Neil_Asheville

What is this stuff? This is a cut end from an exposed locust deck that has been down 3 weeks. Locust is grown and milled here in NC. This was pulled from the cut pile, however this spotting is all over the laid deck. No pattern to the spotting. 3% then 12% didn't really touch it. 120 grit sanding neither. First photo shows board wet with water with lighter end from 3% and then the sanding. From the second photo, you can see citralic with long dwell lifted (or pushed back in) 90% of it. First look it appeared as surface mildew. Bleach and 120grit did nothing. Tannin was my next thought. Perhaps a mineral staining from something iron-like in the air/rain/dew? Is it coming up from within the wood to the surface? I have experience with finishing cypress and black spots coming up soon after stain, but those were almost powdery whereas these appear to be stains. With a percarb clean and acid step and finished with WoodTux my tests tell me it will look good. What I don't want to happen is they come back in a month after finishing. Thanks! /neil

Good morning. A landscaper friend of mine and I got to talking about holiday lighting as a seasonal service. I've heard mention of franchises built around this? I see a forum here but not much on info. I'd like to hear from anyone good, bad, or considering it themselves for this coming season. My friend and I share a good number of high-end customers. He's established himself very well and payrolls 15. I see more bushes and trees with the white lights, not roofs or gutters. This would be a premium service to the right client, priced as such. We're not talking icicle strands and plastic Santa's on the roof. That's more of a Tennessee thang:)! LOL Fife. Feel free to call anytime. Cheers, /neil

A 3% to 5% strength should do ya. If you're feeling real renegade, xjet it straight out of the bucket. Rinse any grass, plants, kids, expensive stuff, etc.

Great job, Jon! Keep us posted on how it holds up. Nice pics, too. /neil

Do you have a shop/office you meet at every morning to assign work for the day? Do you coordinate at the end of the day on where to meet following day? Do you have them drive personal cars to jobsite? You can see these are broad and random questions. In your experience, what is the most effective way to schedule / coordinate daily, say, two crews on two rigs? Thanks! /neil

Nice shots Micah. In the first curbing pic, you have to love those negative drainage jobs where you know first rain it'll be back full of mud. I'm amazed at the amount of bad landscaping and hardscape design I see. Geeeewhiz, you mean everytime it rains this planting bed dirt piled 4" higher than this $20/sf paver driveway is gonna dirty it up again??? /neil

What mold doesn't succumb to 12%??? Citralic removes tannic acid extractive. Citralic worked for the most part at removing these spots. To the contrary, bleach removes tannins / tannic acid from leaf staining on concrete, but had no effect here. I am confused:thinking:

Travis...was it WoodTux from this Spring? If so, spit on it and it should come right off:mad:

F13'll do it.

"Full service exterior wood care" here. We do houses as well, so need to lump that into the tag as well. I like 'refinishing', though. Good one.

I'm going with Douglas Fir. Bold grain pattern and darker heartwood..something fast grower. Just today I was corrected by the homeowner after me saying no less than 5 times within the hour how cedar finishes and behaves, yada yada yada...."Neil, this is cypress siding". Love when that happens!:o /neil

You kjnow, Rick, I haven't tried the defelting pads on ipe. Once I started using the osbornes I didn't look back. Those things just might work with the smooth surface and nothing to snag on. Hated those things on splinters or nail heads! You might find the 60grit is overkill on ipe. I do about 1000ft an hour defurring with the osborne, makes for a far better finish on ipe.

The 'undo' part is the spot sanding of plugs and the resulting effect after applying finish. I defur all ipe with Osborne, not a sanding, IMO. Most projects I'm on have iron or cable railing...I like that combo of metal / wood. The face screws (when done neatly) looks good...to me! When plugs are sanded and oil applied, sanded spots stand out as shiney against a mostly matte finish. Most ipe decks get the EBTY's here and trim boards are sunk and plugged. /neil

Man that hurts! HO should be pissed. That's not a prep for stain f'up...that's a construction misstep. The best looking and most sound decks i see are face fastened using square head stainless fasteners screwed flush, not countersunk. The EBTY and biscuit fasteners suck. Plugging and sanding is intuitive for the builder, but impossible for us to undo, short of full drum sand. What's your POA, K?

Ask your high bid for local customer references and where in your area can you see his lifetime product. Trust your 'fear'.

If you go the brush route for getting the cracks, find a quality 6" china bristle with a pole thread on handle end. Standing is mo bettah than on yur knees. These rock: ArroWorthy 6-inch Olympian Stainer 1095 :: Staining Brushes :: Brushes :: Brushes, Rollers & Pads :: ePaintStore.com BTW, Deckster HVLP for me. /neil

Jeff I've been very happy with Auto Owners. /neil

I finished a cedar deck Aug '06 that had brown Trex attached as a bandboard fascia. It was a nice look with the cedar pickets. Anyhoo, we sealed it with Tux WHG. Granted, it's a vert surface, but I was having cocktails this past Sunday on the deck and the finished Trex still looks like the day it was sprayed. It turned the ashy brown to a nice deep wet...tone. I have a sample board that I may stain up and put it out to Winter. cheers, /neil

~500sf at $2.25/sf I'd be near $1,125 cleaned and sealed. /neil

Jon, if the deck is nice and dry being careful with a reg hammer works for us most time to set nails back to deck level. We're usually detailing at least a day after strip/wash, so they are usually dry. If wet, I have two cordless paslode finish guns that work great to reset even the largest coated galvanized decking nails. It does take longer than a hammer, but a better option when wet than a hammer and nail set. hate those. /neil

Belmont, what are you trying to accomplish by sanding? Will you be staining it? Redwood is one of the most resilient and dimensionally stable decking woods. How old is 'old' and what type of fasteners have been used? Pics are helpful if you got 'em. /neil

Chris, ahhh don't we just wish our customers guests jawed all night about how clean their house and deck look. In my experience that's some wishfull, although positive, thinking! /neil

Adrian....man that's a nice project. I know you feel great! Wood is good, bro. Keep at it... /neil

This was such a fun project we did in July. Learned a huge amount on this one. Deck was 'restored' last year. Homeowner's power washed it for three days. They hired two 'hillbilly's' for $800 to apply 10 gallons of Valspar Severe Weather acrylic. Within 8 months had failed on 85% of horizontals. Black mildew and mold growth all over. Looked awful for such a beautiful deck and setting. The sunken hot tub is surrounded by 2x8 ipe. Total sqft of wood restored was 2,200. Two days to strip and neutralize. Deck sat for a week, then one day to mask, detail and stain. I was very fortunate to have Carolina ProWash with me on the staining of this one. Timing worked out such that they were in town with their wood rig and had a day to play. Roger, John, and myself kicked A and took staining names on this one! Celeste pampered the ipe and that came out just gorgeous. HD-80 full strength boosted with prop. glycol (prestone lo-tox) 20 min dwell 800 psi rinse. Stained with WoodTux Wet, custom tinted and thinned with spirits for a 'natural' light wood look that homeowners wanted. Cool thing too is they got married on this deck the following weekend. They were just thrilled with the outcome. 'Nuther good pay day. Finished pics are one week after staining and wet with rain. Thanks again Roger and Celeste! /neil

Gonna get sick...Cack, Barf, Hurl....:)