PressurePros

Thanks, Crown. The photos are being taken by a professional photographer (from the magazine) organized by the builder. The house is undergoing a hundred thousand dollar interior resto. There is no driveway, the house sits on a major street. I'm running around today getting ready to leave for the eastern Virgins for a week. When I get back I am going to get a new camera and post more pics. I am waiting for a callback from Bob Port this morning. This is the original post I started about this project. http://www.thegrimescene.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4119

Jon, this is a brick restoration that is going to be photographed for an architectural digest. We are applying hydrochloric acid to the masonry so ladders are out.

Sorry, the surface is brick and limestone.

I have heard some contractors have netted almost 45k since March. It's probably a rumor though.

I can't get any pics out as my camera was lifted from my truck a couple of weeks ago (or I would have been posting more pics of some cool decks) Here is the situation. The house is a very old 3 story with attic gables that run approx 35-40 ft up. There is a possibility for scaffolding, but there is very uneven ground in the back and it's all earth. This is in the city of Philadelphia, near University City. Very old architechture and not a ton of land aroud each property. Any way, the back of the property is above grade from street level and has six steps leading up to it. The front of the property has no area to pull in a smaller lift so a lift woul be situated 30-40 ft from the property, then extend 25 more lateral feet into the property and then extend 35 ft high. Everything is being applied via chem pumps with all areas manually agitated by brush. There is no way it can be done from the ground regardless of extension size. We are also prepping and painting all the window sashes and cleaning a barrel tile roof. Cha Ching.

Look's great scott. Nice job. Look at it this way, easy money and every year he may want you to come back and re-clean it.

Rick, here is my opinion. Use pure sodium percarb (no TSP or sodium metasilicate) with low dwell time, the usual acid bath after that. My feeling is this.. What is down there is already penetrated as much as it's going to get. Let those deeper wood fibers retain their color without any type of stripping. The result is a more rich finish on the surface with a tad more durability. One of the first decks I ever did years ago (before I even got into residential full time) was a mahogany deck I stripped every year. I noticed each time the wood was getting more bleached out and holding the sealer less and less. My mahogany deck is now retaining all of it's color and holds up to very frequent foot traffic. My digital cam got lifted from my truck by a guy i had to get rid of or I would post a pic for you to see. I'll take one with these throw away cams I have been getting if I find the time to run over to the CVS and get them developed. Just to make sure we are on the same page. I am not advocating building up coats to the extreme of film forming, just not removing all the sealer when you resurface after 6 months.

To strip, brighten and refinish ipe deck. Currently has failed one year old Penofin.

No, I didn't just curse or call you something deviant. Any other guys/gals out there into high end gear?

You need to buy more nozzles and learn which ones will lower your pressure. The degree of spread has no bearing on the pressure leaving the nozzle. i'm sure someone will post a nozzle chart for you (or a link to one)

Hey Louie, I thought when you said a few streaks you meant just a few spots. Are you talking about using a floor sander?

Has anyone invested in TLC's with success? If so, what was your turn over time and ROI?

For a sander get yourself a random orbital.

Jon, Denon/Klipshc is an excellent combo for home theater. For mid-fi gear Denon makes a kick arse receiver. Here is what I have in my movie room: Front Mains are Mirage OM-5's driven by twin monoblock Adcom amps pushing 600 watts apeice bridged to 4 ohms. Front and rear center channel s are OM C2's. Rears are omnipolar Mirage OM-R2's. I have two servo controlled Velodyne 18's I have had for ten years and they still shake my foundation. I used to be very into car audio competing. Back in the day it was Precision Power amps, MB Quarts all around, Eclipse head unit, stiffening capicitors separate battery with 160 amp alternator and four JBL tens in a band pass enclosure. I miss those days.

Very cool, indeed.

Alan, I sell a product to consumers for wood cleaning and act as an answerman on a DIY website.

I have a customer that has flaking latex paint on his rails.. about 112 lf. Does anyone have an idea what it would cost to have a sub come in and replace the rails or at the very least encase them in some type of composite material? I have called seven guys over the past week and not one call back so I can't even get a general idea.

A third thumbs down for Cedar. And of course, 80% of what I do seems to be cedar. Jim, I have about ten decks I did last year with the Aussie and have had to reseal all of them. They were all hardwoods. I followed the standard procedure with penetrating sealer. One coat applied heavy enough to shine then backbrushed or rubbed in. The decks I mentioned above were done by homeowners totally disregarding the manufacturer's directions.. wet on dry, multiple coats. The thing that amazed me was the amount of sealer left on these decks. Some were five years old and still had a fair amount of the ATO left on them with good color and minimal mold growth (that's here in PA where it is very wet and humid). It makes one wonder.

No, the homeowner didn't send any. We'll have to rely on Steve for the pics if he lands the job.

I've seen KD15 on a few houses (new construction) around here.

Celeste and Roger, that is truly one of the finest pics I have seen of a finished job. Congrats on a project well done.

The deck aged 3 months before I sealed it. I don't think any wood should stay exposed for six months, it's just not neccessary. It causes more damage than the small (alleged) increase in porosity. I clean it with straight percarb every 8 weeks or so. I cleaned it with percarb in the second week of May, did the oxalic bath again the beginning of June and sealed it the second week of June. I have experienced several hardwood decks with multiple layers of penetrating sealer. They were not that faded. They were not peeling. They were not black. And, I have a master builder that is always hollering in my ear about building up coats of TWP on ipe. His work looks fantastic and he has showed me pics of TWP decks that are five years old that have only been recoated once, but at the time they were built, multiple coats were put on. This may be a phenomenon of TWP exclusively, I honestly don't know. But the ten or so decks I have seen with Aussie Oil applied this way have held up remarkably well.

I just did my own Mahogany Deck in Aussie Oil just a light oxalic wash. (it was built and coated for the first time last season). It looks fantastic. The color is much more rich. I am not convinced that building up coats on a hardwood is a bad idea.

Using a light solution of TSP and bleach, two crews I'd bid $2000 and have them done in two days. Thats off the top of my head with no information about water availability, height, how dirty, etc

I spoke with a lab tech over at Cabot's yesterday morning.. She told me the incidence of this phenomenon is increased with the lower VOC formula (albeit very slightly), but that they aren't sure why. The reason I immediately jumped to a conclusion about the newer formulation was because on this same property I sealed a gazebo a week ago. Same product/color just the original formula. The sun was strong but no problems. With the new, I can't even put down a rag with the Aussie Oil on it down for 1 minute in the sun. It gets incredibly hot. Two minutes and it starts smoking. The botttom line is, my own complacency almost cost me big time. You get comfortable and that's when accidents happen. I thank all whom posted for some very good advice. I hope my blunder can help a new guy to not make the same mistake.