that is false. AFAIK, everything is combustible, differences are in temperatures where combustion takes place. Yes, Ready Seal is oil based, actually petroleum oil based. It does not appear to have the "spontaneous combustion" problem that many other oil based, particularly linseed oil based stains seem to exhibit. The flash point of Ready Seal is 140 F. but I do not know if that really means anything. In four years of using it, and 6 years in the business, have not heard of any fires with Ready Seal use. Certainly does not mean it cannot happen. Ken says: Ready Seal is not as refined as "Baby Oil". As far as I know, RS is a single step refinement of out of the ground natural paraffinic oil, most like "mineral" oil. Pure "mineral" oil is more highly refined, and is probably closest to "Baby Oil". Ready Seal does contain mineral spirits. 15% as of the last 30 gal. shipment MSDS I received last week. And the product has not changed in any perceptible way in the past 4 years.

Matt, Takes practice. The first season I used my decker 5'er and adjustable gun, went through a whole lot of t-shirts and shorts. Even before that just brushing, seemed to get a lot of stain on me and my attire. You can always tell an experienced painter after a full days work. He is the cleanest one of the crew.

Received some photos of Massaranduba (also known as Brazilian Redwood) in an email last night. The deck was built last summer and Penofin applied. As can be seen from the picture the finish is severely spotted. Almost looks like it rained immediately after the Penofin was put down and marred the finish. Customer has used a floor polisher with a "green" pad dry, then again with a TSP solution. Next, he tried a "Dawn" soap washing that Penofin suggested. All to no avail. This job is a bit out of my service area being down the Jersey shore, but I may take it on as I go down that way to fish! Have not seen it personally, and am inquiring if any woodies out there may have run into something similar in the past. Thanks.

Beth, Don't we all! It has been one busy spring. Getting caught up finally, and starting to hustle for more work shortly. Ken, That was my first impression, will try and find out. Doubt it is mold, built and stained immediately last summer.

Just starting to slow down too here in central NJ. Now's the time to start contacting maintenance customers.

Yaz, Come on, call the Vogels of ACR Products. They are located in Easton, Pa. I order 30 or more gallons of Ready Seal by 2 PM and it is at my doorstep the next day UPS with no shipping charges. Being in Cliffwood, NJ, you may very well get the same fast delivery. If not, what?, two days for delivery? And ACR carries just about all the chems, parts, and accessories any woodie could ever need.

Hey Diamond Jim, Weird, you are only about 100 miles away as the bird flies and you are seeing this foul mold / fungus / whatever on jobs? Here in NJ in the past 6 years have never seen anything like it. I'd be very surprised if it had anything to do with Ready Seal. Have you seen this on exterior wood stained with other products?

In the woodcare business, the only manufacturer I truly rely on is my stain manufactuer. Stain is unique, proprietary, and by far the largest factor in overall material costs, operations, and customer satisfaction. Product must be available, consistant in formula, and of high quality. Everything else is easy to replace. NaOH strippers, percarbs, and acids are available from numerous vendors and in my experience, vary little in performance and are competitive in price. The one vendor we have come to heavily rely on, and who is like a silent business partner, is ACR Products. Tom and Barbara Vogel have built a terrific small business, supplying us with nearly everything we could possibly need. Not only Ready Seal stain and chemicals, but ACR is my equipment vendor. From Hydro Tek Pressure Washers, PumpTec decker 5'ers, Shurflos, fittings, wands, hoses, defelting pads etc., they have it all. Aside for some power tools, cannot think on one piece of equipment that I purchased from anyone else. And in addition, they service just about anything to do with pressure washing.

Hey Mike, If you recall, we participated in a meeting together in NJ last August. That is some scary looking stuff. We also use Ready Seal almost exclusively here in NJ and also work on quite a bit of cedar. Have never seen anything like that discoloration to date. Sure hope we never do. Two suggestions. First, the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisc. may be of some assistance. Their web site is: Forest Products Laboratory -- Forest Service -- USDA Everette Abrams may have a good contact there. Also, the Western Red Cedar Lumber Association may be helpful. Their website is Siding, deck, deck design, fencing, gazebos, sheds & pergolas If you get to the bottom of this, please let all of us know.

Ken, Very weird. Does WRC even have enough tannins to bleed anymore? What is strange is that the deck is only 2 months old. Some kind of fungus spores? Looks like the "stain" is running down the vertical cedar. You and I in Pa. and NJ have had a very dry spring. Ct. get a lot more rain? Maybe J. Foley who lives in Ct. has some idea. Got an idea. Call Ed Burke of the Western Red Cedar Association. He is domiciled in S. NY if I recall. Might have an idea. Seriously, the guy certainly seems to know his stuff about cedar, but is a bit off on maintenance. Shane will vouch for him, they are best buddies.

Charlie, Listen to Shane. He is a bleach woodie extraordinaire! He and Jim Foley have won awards. The two founders of the BDA. Seriously, both Shane and Jim use sodium hypochlorite with terrific results on exterior wood. I still only use it for RS maintenance, but probably do not run into the mold and mildew problems that others face. There are some very old hands around in the wood business and once you get to know them and they trust you, extraordinary information and help is not far behind.

Charlie, I agree that out of the three chems, percarbs seem to be the least effective in removing mold and mildew. NaOH seems to be somewhat better, but my guess would be a 1.5-2.5% sodium hypochlorite mix is the best of the three. Not sure what NaOH in sodium hypochlorite does. Celeste mentioned "outdoor bleach" which I have never heard of. Know the laundry Clorox does contain a very small amount of NaOH but again, to what purpose, I have no idea. Maybe Rod, Kevin, Plainpainter or other chem wiz can help out. Have avoided using a bleach mix on raw wood for two reasons. First, it just seems to "dull" the coloring of the wood, and kind of also mutes the initial coloring of RS. Also seems to be some question if any acid can neutralize sodium hypochlorite. And with RS, I want the wood to be slightly acidic. A light bleach and soap mix sure works great for RS maintenance though, when oil and pigment is still in the wood.

Terry, We only do wood so don't run the PW fulltime. But Tom Vogel of ACR Products taught me a trade lesson years ago. In March, or whenever you are gearing up for the season, just put on new male and female ends of quick connects. An easy DIY task before the season starts and the hardware cost is nominal. Just normal before the season maintenance and saves the hassle and potential problems when your business starts rolling.

Charlie, I would guess there is no harm in mixing two or even all three together. If I understand correctly, you are specializing in exterior wood. To what purpose would you want to combine bleach, stripper, or sodium percarbonate? Separately, all three chems have their use. But do not know of any need to mix them. Something new and different?

Ken, Didn't the camera come with a USB cable? Don't know much about Windoz XP or Vista, but downloading from flash memory should be near automatic. Works in an instant using Linux.

When I was just starting out, used Wolman's wood cleaner, a percarb based product. Mixed up a 5'er and after putting a few gallons in a backpack pump up, threw a lid on the 5 gal. bucket. A few minutes later, that lid blew off that bucket as if a M-80 had exploded. Enclosed gas can create a bit of pressure. No Dawn needed.

Matt, Greg's on to something. If the Dawn had ammonia in it, which is quite possible from your description of the label, you may have created a real fun gas. Sodium hypochlorite mixed with ammonia creates "chlorine gas". Very effective in trench warfare in France during WWI. Killed 10's of thousands of soldiers.