Beth n Rod

Ta Da! Here's one of the shots we took of the finished deck. We had a blast, the homeowner LOVES it, and he's already on the books for next year! Beth

Russ's wood care suite ROCKS. The cleaners came first, then the stain. All are made to work together to give you an outstanding look. If anyone has any questions or doubt as to if it is as good as we say, check out www.seedirttrun.com and look at the photos. Warm Honey Gold is SPECTACULAR. We love it. HD-80 strips like a champ. EFC-38 is great for cleaning decks and the occasional deck you suspect has a sealer ( basically a light strip), but the dirt is too think to be sure. Citralic we prefer to straight oxylic. Now I'll also say Bob from Pressuretek has a good stripper too. And he has a percarb that is just percarb, and great for maintenance cleaning. We are looking forward to trying his house wash this season. Woohoo! Deck season is here! Beth

We like a ball valve at the end of the hose before the gun. The reason is, if you need to change guns or attachments you don't need to go back and turn off the machine to switch each time. That is a time saver. Just shut the flow off at the end of the hose and QC the new gun or attachment on, and you are ready to roll. We use a variety of other plumbing as well, but the hydraulic pressure connection we don't like as much, they seem more unreliable, once you disconnect one it seems to leak afterwards. We have not found that to be a problem with a standard threaded fitting. (we use those in place of the hydraulic ones on our hose reels) Beth :groovy2:

Michael, Yes. And the Delhorst JLite comes witha booklet that describes the ideal for various species.... Beth p.s. they are in the Store if anyone is interested...

Never heard of this guy... Pass that popcorn Howard.... ;) Beth

Happy Easter everyone. Thought it might be fun to take a poll on everyone's favorite Easter meal. Beth

We use the JLite. Great tool! Beth

The rain won't hurt it. But, your wood needs to be dry, 12% Wood Moisure Content or less, to apply most sealers. Beth

Not the same, but they both do the same thing only citric is slower and less agressive on the wood making it easier to rinse and less likely to dive too deep into the woods substrate. Citralic is a blend of both citric and oxalic to make a unique neutralizer/brightener that can also work well on concrete surfaces for light etching or rust stain removal. Save some time and buy what the pro's use. The products are proven and you dont need to reinvent the wheel where they are concerned. Rod~

Ok KC, you are ready to mask and apply the stain. Good job! Remember the ratios you mixed for certain situations and apply them to others that call for the same amount of work. I think that if you went a little stronger on the first attempt, or made a second application you would have gotten pretty much the same results as in the last pic you posted. (exception being the need to defur or sand the deck.) Cedar is a very pickey wood once it has been washed and often requires defurring especially over the knots to get rid of the silver look. Rod~

Not yet... Rod~

The problems I have encountered with well water did not come directly as a result of the well but the tank they have to store water in till it is used...the bottom of it was full of silt and created a major problem with supply to my machine. It clogged the filters and choked the machine so much that I was spending 20 minutes a pop taking the reservoir tank filter off, cleaning it out, putting it back together and washing for about 5 minutes and doing it all again till I said enough. I told the customer I could not do finish the job till he had his supply tank cleaned out and explained to him the circumstances it was subjecting an 8k+ machine to. Since then, I have installed filters in the supply hoses (both ends) to help cut down on this problem and I have to vacuum out the tank for sediment periodically too. Rod~

We carry them (for a little longer) and so do others such as Bob from PressureTek, Skip from EDI, and Tom Vogel from ACR. Beth

Aluminum is less durable than stainless steel. But, I like the lighter weight 6' aluminum extension pipe for getting that extra height on days when wind speeds are 10-15mph. Winds higher than that are carrying chems 2-3 blocks away. As far as insulators on the lance, I save the money and just wear a pair of canvas gloves over the nitrile gloves to insulate me from the heat. Working with temps above 125*, I switch to the lance that came with the unit which has a side bar handle for insulation. You can also buy these and install them yourself. They are adjustable to move up or down the lance to adapt to any operators arm reach. For vinyl sided houses, I do not recommend temps above 120* because of the possibility of warping the siding. Rod~

Please tell me your friend is not painting that beautiful wood... say it isn't so.... Beth :groovy2:

Extreme Solutions is: www.esproducts.net Beth

KC, If you are ever in MD look us up. We would be glad to meet you and help you however we can. Beth & Rod

KC Deck, Thanks for posting your pics here. Its a very good result. As you have asked what we think, I take it you are open to hearing some feedback in whatever way can be most constructive. From what I can see, the result is very good, but as Henry had posted, there are wand stroke marks and what I call fade stroke marks that will detract from the overall appearance when you apply a toner or semi transparent sealer over it. i.e. it will stand out. Your options at this point are to sand it, use a defurring pad, or re wash it with a mild percarb solution and rebrighten afterwards. Let us know if you have any further questions. Rod~

Probably because its in the same class as other cleaners that work well on electrostatic bonding of the asphalt material from the roof. Its a petroleum based result and therefore D Limonene will work on it due to the nature of the products capabilities as a degreaser. Rod~

Thanks Charlie! Let's also welcome Nick Roy to the BBS. Looks like he joined. Nick, we would love to learn more about your craft, and the beautiful work you do. Beth

The lattice is cleaned in the same manner as the rest of the deck, apply a chem and after dwell time, rinse off. To seal it, I have found it works well to put up plastic behind the lattice protecting the area beyond it and spraying the sealer onto it following the contour lines, then padding or brushing to ensure uniform application and catch drips. Rod~

The part that amazed the customer was the bottom rail board had quite a bit of mildew that was not thoroughly cleaned before applying another sealer over it. He pointed it out and asked if that was going to come out...I replied devils advoactely...maybe not, it appears that the wood was not cleaned well before another sealer was put on it and the stain has been taken deep into the wood. At that point the customers face resembled one of (shoot, I knew I should have cleaned that better and grimaced), later, he came back out and saw that it was gone and the wood looked almost brand new telling me how he is on the HOA and he was going to tell everyone about our company. I thanked him for his generosity. Its so cool when people have that reaction to your work. I bet a number of others here have had that happen to them too! Wood Restoration is such a rewarding job. Rod~

Charlie - can you provide the full URL? The partial you gave didn't work for me, and I might just need to purchase an original Nick Roy! Beth

You can also choose to "subscribe" to a thread, and all of your subscriptions show up in the User CP. Beth

Way cool! Thanks for the link. This should be in the Library as well. ;) Beth