M Pearlstein

I agree that this is a great topic because (as I am learning the hard way) it can be such a big labor variable. Tony's post actually spurred a bigger point which is how to properly write a contract. If anyone knows of links to good info on contracts please PM me since I dont want to hijack Kens thread)

Thanks everyone and Ken I may take you up on that. I am going to try and spot apply HD-80 a little hotter and longer dwell tommorow and see if I can get it come off. I know it eats through it somewhat since it got a layer in most spots except the boards that get total shade against the house. I still may want to think about that stripper since I see lots of latex unfortunately. That actually isnt such a bad thing since a good part of my sales approach is educating the customer and that is usually all it takes to move them to oil (semi-transparent). I guess I am learning the downside to stripping so I need to figure it out or change my sales strategy 8) I am actually repainting the rails a solid white which is a little easier. One more question if I may... Does 60 grit s-paper the right choice for removing the remaining paint?

I feel like such a whiner since all my posts are request for help. I realize that is a big part of what this board is for but I'll make a point to add some value back when I can. In the meantime.... Started stripping this deck yesterday that I thought had only 2 coats of latex on it. I was way wrong since it has 4 + a primer from what I can tell. I know I should have ton a test patch before bidding but I put together a nice package for these people so in the overall job I have room to make this work. The question is what do I do now? Should I sand the rest with a belt sander? Or apply HD-80 onthe unstripped areas and try again? I have a feeling I will need to doa bunch of defurring anyway but I would like to minimize the sanding to a quick pass if I could. I also still have the rails to strip but those are being done in white again so I am not as concerned about getting it all off. Thanks (again) :)

Hey guys- Thanks for the responses. After letting her sleep on it the night, offering to work out a reasonable deal if needed and reminding her politely that I told her the color would have variations and not look like a solid she agreed she likes it. Thanks

I just finished a deck and the customer is not happy with the color SHE chose. She had a latex dark brown on before and after educating her on the advantages of an oil finish and showing her sample cards she chose the darkest color. Now that it is on she is unsure. So my question is can you put Latex over an oil if she wants this or do I need to strip and start again? I know this is a crap option but I want to make sure I have answers to her questions. Thanks

One of the greatest sales tools I have found is using 3rd party articles from newspapers or magazines to support a point. Does anyone have or know of any articles that state how bad Acrylics are for the wood? This moves the focus of the discussion away from "the work and cost required to strip it" too "the value the homeowner will receive" from removing this crap and properly taking care of their deck. Also if anyone has any other articles on any area of wood restoration or pw'ingin general please email me or throw up a link. I heard that last year a non insured PW'er ended up trippin 3 GFI's and than had the homeowner let him run his power from the garage outlet and ended up burning down the house. Since he had no insurance and the HO policy was limited this cost the HO a bundle. I also heard a rogue PW'er killed a lady in Long Island but I am thats another story!

Ken- Thanks since I was wondering why you only hear about airless and not air-paint guns? i have a compressor already - albeit a small one - but may try that route in the future if I dont go with a deckster. I like the latter's versatility especiially with the hurricane brush.

sweet looking job Ken and I agree with Celeste that is cover of brochure material. How much longer do you figure it took to hand/rag stain versus your normal method? Not sure is you use a pump up, roller or airless regularly. Also, if you factor in material - and I am assuming hand staining has less waste - what was the over all delta on the project to do it this way? Just trying to learn and I think for my first few deck I am hand rubbing the floors or using a shur-line stain pad and using a spray gun (hand held) and a brish for the rails.

Thanks ken - it is PT so I will bring both and see what happens. Here are some pics pre stripping and unfortunately when I went to reduce their size the program I used had a bug and cropped the picture which I saved before I noticed. Hopefully one of these will make an insert or I am going to need to use a differnet deck fro my brochure, You can see the way the sun hits the deck and it is the shady areas that kicked my but and did not fully strip with the Wolman's junk I was using. Also, notice how the spindles are floor boards. I am curious as to how everyone prices railings like this. I think I greatly underestimated the sf and chems needed for those boards since the soak up a ton and obviously require both sides to be stripped and sealed. OH and finally, you see the small raised section in the first pic. This is where I did all my testing and began and it came up like cake. I found out 3/4 of the first day when stripping that this section was added much later which is why it came up so easily. If it all would have coem up that way I would have been done in 1 less day.

Tony - you are right the pool cover is mesh and my company takes care of the pool so the issue is that my division will get charged back whatever extra labor and chemicals are required to get this pool perfect from the pool service division. It may even be a salt water pool - no chlorine tabs - which will complicate things further. The best I can come up with for this is to block the spa and use it as a holding basin and than take a sump pump and run the waste to the street. Along the back side by the grass and opposite the spa is going to be tough. Maybe I can work it out so I get a pool vaccuum cart out there after stripping and get my helper ot vac.

I am fortunate that with most of my customers the wife doesnt work and carries the checkbook. I of course have some where they both work. I try to work out a time on saturday or at night to meet with them. I always try to measure,inspect and take pics of the deck when they are not home since I can do it in 1/3rd the time. I also find this allows me to talk more intelligently and get the convo from business to "relationship building" time very quickly. IMHO if you can get them to like and trust you they will spend more money and not think twice about it. I said it earlier, people make decisions about what to buy based on emotions AND there is no emotion more compelling than trust! (I hope no one takes this the wrong way since I am only tryig to pass on what has worked for me for a long time)

I stripped a deck last week and there are a few spots that did not come up that I plan on sanding off. I have searched for sandpaper grit guidelines but cant seem to find any. I thought I read at one point that too fine a grit will make it hard for the sealer to penetrate but I do not know what grit that was in reference too. Thanks

I just bid this today and I think I will get it next week. I am going to use HD 80 for the first time and I wanted to see how I avoid killing the grass. The pool cover will be off and I cannot wash into the pool.

It's abt 1-1/2 hours south of me. I thonk it's equi-distant from both of us. Check out mapquest.

Okay so pics to follow since my camera ran out of batteries and I need to go back tomorrow to finish up. Questions: 1. when do you neutralize after stripping the whole deck or do you strip and neutralize in sections? 2. After Is tripped my first section the next section had some wet boards from the washdown. When I went to do the 2nd section those wet boards reacted differntly. Is this normal or was it because I was not using a top notch stripper (HD 80 is en route but I had to get this job done). 3. De-furring - Can I do this tomorrow or do I need to wait for the wood to dry for several days? Thanks in advance