Gavin

My wife enjoyed that one. Thanks Jon.

Ryan, you're awesome! Where do you get this stuff? I'm just amazed at some of the info you guys go carrying around in your heads. Amazing! Thanks!

Nice work Tony. Looks great!

I think that by the time you figure in estimate time, travel time, chems, gasoline and helper pay (not to mention insurance, workmans comp, accountant, etc.) most of us are in that area ($55 - $75). And actual hours "working" verses getting the job, making that trip for the stain or pads or whatever else you need can vary greatly depending on your individual organizational skills. You "make" money by stocking up on materials in quantity, buying time saving equipment & having your proceedures streamlined. As well as doing a good job because if you have to go back (for any reason).....it's going to come out of your pocket and your hourly continues to go down. At $1.15 I wouldn't be able to survive. When I started, I kept raising my prices until the market stopped biting and then I still found that I had to be flexible depending on what neiborhood I was in. As well, if I'm doing a two-tone my price would be as high as $3.00 per square.

Happy B-Day Jon! You've got a beer waiting here in Colorado. I'll keep it cold for you. Gav

Mine was also off by about 1/2. I put in a 19 x 19 with 35lft (one I just finished) and it gave me $400. I made almost twice as much as that and didn't even charge my highest price. More like my midrange price. Besides, my prices vary a bit depending on what neighborhood I'm in so I could never use something like that. Trial and error is the best method for knowing what YOUR market will bare. At least for me.

I was reading through some older posts on furring and Paul and mentioned that furring (at least one of the causes) is directly related to sun/uv exposure. I'm currently working on a home that has a covered front porch made of Cedar and an exposed rear deck made of Redwood. I've been using Gemini's Injectible SafeStrip (which works really well, by the way). Most of the decks I come across here in Colorado have pretty bad UV damage so stripping is usually a cinch. I stripped both the porch and the back deck a day apart from each other. The covered front porch furred REALLY bad and hardly gets any exposure. The back deck gets full exposure most of the day and really didn't furr at all except for a few spindles which were easily sanded. So that leads me to my question......Does Cedar furr worse than Redwood? I know it's softer and that may be the reason but curious to hear other opinions since I really don't work with Cedar at all. Could it be that the covered Cedar stayed "newer" longer? Thanks for your input! Gavin

Got the pads in and they work like a charm! Rod, thanks for the call back and the help. Reed, you once again saved my backside! For the rest of you (Rod and Reed already know the story), I ended up defurring AFTER I sealed. Since I hadn't had a deck furr up that badly on me before I didn't realize how bad the defurring was (or atleast how evident it was) until after I sealed it. It was bad enough to where I wouldn't have been happy to leave it like that even if the fuzzies do come off naturally in 3 months or so. I was worried about the pads not taking anything off after I had sealed it and after I talked to Rod, he thought the same thing. Then Reed called and told me to give it a shot with the pads. Hooked up the Makita and went to town. The customer couldn't believe the differance and was extremely happy (even though they had not complained about the furring as I had forwarned them about it). The pad's texture is hard enough to get them off but not so hard it gouges the finish. I am going to keep a very large supply of these things in my arsenal! Thanks Beth & Rod! Gav

Hey guys, I'm wondering if something is going in my pump? When I first start up my washer for the day it takes a good 5 - 7 minutes for my pump to spray full flow. It kind of shutters a little then won't spray at all for a minute or so. After about 5 minutes it doesn't do this any more and I don't have any problems the rest of the day. I have a 4.5 gpm, 3000psi, 13hp Honda with a General pump. Pump only has about 100 - 120 hours on it. Thanks in advance for your input! Gav

Thanks guys, I'll give that a shot and let you know how it works out.

Thanks Reed, That's one subject I really haven't seen talked about when it comes to resurfacing. Appreciate the input! Gav

Hi Paul, Funny but most of my customers don't complain about the "matt shadow". I personally want to get rid of it if I can. Most of them say a mat is going right back there anyway so they don't care but I'd like to actually "restore" it if possible.....as a professional.

Supply has been varied from well water to your basic house supply. Haven't had to haul water very much lately. I have in inlet filter but it is checked & cleaned regularly, as well as the glass filter. I was just wondering if anyone elses pump has to "warm up"? Like I said, after the initial start-up in the morning it doesn't act like that the rest of the day regardless of where or what I'm drawing from. I also check and change the pump oil regularly. Thanks Ryan. Thanks Jon, that could be it. I had a problem about 8 months ago where some dirty water got into my tank and that could have happened then.

I'm stripping. Reed nailed it on the head about the strong chemical use. The porch is "L" shaped. On one side of the "L" stripped fairly easily. On the other side it was not the same case. I don't think it got any sun exposure at all so the original finish really "stuck". I ended up stripping that side twice and that's when the furring took place. This leads me to another question: What do you guys do about "welcome mat" stained areas? Almost everyone has them and I'm finding it difficult to get them out to match the rest of the deck. All your input is very much appreciated! Thanks Thanks Jon, I might give that a shot too. Gavin

Thanks Reed. That's what I was looking for. I ordered those defurring pads from Beth & Rod so I'm hoping to make quick work of it. It's funny though, I know I'm not the only one stripping decks in this part of the country and encountering this problem but you can't find "defurring/defelting" pads anywhere. Not only can you not find them but most of my vendors (let's make that ALL of my vendors) have never even heard of them let alone sell them. I guess everyone else is sanding??? Thanks again Reed! You are the man! Gavin

the porch is what furred.....it is Cedar not Redwood.

The pressure is not the issue. However, I did use less pressure than I normally use on Redwood. I always let the chemicals do the work, not the pressure. As I said, stripping here in Colorado is very easy. With excesive UV damage, in part caused from the high and dry altitude, high pressure is just not needed for stripping.

I always let my decks naturally dry for at least 48 hours before I seal. If it rains, then I wait at least another 24 hours.

Personally, I'm closer to the $2300 end. Sounds about right.

I use Greased Lightning from Home Depot. Works great!

It's about 90% dry. That picture was taken after a 2nd coat.

So I'm doing this 200 sq ft deck using TWP Redwood. Since I've discovered some better applicating brands I'm not using TWP anymore but here's the story. This deck is really old and is in horrible shape. Needed to be replaced not refinished. Anyway, so I have some left over TWP redwood and it was the color that the homeowner wanted so I figured I would use what I had left from a job a few months ago. I figured, Im not going to use super high quality on a deck that should be torn down. It was so bad I couldn't even sand the top rail (I throw in the sanding of the rail for free, minimally, with my bids). The screwheads alone would have torn my belt sander up. Not to mention, to get a flat surface again I would have had to take off at least a 1/4 inch! Anyway, the wood was very thursty and I ended up running out of stain about 3/4 of the way through. At this point the deck has already used enough stain to cover any "normal" deck this size twice! So I go to the same Kwal's dealer and get a couple more gallons of the same TWP brand and exact same TWP color...... or that's what I thought. The color wasn't even close. The new stuff I got looked like it had a higher solid content. I mean, the old stuff went down like stain should. The new stuff went down like paint. I don't get it. If a company can't keep it's colors consistant, why would ANYONE want to use them? Does a lot of good to track my color usage if it's not going to matter. Had to vent. Thanks for listening!

Hey Jon, Yeah, I used the same series. And you're right, it does settle badly. I mixed and mixed and mixed to no avail. This deck was in HORRIBLE shape so maybe that was a factor. I have some before pics I'll post. You guys will laugh. I'll post the after pics as soon as I get back over there (misplaced my digital for a few days). It is very true about UV degridation here. Most of the decks fail so badly that stripping is a cinch.

If a check is written to my company I have to deposit it. My bank will cash it but I cannot get "less cash received" on my deposit. I actually have to fill out a withdrawl slip seperately. They don't put a "hold" on my checks......maybe it's policy, maybe it's because they know me. Gunn Man, I also cash and don't deposit checks that are written out to me personally. My accountant uses my deposit receipts to track my business income. I don't think it's a good idea to mix politics and business so I'll be leaving the whole presidential issue alone.

That was TWP's Redwood 102 and yes it is a sealer. Personally, I like the color of the Superdeck Red Cedar better. It has reds and golds in it. My customers really seem to like it also. Here's a pic of that color on a deck I did recently. I'm still in the learning phase of what brand colors I like and don't like. Gavin