topcoat

I agree, Ron, that fundamentally everyone has similar goals, and everyone wants the industry to succeed as a collective of individual successful businesses. I dont know if its just a whole lot of internet balls, hopefully alot of the shenanigans dont translate in real life. Albany 2010 will likely be my next event. Hopefully the waters arent so muddy by then!

It was a nice event. It was before the recent round of division and public, personal attacks in the industry. I was pretty pumped about seminars and rt's back in March, but lately not so much.

Nope, won't be making it. We have two other travel engagements this fall already. I got a good fix in Albany this year though.

Ron I agree, this is a great forum. One of the best I have seen. These rt's bring out the youthful enthusiasm in you, like a kid looking forward to Christmas!

Large enough to need at least 3 threads on every pressure washing forum in America.

On the residential side, its a joke. People have bought right into "getting a good deal right now." Our services to higher end clientele has not diminished nor have prices but there is way, way more budget accountability and tracking than ever before. I still say that those businesses that survive will come out of it very strong and efficient and hopefully take advantage of the rebound.

If thats what it comes down to - where we have to start spiking products with products - I'll do that. Heck, we used to mix poly, turpentine and raw linseed oil to make a pretty badass handrubbed interior wood finish. Most of us have chemistry experiments going on wash or strip jobs. If we know that the formulations as manufactured are likely to fail in certain real world exposures and applications, what would we have to lose by spiking? Not much.

Dan - thats a good analogy for the situation. Are you describing something like a Waterlox exterior? What would be your product preference for an application like this? It would be nice to stumble upon something that would work for these "perfect storm" finish situations that we find ourselves in sometimes.

I totally agree Dan. Any wood that has the structural density of steel just does not want to take much penetrating oil. It didnt like Sikkens either in that exposure. I hate to see them go silvery gray like weathered teak furniture, either. They are so beautiful when maintained but I agree with your earlier statement that the maintenance costs on a large deck are absurd. It only works for the customers who have lots of social gatherings and want everything to look perpetually perfect. This particular customer has seen the deck weather every year for 9 years, so they are not expecting the world. I would like to think there is a formulation that could be successful here, but I really doubt it.

Hey Ken! Thanks for the invite!

Heres an ipe deck that we stripped Sikkens off last October and then applied Penofin hardwood. I went back in July to check things out (we are stripping the house this year) and was mortified. The deck looked as if we had never been there last fall. Some of you are describing Penofin turning black, which I have never seen, but I have also never seen it completely disappear in less than a year. Granted, out of all the homes we work on, this one has the toughest lake exposure I have seen, but still...holy crap. Anyone have any feedback on the Marine Penofin?

Nice work guys! I met Jim in Albany and very much enjoyed talking shop with a serious woodie! We are spending most of our season working on new and old cedar and exotics. Hoping for an indian summer as well.