tropical wave

I can agree with all the above....as far as products go, outstanding results can be obtained with the professional sealers, as long as it didn't come from Lowes, Home Depot, Menards, Kmart, Target etc etc........ Preperation is paramount......the best sealer on the planet will not work on poorly preped wood...period knowing and understanding the truth is also key....these stain/sealers that promote an effective life of anywhere from 4-10 years is just plain wrong..... these products may provide water protection for that length of time, usually much less, but they'll look poor and the UV protection and the mildew protection will be gone long before...... as far as maintenance is concerned, after the wood has been initially preped and sealed, the ongoing maitenance (a nice easy cleaning, fresh coat of sealer) is proportionatly less expensive than the initial job and keeps the wood looking great, and more importantly, keeps it protected....... there is no such thing as maintenance free, if its outside in the elements (especially wood) it gets dirty and needs preventative maintenance.....its just the way it is, and its one of the beauties of wood :)

http://www.inversion-table-direct.com/catalog/buy/Inversion_Table/ here you go.....from WebMD

Cujo, sounds like you have a nasty nerve......OUCH !!! research the cortisone, it helps a lot of people, but the 1st shot usually doesnt do it, the second one most of the time works fine....but, sometimes they offer a third..... Scott, sounds like your just a disaster zone !!! :) good luck "with all that"..... my body is a wreck too...mostly from 12 years of dealing with the full time gig.....and I usually never get stuff fixed, if Im not limping, iceing or tapeing something, I must not be doing my job well enough... :cool:

Did either of you guys get the cortisone shot in the back? it usually takes a second one to really take hold.....?? Cujo, when you tried the table, it probably moved a disc and put excessive pressure on a nerve......those tables wont work for everyone...good to hear its working for you Mel... :)

Mirage47, the pics are pretty small, so I cant really see too much...... I know you said you dont recall whats on it for sealer, but do you know if it was a store bought product or a professional sealer? protecting the cement underneath should not have been a problem, pretty wide open, plastic, should have been fine...hmmmmmm did the "contractor" seal the underside too....?? your city is a "tad" out of our service area (we're based right near O'Hare), but since you found this site, (which we LOVE) we would be willing to stretch it :) feel free to shoot us an email or a call if you wish.... we're always here :) 773-775-7234

Beth, very happy to hear all is well with your family !!!! the police are having a real hard time with the looting.... animals!!! I can understand (to a point) the stealing of food, its self preservation and survival, but looting clothes and tv's....... I wonder if any of our teams up here will be sent down to assist like on 9-11..? they're calling now for the complete evacuation of N.O., they stopped trying to plug the holes and are expecting the pumps to fail overnight..... bad deal

Russell, what about the colors ??

The pics from the original thread are gone, so here it is...... This deck had a double coat of Behr redwood colored semi with silicone, it was pretty near a solid to look at it..... replaced about 8 boards on the steps and floor, stripped, neutralized and sealed with RS Natural Cedar. The steps that are lighter colored are obviously the new boards... :) The structure of the deck is PTP.

home depots biggest seller here too......oh well, keeps us in business :) was in a different big box store the other day and almost fell over when I saw the new "armour all" deck and wood protectant...... I picked it up to read the container (made sure nobody was looking at me first) ...... seems like any big name can get in the bizz and sell this crap...... name recognition, whats next? Johnson & Johnson Deck wash Heinz wood protectant Toshiba total wood care products

I have to admit, the new formula seems pretty cool..... if Im understanding the websites correctly, does the Wood Tux only come in the honey gold color and you need to add the color that is desired...??? if so, is it a PITA? and are the color additives more $, or does it come with the tint? Im on no sleep, so does this make any sense? :)

as of 2pm central time, this is now the 4th largest storm on record !!! down to 902mb pressure...WOW pray folks, this could be catastrophic...... inland all the way up to new england could get serious flooding damage.....praying for everybody... BE SAFE and listen to your authorities

Ken and Jon.....Thanks for the advice, the talk of deposits has been spoken about before, I like both ways, 1/2 up front, then like you guys said, lots of people have been burnt by contractors (happens way too often up here as well as elsewhere Im sure) and the first 1/2 after the first days transformation would put people at ease as they'd see the professional results....hmmmm, gonna need to put some serious thought into this..... do people have a problem cutting 2 checks as opposed to one? this is a great thread, keep em coming... :cool:

Degraffreed, Ive never tried the wood tux wet, but I think Ill have to order some up and check it out (the results Ive seen on here are fantastic).....the beauty of it is that the wood doesnt even need to have that 2-4 days of drying out after cleaning.....boy would that make scheduling so much easier without trying to work around rain or even the "chance" of showers. Ive had it rain on Ready Seal 30 minutes after application with no ill effects, but the wood has to be dry (12%) or less prior to sealing.....

thats pretty good....I like it.....plus if you get stiffed, its better stiffed for 1/2 than the whole amount , I may need to take this approach.... thanks Scott

I've yet to have this problem, like Lance, just a phone call and there hasn't been any serious issues.....knock on wood, Im sure the day will come though.... Ken, do you always collect 1/2 on wood jobs before you start? I kind of like that, but don't really know how to "sell" that to folks.....

Degraffreed, Nice cleaning job......those dark boards will most likely be blended in with the rest when it dries....go back and check it out, you probably wont be able to tell which boards were dark..... nice job again :cool:

John...Congrats !!!! that beast is BAD A$$ !!!!!!!!

Shane---Thanks, I had to grab the camera before I cleaned up, it was getting too dark, storms were coming and it was geting late... couldnt start early, the nights were really cool and moist, needed to start a bit later to get some sun beating down to dry it up.... Scott---Thanks, to do one of these bad boys again, the $$$$ will need to be there, and without making promises, it may be hard to obtain top dollar, but what the heck, I'd give it a try.....sometimes I like a challenge.. :) Beth, Thank you----first trip out was really to see what I could do, escalated up the chem list from weakest to harshest....Percarb did literally nothing, where the wood was not severly UV damaged it cleaned it a little, went to the stripper which would have worked, eventually, really just furred the heck out of it (after 25 years, no wonder) but left almost all the black, crunchy mold-mildew...thats when the ShurFlo went out....I took a capful of straight 10% chlorine and poured it on the nastiest, blackest hardest area of rail and waited....and waited.....after about 3 minutes it started turning the burnt looking black stuff green, and eventually it removed it pretty nice.... as I said somewhere else, I certainly don't want to bring back the debate of chlorine, but this is what I did-----came back with a fresh load of 12.5% mixed it down to about 6% with soap and water...didnt do anything...finally a 5:2 mixture of chlorine to water and that got it done....about 600 psi, moderate fuzzing...the floor is in pretty bad shape anyway, lots of cracking and top layer was pretty rough....which really took its toll on defelting pads.....anyway, a nice oxalic bath and then waited and waited for the moisture content to drop....this thing was wet forever....wood like a sponge.....couple decent coats of RS and thats how this tale ends :cool:

The big Ole Dodge is kicking my butt with fuel too.......

I use QC's all over the place !!! every wand, hose, X-Jet hose, shurflo, wood wands, chem sprayers, You name it, if it connects to anything, it has a QC :)

couple more.....at least it looks better than it did, and the homeowners where made aware of the realistic expectations of this being so darn old....just glad its over with !!! :)

the beast from "HE-double hockey stix" is done....was so windy here today, made spraying tough, especially the top, I cant believe how much sealer this drank up.....this was so dry, after 25 years of neglect, I couldn't get the sealer to puddle even if I tried.....as fast as it went on, it was gone.....needless to say, made brushing hard too, no flow... :cool: I'm thinking the next 25+ year old wood project will get a pass...unless the price is soooooo very right....

FANTASTIC.......keep on rockin!!! :cool:

X-Jet......for several reasons, ratios, range, as distance changes (height of house)-twist the nozzle.....house mix is already in my head and I dont want to try to re-figure the math on a 12:1 downstreamer...LOL, 2:1 is easy :)

Bravo Ken, Bravo.......what are ya gonna seal it with?