stefvell

I spent 8 hours staining a deck with Armstrong Clark Transparent Natural Tone yesterday and I have been severely nauseous ever since. What is strange is that I was not so nauseous until about 4 hours after I left the job. I normally wear gloves when applying stain but this time I left my gloves at home so my right hand was in the stain all day. I am thinking that maybe the stain got into my blood stream a bit! Also, I noticed that this stain did smell strongly like gasoline compared to Wood Tux. I wonder if it was the vapors or the skin exposure. Has anyone else experienced this nausea and if so how long was it before you felt normal again. It's been a full 24 hours now and I still feel sick! I will post pics later...I think the deck looks great! Also, just tried HD-80 stripper on my own deck recently and I must say that the furring was pretty bad and the stain did not really come up all that easily or completely. I was stripping some 2 year old Olympic Max Semi Trans Red Cedar from pressure treated pin that was new when I stained it 2 years ago. I used 8 ounces per gallon per instructions and applied evenly and let dwell for 20 minutes. What did come off came off with very little pressure but certain spots where just unmerciful even with high pressure. But you know, I have no problem doing a little more dwell or even a bit of sanding but the furring is just too much. I used very very low pressure and what I thought was appropriate dwell time, again around 20 minutes and I got horrible furring. I ended up having to sand all of the spindles and railings. It took me 4 hours! I was thinking that maybe higher pressure would have been better because it would have blasted away the fur! Is furring a bigger problem on newer decks than ones that have already seen a few restorations? Also, I read a post on this site with a link to purchase a deffuring tool from a site called ACR products. I can not find the deffuring tool for sale anywhere on this site. Where else can I get one? Is it any faster than sanding? I would think so but any real experience is appreciated. As a result of my recent experience I am looking for alternatives. I haven't been doing this for a long time, this was my 5th deck, but I was watching two videos on Youtube that made me question the use of Sodium Hydroxide based strippers. The was some guy that used a citrus based stripper on what seemed to be a very thick coat of paint. II read here that the D-limonene will not cause furring either. There is even a product called Clean and Bright that claims to be designed for wood and it not only cleans but brightens in one step! As far as price is concerned I have found 5 gallons of 95% food grade D-Limonene for around $130 online here. Does anyone have any experience or thoughts about this.The second video was by . Apparently he is very successful and he uses Wolman Deck Bright and Wolman Rain Coat Tinted which is water based with Linseed and Tung Oils. The product sure looks nice and the video shows virtually no furring. I have used Wood Tux, Arm Clark, Timber Oil and Omax Trans and Semi and all of them perform well for me. I am shy to change when something works but this guys video makes it look very easy to apply and the results speak for themselves IMHO. What say you?

It was PT Pine. Very good quality though. I got over 250 sq feet per gallon this job. That's a record for me. I hear you on the sun and sweat though. I did the whole job alone with a 4" brush. Didn't spray at all. It was one heck of a day.

POLL INFO Deck Size = 1500 sq ft I spent about 6 hours cleaning and brightening this deck. I am going to stain it with wood tux brown cedar and will post pictures to show my results. I will also report my stain coverage rate for informational purposes. Deck restoration and staining is definitely fun for me and I want any comments or suggestions as I have no other form of feedback on the quality of my work since I work alone.

Raleigh, Cary and Wake Forest. I will travel further for a high $ job though. I am trying to do decks because I enjoy it a lot more. I would love any work that presents itself though as this is only my 3rd month in business. By the way...nice business you got going there. I like your website and wish you the best. If you need honest help give me a call anytime.

Yeah...a wheel would be nice. You can't see the ramp in the rear, and two full flights of stairs that lead up to the deck on each side. By the way...I didn't pull it out of my behind!!! I walked it off. Wheel sure does look fancy though.

Thanks Greg...I will definitely be updating with pics and comments on the job. This will be my first wood tux job and I am anxious to see if my techniques work. I will be applying with a 12" truck brush on horizontals and sherwin williams 5" stain brushes on the verticals. I may spray a bit of the verticals to get the stain into the nooks and crannies and then just blend with the brush. Kind of playing it by ear!

The deck is about 1500 square feet. I didn't measure too carefully...lol! I just walked it off and counted 4 sqft for rails and stairs.

Ok. So I have eight neighbors with adjoining fences that want their new fences stained. My plan of action is to just low pressure rinse the wood with light surfactant as it is pressure treated and very clean already. They also want decks cleaned brightened and stained. I want to use Ready Seal but will give them the option to chose a 3 year seal product if they ask. Finally, I am using a magnum X5 airless and pad for application so I figure about 85 Linear feet per hours on the fences I am figuring costs as follows: Cost for 8 homes with decks Fence 300 linear feet per house + 100 linear feet each for end homes =2600 linear feet x 6 feet high = 15,600 sq feet of fence Deck 500 sq.ft each clean, brighten and stain = 4000 sq ft. Stain Cost = $4000 (about 135 gallons) Percarbonate Cleaner Cost=$50 per deck Brightener Cost = $50 per deck Total Cost for deck cleaning= $800 Gas Costs= $200 Equipment Costs= $300 $5500 Total Cost 14 days to completion 70 hours work Total 5 hours per day The houses are only 1 mile from my house. I need this business and these are important people to me because they are all local business owners with rich friends. I am thinking to charge $10,800 for the whole job. Just me no helpers. My question is, am I estimating my chemical expenses properly based on you guys experience and am I estimating my Total Labor hours properly? Plus if i am totally forgetting something that could sting me in the ass please pour on the reality!

So you say .35 X 20,000 = $7,000. I dunno. I'll let you know how it turns out. Either way I will recoup my costs and make a little dough. The people know that I am new at this and want to give me a chance. I am going to let them know if my pricing needs to be adjusted for future jobs if I regret charging so little when all is said and done. Of course, they already know that I am giving them a very special price just because it is only my second job of this kind! Thanks for your comments though...they are helpful.