bigchaz

I dont think Lyle even needs a pressure washer or chems. He simply has a massive array of power tools that do everything imaginable to restore a deck. I hear his latest invention is a circular sander with a small hose through the spindle that supplies stain to some lambswool connected on a rubber backer pad. The buffing action of the lambswool drives stain into the wood and polishes it to a shine all in one step

Kirk this is why I hired a window cleaning professional to do the back of the customers house.

I'm not a big fan of that color but job looks good. Is that what the customer wanted?

Gonna need to keep it wet with a strong mix of f-10. I think you'll need more than 10 minutes dwell. Do it in sections or the cleaner will dry on you. That's a dirty fence

What are you referring to when you say fiber backed?

What kind of chems do you have available? Use sodium hydroxide (f-18, hd80, etc) mixed heavy and downstreamed or can be applied straight with a weaker mixture. Let it dwell for a few minutes and pressure wash off Brighten with oxalic or citric acid

Rick im pretty sure that 6.5 inch is only for polishing pads. Mine was, i just threw it out. Get you one of these 8" backers: here: 8" No-Hole Hook & Loop Backup Pad, 5/8"x11 Female Thread Arbor. or here: DeckGuide Pro Center © 2004 - G&K Distributors

Thanks for the tips guys. Tried to clean once more today but not much luck. Hired a window cleaner to hopefully fix the problem. Money out of my pocket but its better than the risk of me scratching the windows or something. This is four french doors and a big half moon window on the back of the house so its better to have it done right

Wooo well finally got a new camera after the old one with all my 2009 pictures burned up in the truck. Looks like ill get pictures of my last two decks this week. I wish I had time to go back around and get pictures from all the old customers this year. Problem is I hate when there is furniture on the deck for the picture

Yea I had two guys rinsing this house and all the bushes. Its the same process I use for every other deck I dont know what made this just stick all over the windows. We pre rinse, rinse during stripping, rinse during brightening and rinse afterward.

William: What soft scrub product should I use? There's tons of them. Do they all have bleach? I don't want anything getting on the deck. My first truck my dad cosigned so it worked out alright. Now I got no cosigner so interest is crap and banks wont do used loans. So I leased my dads 02 dakota until I can buy a truck with cash. May just wait until next season

Yea I love the circular sander. I use the Makita 9227c version of that sander with the same hook and loop backer bad. I always use that for rougher sanding but I was just curious what the use for a belt sander might be. Sounds like I'm quite alright with just using the circular FYI, not sure what you are paying but this is really good paper here: 8" Diameter, Solid Hook and Loop Platinum Paper Sanding Discs, P60D Grit, Box of 50.

For breakdown we do one square foot rate that includes cleaning, sanding, staining. If there is repair/replacement that comes in at a different price

Yea im talking about 5" and 6" RO sanders. Never seen anything like that beast before. Where do you acquire something like that and whats the learning curve without putting big lines in the deck?

Looking at the AC cedar toner for the deck, should I go with super cedar on the new parts to blend it? Is that darker enough

Not sure what to tell you about whether the wood is stained or not. If it is youll need to strip it off before putting the AC down. This is a crack shot but if you spritz water on the surface does it bead up at all?

The older part of the deck isn't in bad shape it just has a good amount of mold and certainly needs a cleaning for sure. So here's the plan according to what I've gathered from yall. Heavy strip on the new wood and regular cleaning on the older parts. Then do heavy acid on the new and regular acid on the old. The wood definitely doesn't need sanding but I will do some to help blend Rick: Don't have the job yet, just thinking ahead for options. Money is good and time won't be a problem. As for sanders...my two orbitals and makita buffer burned up but I've bought new. I don't have belt sanders but not sure how I would utilize them. Seems like they all have 3" drums which is pretty useless IMO. What are you using?

I figured the color won't be perfect and homeowner seems to recognize this. My fear is more with the fact that this wood couldn't possibly get any newer. Planning on armstrong cedar toner for this deck and I mainly don't want to have the new wood wear off in 6 months. Rick, will a strong NaOH help with penetration? I don't read all these threads with opening the pores of the wood, etc. I just don't want to end up putting one light coat on and have puddling since none of it soaks in

Are you are talking about putting a block between each and every spindle?? Thats borderline insane for a homeowner to request. I'd charge well over a thousand just to do that part alone

The surface was't prepped or weathered properly, so covering over an already bad finish isn't going to help you. You'll see less of the wood and you'll make your job down the road even more difficult stripping all the old stain off

If the ipe is brand new just strip it and leave it. Will still look good when people come over. The wood has some great color by itself

Personal opinion...not a big fan. Its like its stuck in the middle trying to be red and orange at the same time.

Wow thats some of the worst I've seen. If you are sanding the knots down before staining, lacquer thinner helps clean it up some more. On really old wood Ill do something similar to Ken, but we go around with a brush and dab stain right on the knots before starting anything else. After its already leaking I think ive read turpentine is best to remove the residue

I cleaned a deck for customer "A" on Monday the 15th. It rained today, rain tommorow, and I'll be out of town Thurs through Sunday. I never told the customer I would be going out of down. Customers B, C, D, and E are scheduled for next week. B and C expect me to be there first of the week. Do I make customer A wait until after B and C are done(24th or 25th)? Or do I need to notify B,C,D,and E and push them all back to accomodate customer A asap? Also, how do you go about approaching customer A with the potential notice that his deck won't be done for another week and a half? Sorry for the junior question, im usually able to put in double hours or saturdays and stay within 2 or 3 days of target, but going out of down potentially puts this deck 10 days off schedule.

couple inches of rain down here today as well