Mountain View

Very nice job, two thumbs up. Any before pics?

On an Ipe deck I recently stripped there was still some residual stain in a few places. I took my Osborn brush and hit those areas then did a light buff on the rest of the deck to remove any fuzzies. On the areas of residual stain I had to buff harder to get the stain out. The result seemed to be that I buffed below the top layer of wood that was lighter do to the the stripping down to, for lack of a better phrase, "moist wood" that is the natural Ipe color. The question is, when I apply the stain, am I likely to see a difference in the final shade(s) of the wood as a result of this? I will test a small area where this difference is but does anyone have experience of this and what I'm likely to see? Thanks.

What stain is that?

As a rule, I like to wait 4-6 months. To me, this allows the wood to dry thouroughly and "settle" in. A cedar fence can be done sooner. In either case, with new wood I clean it with percard then an oxalic rinse.

Attached are some pics of an Ipe deck I'm working on. I have tried to strip it twice (original stain was Aussie Timber Oil). First time with HD-80 at 4oz per gal. I could still see stain. The did another treatment at 7oz per gal. By this time the wood was so dark I couldn't tell what was residual stain and what was not so I decided to brighten it. The customer, about 40 mi from me, took these pics this morning after the deck dried out. I felt that I was about as aggressive on the wood as I felt comfortable with. After looking at the pics I see a defelting pad in my near future! The question is; what is the next step? If I had my choice I would coarse sand and defelt the deck, after that I would percarb wash and ox rinse. The thought of stripping again doesn't give me a "warm fuzzy". Some of the areas were in part shade/sun, one area that looks rectangular (the last pic) had a mat over it thus blocking out all sun. This customer has not had a good experience with this deck so far (referenced in previous posts) and just wants it done "right". He is also willing to go on a six month maintenance plan. I just want to get the "canvas" ready for staining. What would you do next? Anyone can call:817.372.3743 if you want to discuss. Thanks. IphoneDeck1.bmp IphoneDeck2.bmp IphoneDeck3.bmp IphoneDeck4.bmp IphoneDeck5.bmp

Weeeeeeeell, that's kinda funny. I laid some 4 mil plastic gently on top of the pool water and taped it around the side of the pool coping. It did a decent job of holding the run off water from the stripping (about 10 gal). I thought about bailing it out with a bucket, pumping it out, etc. There was just no satisfactory way to do it. When it came time to remove the tarp, five of us pulled it up like you would a napkin full of food and tried to lift it out of the pool to dump over the side of the deck. Of course this had no hope of working. As we were lifting it out......you guessed it, the whole thing dumped right into the pool! The owner put on the filter pump, shocked it, and we made sure there was no residue on the sides of the pool. 20 minutes later the pool was clear; you would never know what happened. The stuff was so diluted it turned out to be no big deal. Just one of those stories sure to be embelished as time goes by.

Hudson float valves work pretty good. Easy to find. Hudson Float Valve - FLOAT VALVES

I can't get hold of anyone at ESI and I need to source 5gal of Hardwood Wiping stain for an Ipe Deck. Is something going on with ESI? Anyone else out there carry this stuff?

I use Bakers and I have no complaints. Goes on easy, nice color selection, lasts.

Well, the first deck stain of the season is done. The deck was a mixture of cedar and pressure treated pine. This is one of the bigger ones I've done at around 750 sq. ft. of floor space plus railing, ballisters, roof beams, lattice work, etc. My helper wasn't available and it was too windy to spray (even with sheeting) so yup, the whole thing was done by hand, solo. Can't complain though. The weather was nice, the customers were nice, it was out in the country (over 30 acres), Cardinals everywhere, horses right next to me, goats making whatever the noise is that goats make, customers dog to keep me company and so on. I learned a few things; don't ever underestimate the value of a good helper (or lack thereof), if you can't mask off and spray....ugh, and don't use one of those plastic liners in a paint tray...when it gets low on stain and a gust of wind come up, watch out, that liner is gonna fly somewhere! The color is a blend of 4 parts Bakers Redwood and one part Bakers Super Cedar. The customer is very happy and the pictures don't do it justice. There is one where the lattice work doesn't look like it's been done but it's the same color as everything else, some sort of "setting sun light trick" thing going on. The attached pictures only show part of the deck, no way to get it all in one shot. Sure beats workin' for a living!

I think Ken Fenner at Pressure Pros (a member on this board) is a distributor for them. If he's not able to help you, contact me and I'll give you some more information. 817.372.3743

I haven't talked to him in months. Don't know what he's up to.....

I'm real happy with it. Just make sure you get all the solids that settle to the bottom of the pail.

The single layer lattice on the upper part was done by hand with a 1" nap roller and a brush to touch up. Laid it on reeeeeal heavy. I had drop cloths on the deck to catch drips and brushed in or ragged off anything that went other places than the drop cloth. The double layer lattice on the bottom was done with my 1 gal pump up sprayer; whenever the wind dropped, I furiously grabbed the pump up and went to town. I forgot to say that this is the first deck where I down streamed both the percarb and oxalic. That is a very fast and effective way to do things. In the future I will only use a pump up or sureflow for that if I have to. I used about 15gals of stain for the whole thing.

I have a customer with a very nice Ipe deck but.....the builder used Aussie Timber Oil to finish it without any prep work at all (from what I can tell). Anyway, the customer has asked me to make it right. I will be using Woodrich Hardwood Wiping stain and probably HD-80 to strip the old finish off; if any of you think EFC-38 will be strong enough, let me know. I've attached a couple of pictures of the deck in it's current state. Bear in mind, it looked like this after a couple of months (it was done Sept. '07). The customer is a good guy and just wants it done right. He knows Ipe is a yearly maintenance deal. I will be padding or rolling, then hand wiping it. The pictures just don't show all the mistakes that were made, but you can see some. End of boards not stained, drips between board, etc. Any hard earned lessons you've had with Ipe will be appreciated. Call if you want. Anyone from ESI can call me anytime; need to talk about delivery lead times and such. I am staining a large deck with Bakers Cedar Redwood tommorrow so leave a message if I don't answer. 817-372-3743 The season is off to a great start already!

In January of this year I had a free afternoon so I decided to walk one of my target neighborhoods putting flyers on doors. These were simple ones, made by me and printed on brightly colored paper. On Friday afternoon I got a call from a lady asking for a qoute on house wash and wood staining work at her home. I met with the customer yesterday afternoon. While talking to her I found out that one of her friends lives in the neighborhood I walked in January and passed along my flyer to her. I'll be back at her place in a week to do the work. It just goes to show that this marketing stuff works and you never know what leads you'll get for your efforts.

Adrian, Jack Taylor is the lead. He said it was for his lake house in far east Texas. I talked to him this morning. Small world.

I had the same problem, turned out to be clogged nozzle. Laying the hose down when changing between gun and surface cleaner allowed a little dirt to get in the hose then blocked one of the nozzles. Took off the nozzle, cleaned out debris, shazam no more streaks!

The customer I'm with has my full attention, period. I will explain to the caller that I was with another client when I return their call. Phone is on vibrate most of the time.

I'm guessing the pool guy lost the contract.

Congrats!!!!! Grandkids are great. Play with them, spoil them, hand them back! I'm gonna get my third one in a few weeks.

The content is fine but I prefer to use fewer, simpler phrases to get a potential customers attention. It's kind of like a job resume; the resume doesn't get you the job, it gets you the interview. That's the way I look at all of my advertisements, it gets me face to face with the customer then I go from there. Attached is the first draft of a door flyer I will be passing out next week. Spring Door Flyer.bmp

Just as a follow up, this is the Ipe deck I will be bidding on to "fix". I believe it was Cabots, put on in Sep. '07.

I have a customer with a "Cast Stone" balcony over his front porch. It's essentially a concrete facade laid over a steel frame. There are lots of high end ($1mil and up) houses around here that have this kind of stuff. Attached is a before and after photo of part of this balcony. The problem is, I just can't get all of the stains (mold, algae, leaf tannins from roof run off) out of the concrete. In the after picture the surface is stained but feels perfectly smooth. My theory is the concrete has lots of micro pores and micro cracks that moisture and mold has crept into. Everything on the SURFACE has been cleaned off. I used concrete cleaner from Delco and SH with cold water (don’t have HW rig yet). I even went back after words with a strong SH (about 6% hitting the surface) with the hopes that it would creep into the cracks and pores to kill the mold, no help. This is the north side of the property and NEVER gets direct sunlight. I’ve had a couple of these before but none this bad. I did tell the customer that it was doubtful I could get all of the stains out and other parts of the balcony do look considerably better, however, I’m pretty gun shy of this type of material now and will think seriously before tackling this type of surface again. Either that or tell the customer, “Hey, I’ll do what I can but no promises”. Having said all of the above, the customer was cool about the whole thing, we agreed that regular cleaning over time would certainly help, and he did pay me for the job. It still bugs me that stains aren’t all gone!! Any advise about something else I could try?:confused:

Never painted, just concrete. I've thought about the butyl gutter cleaner I have. I may go back and try a small patch with that, then an ox rinse. I did try the turbo nozzle, no difference. Up close you can see little micro cracks running through this stuff like the veins of a leaf. Supposed to look like Mediterranean stone I guess.