Palmetto Home and Deck

I want to share an experience I had using HD-80 this week. Monday I had a customer with a 900sf deck that either had a solid stain or a porch and deck paint on it. He wasn't sure what the previous contractor put on it. I did a test spot on it to see if HD-80 would take it off and at full strength and enough dwell time it worked. So with that I geared up with tyvek suit, rubber boots, gloves, respirator, and safety goggles. I opened the tail gate on my truck and used it as a work bench while I opened a new tub of HD-80 then went to the trailer and mixed up a 5 gallon batch. Everything went fine and the HD-80 did its job. After we were through with the job for the day and on the way home I noticed a little stinging on my right hip pocket area (OK lets just go ahead and say my right butt cheek). I didn't want to stop right there on the side of the road to see what it was and just figured I would check it out when I got home. The stinging kept getting worse and by the time I got home I was in some pretty good pain. I didn't think it could be the HD-80 because I had used all safety precautions and besides how could it have gotten on me back there. When I got home I went straight into the house to see what this burning was and I had a third degree burn on my you know what. (I'm sure you will appreciate it if I don't post pictures). I immediately got some vinegar out and neutralized it, but severe damage had already been done. Still confused on how I could have gotten HD-80 on my back side I had to re-think what all I had done that day and remembered I sat on the tail gate to take my rubber boots off and put on my regular work shoes before driving home. I went out to the truck and sure nuff there was some residual powder on the tail gate I guess I spilled when I opened up the new tub. I must have sat in this powder when I changed my boots. Like I said I wanted to share this experience in hopes it may help keep someone else from going through what I am right now. HD-80 is great stuff, but you can't be too careful with it. If you are using it or have recently been using it and start feeling a little tingling on your skin no matter where it is get it checked out right then. Don't wait until later.

On the bright side, you can lounge on your tummy like a roman and eat bon bons for a while. :) Feel better soon... Beth ________________________________________________________________ Now there's a thought! You know, I have always told people I make my living standing on my feet. Until I got this chemical burn on my rump I never realized how much time I actually spend sitting on my ass. Getting in or out of bed, sitting at the table eating, riding in the truck, working at my computer, sitting on the jonh, putting on my shoes, and it just goes on and on. I think I will take your idea and ask my girlfriend feed me grapes while I lounge around on my tummy this weekend. Just how well do you think that will go over?

Beth, Thanks for all the information you gave me over the phone today, but most of all thanks for "The Grime Scene" and all the information I'm able get from you and everyone here. I just sent in my support through paypal.

Neil, Just for kicks do a google search for bumper cameras. You will find these small little cameras that attach to your rear bumper near the tag and monitors that clip to your sun visor. I know some boating people that have gone to camper stores and had them installed. I may be way off, but I think these may run around $350.00 or so. I think I will just keep doing it the old fashion way...come on back until you hear glass. Kidding. It does get easier the more you do it and often I can do it better by myself than when someone is trying to help me. I swear my helper will steer me wrong almost every time.

Camelot, I can understand where your feelings come from. I cleaned a white vinyl sided home the other week that had one side completely green with mold and the rest of the house looked almost gray from just dirt and pollen. The gutters were all but black. Anyway, when I was through with the home you needed to have your shades on to look at it. This home was snow white and gutters looked new. I went around and looked the house over and was proud of the work I had done and just knew the homeowner would be to. This was a home located on Lake Hartwell and the homeowner only spent time there on weekends so I left the invoice stuck in the storm door. About a week later I got a check in the mail with a note saying I left a dirty place on one end of the house without any mention of how the rest of the house looked. I was surprised to find out I had actually missed something and was actually a little upset that he didn't say anything about how good the rest of the house looked. I have always heard that it only take one "ah s#**t " to cancel out a whole bunch of "atta boys" and that usually turns out to be true. When you leave a streaked window or a dirty place on the house the customer will only focus on that point and not care about anything else. No matter how I felt about the complaint I called the homeowner right away and appologized and assured him I would take care of the problem the very next day. Turns out when I got there it had rained between the time I washed the house and when the homeowner saw it and red mud had splattered up onto the vinyl siding near the gutter down spout. I just got out a little of my cleaning solution and a brush and took care of it. I reset the concrete pad in front of the downspout and tried to push up some leaves to cover this area so more mud wouldn't splatter up on the siding before the homeowner could see it again. I called the homeowner back and told him I had taken care of the problem and that if he finds anything else to please let me know. I know I fixed something that wasn't my fault (how many of us have been there, done that), but to him I am a good guy again and hopefully I have gotten an " atta boy" back.

Both Rich and Ken are right. We build a lot of new decks and even more we do a lot of deck retoration. Often when we go out to seal an older deck and we will replace a board here and there. This leaves you with an interesting problem of having new boards next to old. The problem is not so much the treatment in new wood, but a mill glaze. First wood is saw cut to its nominal size (a 2x4 or 2x6 is actually 2"x4" or 2"x6" for example) then it is run through a planer that trims that 1/2" off smoothing out the surfaces. This planer creates a lot of heat and actually melts the sugars and oils near the surface. When these sugars an oils cool they form the mill glaze. Try dropping a few drops of water on both new treated and untreated lumber to see if it beads. If it soaks right in you may be good to go as as Rich and Ken said. What we do on new wood is try to remove this mill glaze especially when mixiing in new boards next to old. We will mix a stripper like HD-80 to half strengh or so and apply to the new boards then clean the whole deck as usual. If pressed to seal a new deck we will apply the stripper to the whole deck then wash and neutralize as usual. Like others have said, check the moisture of the wood after it has dried from the cleaning and if you are under 15% you should be good.

If this would be a $300.00 job for the whole house and your minimum rate is $150.00 then I say try to make the customer happy and do half the house for $150.00. If this job would be $150.00 for the whole house I would not be able to go out and do the job for $75.00. It would still be $150.00. This is a job I would want to do while the customer is home. I'll bet money they will want the whole house done once they see what you have cleaned.

A man called me the other day about cleaning and sealing his deck. This deck was sealed a couple of years ago with Olympic solid stain. (I have never understood why someone would take a beautiful wood deck and try to make it look like red brick.) Anyway, this Olympic sealer he has on it is failing and has cracks appearing in it and is actually coming off in some places. For some reason all he wanted me to do is wash the deck off and apply Thompson's Water Seal to it. I have informed him about the already failing sealer and that it would do no good to apply anything over the top of it. I have also pointed out "tactfully" the short coming of Thompson's Water Seal and the benefits of good products like Ready Seal and Woodtux. This deck is in serious need of a total strip and seal job, but this guy so far is still set on what he wants me to come out and do. This deck is in a nice neighborhood and one I would like to get into.I pride myself on the work I do and in my reputation. I fear, in this case, giving the customer what he wants would come back to haunt me so this might be one better to pass on. How would you guys handle this? P.S. I am going to meet with him again this week so there is still a chance.

Seems like every one is on the same page with me about this one. Beth, I also think you are right and he had been sold on Thompson's Water Seal by their TV ads and also by some friends that put TWS on their deck. There are very few professional wood preservation contractors in this area and most decks get sealed by house painters that are more than happy to give the customers what they ask for. That means many of them will put anything over everything. I know one painter that just sealed a deck with automatic transmission fluid. Yes, there are plenty of people around here that think ATF is the way to go. After I first looked at this deck I provided an estimate for completely stripping the failing stain and re-sealing with Ready Seal. I put together a pocket folder that included the estimate on company letterhead, a complete description of my stripping/ cleaning and sealing process, some general information about treated wood and wood care, and a Ready Seal brochure. All together this made a professional and nice looking package. I'm not sure if was this package or my willingness to walk away from this deck or both, but now after having time to read over and think about the information I provided him the homeowner seems to have had a change of heart. He called me back Friday and after we talked about how the sealer that is on his deck and how it is failing he now agrees that it should be stripped back to wood and re-sealed. He actually sounds excited that the old solid color stain can be removed without forcefully blasting away with a pressure washer and damaging the wood. He now wants to know when I can start. Maybe there is a chance people will discover there is a difference between wood care specialist and the typical house painter after all.

Paul, Is that bevel siding? I'm restoring 6 units in a cedar sided townhome complex. All of these units had the same black stuff on them that is shown in your pictures. Turns out it was actually some sort of mold and I was able to clean it off with my regular house wash mix. Some said that they looked so good after cleaning that they didn't need anything else done to them. This job is different than yours ,though, in that these units were done in a solid color stain that looked like red mud. In this restoration these units are changing to a completely different (and much better looking) color. For this we are using a 100% arcryic solid stain so strippiing the old finish was not nessesary. The reason I asked if your project was bevel lap siding is that from your pictures it looks like I see blue board insulation through a knot hole. Bevel lap siding is pretty thin and over time it splits very badly and knots will fall out leaving large holes in the boards. On several of these townhomes I am working on the squirles and birds have enlarged some of these knot holes and have built their nest in the wall cavities. You can actually look into these holes and see the back side of the interior sheet rock. On three of these units the cedar siding has gotton so bad I am having replacing entire walls with new siding. Point of all this is, be sure you do a close inspection of your siding project to make sure you don't do water damage to the interior of the home while cleaning and stripping. Caulking may be in order before you begin so don't forget to figure that in. Oh yes, Russel is right. Square footage is the way to go. I'm doing cleaning and staining by the square foot calculated just like he said and cedar replacement by the lineal board foot.

I'm bidding cleaning and sealing a 1,400 sf iron wood boat dock on Lake Hartwell near Clemson, SC. This lake is closely monitored by the Corp.of Engineers so I know I will have to carefull about getting chemicals or sealer in the water. This dock has turned silver and grey as iron wood does. I think it still looks good overall, but with stains from suntan lotion and oils and from gasolene spills it is has gotten pretty splotchy in places. The owner wants to get it cleaned up and stain it back as close as possible to it's original color. Does anyone have any tips on working with iron wood and working over water?

Improved easy pour -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I like 5g with easy pour. However, the easy pours need to be improved. If i'm not going to use the entire 5gal then I have to tape up the hole I punched in the lid so that it pours freely ________________________________________________________________________ Nathan, Are pouring with the spout at the bottom of the can? If so, try rotating the can so that the spout is actually near the top of the can and pour slowly. This will allow air to enter the can through the spout and prevent that gurgle you get when pouring spout down. This methed may seem awkward at first, but with a little practice you will have less spills and splatters than before and you have not had to punch a vent hole in the can. Len Sutton Len's Home Services

Until recently I was a bridge construction superintendent with over thirty years experience. I always enjoyed the work, but I woke up one day and realized I was spending my life living out of a suitcase going to where ever the company I was working for sent me. After some soul searching, a divorce because I was never home and seeing my children grow up with out me. Worse of all was when my daughter died a few months from cancer and I realized I had only seen her mostly on weekends at best. In an attempt to try to spend more time at home I decided to go out on and start my own home maintenance and repair business. It seems to have been a good decision. Business has been better than I ever expected and I growing bigger everyday. It is becoming apparent I am going to have to hire some help soon to try to keep up with demand. The reason for my post this time is I am looking for some help with an estimate. I have been asked to give an estimate to repaint 6,900 l.f. of four rail fence. That translates to approximately 900 4x4x5’ post. With four rails of 1x6s and post I am estimating around 29,412 sq.ft.. The fence was previously painted with white latex paint that is flaking or peeling off. I figure 1000’ has two to three coats of paint that the last coat is blistering and peeling off in sheets. The entire fence is covered with green and black mold and mildew. The new paint the customer wants is a black acrylic lacquer. I am planning on pressure washing the fence to clean it. I am figuring on spraying and back brushing on the fence coat. I want to thank any of you in advance that can offer any suggestion or ideas both for pressure washing and painting this fence that could help with estimating and accomplishing this project. Len Sutton Len’s Home Services slen@charter.net ______________________________________________________________ You have failed if you fail to try.

Thanks Gavin, You know, you are probably right about the mess...I didn't think of that. I should have though. I stripped a 20 x20 deck a few weeks ago with three coats of latex paint on it and there was a lot of mess. No problem there because of where it was, but in a place where horses ( not the kind ready for the glue factory either) are around that is something else I will have to consider.