JFife

How's this for contradictory......why not latex?? I am assuming this homeowner wants his house to look PAINTED, not stained. Am I right?? If we are talking a stain, as in something translucent like a hardwood floor, then oil is the way to go. But if you want the shakes to look painted, I'd go latex! Dries more flexible than oil paints. And you need to be VERY specific when picking the NAME of the product......you need a SOLID COLOR STAIN, not exterior paint. This will achieve the "painted" look, but is a product more suited to cedar shake. Of course, all of this is moot if you are indeed going with a natural, stained look.

That's cool Diamond...pass it on to your sons. Pitching is more brain than anything, if they learn the game, their arms will follow!!

did you play college or minors??

Q: What do you call a teenage rabbit???? A: A Pubic Hare. :)

What do you say about rinsing, shane?? Would you rinse the bleach off? I also am not impressed by the appearance of the stain. I'll stick with TWP/Greyaway. Nice website and marketing, however. Back to the rinsing question (shane), once the bleach turns the wood back to gold, it then starts turning silver. At which point with a thorough washing you can again get the wood back to gold. Do you thoroughly wash, or just rinse and leave it silver? One a three yr old mildewed/nasty fence w/ no sealer Shane, what percentage bleach would you want to HIT the fence?

I just went over to Deckguide to CUT and you'd changed the post I was wanting. I am seriously sitting here doubled over laughing looking at your proposed-names for Woodtux stain. From "brownous" to "Mr. Brown", and of course the chivalrous "Sir Brown Wood Tux" and "Lord Brown King of Stain".LOL How have I never seen this post??LOL

[cut and pasted post from Diamond James I missed this for some reason. Brown Angus , Black and Tan, Brownie Point, Brown Nose, , Brown Sause, Brown Stains, Earth Tone, Nutmeg, After Fall, Before Spring, Under Pants ,Copper, Big B, NWORB, Brown Sheild, Brownage, Brownous, BrounTy, Mr brown ,Sir Brown Wood Tux, Lord Brown King of Stain, Brownster ] (my personal collection of your posts will be stored here for my amusement):) I'll be posting the all-time classic next,

I mentioned this in another thread, but I think it was probably deleted. I did an accidental experiment with bleach on my pt fence last year. Here are the factors: The fence I'd estimate to be three years old, grey and never sealed. Just to see what happened, I sprayed a small section with household bleach, and didn't rinse it. I wanted to see what would happen over time, if the wood would turn white, then weather back yellow, etc. As you'll see in the pic, the wood has stayed a white color, after one year. A week or so after the bleach dried (again, no rinsing at all) I went over there with my sample can of TWP. TWP samples come in these really nifty aerosol cans. I basically just wanted to see what the color would look like on the bleached wood. I was impressed. You'll see the runs, etc., and will know exactly how much time and effort I put into this experiment. I wasn't trying to prove anything, just checking the color. After one year, here is the result. Frankly, I've worked a lot harder and had much worse results after one year than this. Jon

Okay, I think I've figured out a way I'd like it better. Try breaking it up into some more paragraphs, and maybe a bulleted-list of four things. By using Dagan Exteriors: *deck will be protected and maintain it's natural beauty *benefit *benefit *and, your detailed craftmanship will be admired for years I re-read the letter, and still got bored. Most businesspeople have a short reading attention span, that is why sales books all have three page chapters, listing, side bars, etc. These builders will be the same; so chop it up some and keep it brief. Leave the info like Ken said, remove tiger, chop it up, and send it out!!!

Crown, ..I stand by what I said, but I'd forget it if I were you, because you just had someone say it is great. Maybe I'm an oddball. Ken is a great writer, and he likes it, so I'd go with it.

Two words: RON MARSHALL ...You need to talk with Ron **********. He's da man on this sort of thing. Just call his cell, he's always willing to talk,

I think it's pretty good. The second paragraph is better than the first, in reasoning and salesmanship. If you send it out the way it is, it will be fine. If you want to fine tune it some more, give us a few days on here and give some of us an opportunity to help you polish it and it will be great. Either way, I think you'll accomplish what you need. It's just when I proof something, I try to be as active as possible, so my first take was that the first paragraph was a little boring, and I ended up "skimming" a couple sentences as opposed to absorbing them. I think you could drive a better point in the first paragraph than the "YOUR customer is forced to find someone, etc.". My idea??? Don't have one yet. But if you are interested in feedback, post back here and I'll stew on it for a day or so. Good luck,

Vandiesel, ....now I'm interested! Where/what did you find that has a wraparound handle?? I'd definitely explore other brands, just haven't found any with that feature, thanks,

Vandiesel, What the biggest difference is, is the wrap-around handle. It makes high work MUCH safer, and reduces operator fatigue. One of the cheapy's is fine if only using periodically; but if you use them a lot, before long, the buffer will get away from you. Hands down, the Makita tools are the SAFEST, for what we all use them for.

CrownRoyal, If you are using buffing pads, you need the Makita 9227C BUFFER, and you can also use an Osborne Brush with these. Or, you can get a 9564CV 4.5" angle grinder (Makita) which is variable speed to run an Osborne and other grinding/sanding tools. I WOULD NOT get any grinder that is not variable speed, you'll kill yourself. This grinder I've mentioned runs around $160, and you'll need to get it at a power tool store, not HD or Lowes, they won't have it. Log Home Store does sell this model. Regarding Harbor Freight, I only buy occasional-use stuff there, i.e. battery cables, tool sets for the trailers, etc. Without trying to sound like a know-it-all, if you are going to get/use these type of tools, get the EXACT ones I've mentioned. Unless there is something new out there, these not only work the best, but are the safest, for various reasons. Hope this helps,

Jeff, My favorite product is TWP, and the greatest advantage I'd see for you is that you could actually go to a paint store and get it, since you don't do a large quantity of this work. Find an "ICI Delux/Glidden" paint store, get TWP 101 Cedartone.....easy, good price, and your customers will be thrilled. The other choices given are fine; problem for you is that you'll have to do the whole mail-order thing, etc.

I wish I'd known about this secret "bleach handshake".......I was told it was the group's protocol to do the Elephant Walk......once again I am a sucker (no pun intended:)) I didn't realize shane and the like were just rinsing, not actually washing with pressure. Shane, on most decks do you apply and wash with pressure?? Or do you always just rinse?? Seems to me most of your "during" pics have the wood a golden brown....which to me would be indicative of washing with pressure.

How can I argue with that logic??:) I concede, fences are a bad idea:)

Think about this Rick--I'd say it takes three times as long to wash a fence as to stain one (rough guess). If you could cut your labor down by 75%, all other costs the same, and lower you price a bit (I don't know how much), you could do these jobs for far cheaper than before, and at a far greater profit per hour. Aaaaaand, you wouldn't have the felting, which is generally what makes the fences look bad. All I know is, there is nothing more revolting to me than seeing a million-dollar home with a nasty fence. I think homeowners would LIKE to keep them looking nice---if it were a more reasonable cost. thoughts?

The reason I posted this is because it got me thinking......few of us ever sell fence jobs, especially restoration. Maybe new or recoats, but not restoration, just cost too much for the perceived value in most customers eyes (IMO). But what if you could just spray on bleach, rinse, (NOT pressure wash down to fresh, gold wood), let it dry and stain?? The labor on fence jobs is in the washing, especially shadow box. I think this is a viable option--especially for treated wood, when the cost of a restoration is darn near the cost of a new fence. Just some food for thought, figured I'd throw it out there.

Seymore, you are a genius:) Does the stain/color look kinda green??? Must be the photo, it actually looks really gold

Told ya it turned out white, LOL. See if i can fix it,

Do you sell it?? Send me a bottle!! I'll gladly pay s&h and for the product. Man, that would be a great gift to give customers! How much do you make in a year?

LOL, ....once again I am pleased to say I have no idea what you are talking about, LOL I just got done reading about 10 posts by you, and an otherwise aggravating night chasing one of my dogs around the neighborhood for four hours took a turn for the better:) I am going to cut and paste some of your past posts here when I get a chance tomorrow,

if just mill glaze will come off with a light chem wash, but if it is a true Thompsonized or Wolmanized lumber, you may as well let it sit a couple yrs or do a light strip, Just washed some on a deck, 5yrs old, still was on the wood you could tell.