YVPW

Rick, I'm not so sure it's safe to work with you, lol. What kind of insurance do you have? lol. I'm not the safest either, I got burnt with mineral spirits a couple weeks ago, had the rag on the ladder and I leaned up against it not knowing, it burnt a 3"x 3" blister between my side and right leg. (First time I've been burnt with MS, had an employee get burnt with it once, a place the size of a softball.) Also on that job burnt a couple blisters on my neck with HD-80, I had the mix strong to strip multiple coats of Behr and just the mist burnt my neck. I didn't have any vinegar with me so I kept rinsing and rinsing but it still kept burning so I poured my Mt. Dew on it to neutralized it and that worked.

I haven't used it on a deck but Sansin stains are waterbased alkyd and apply the smoothest with a brush of any stain I've ever applied. I'm looking to use there products on new wood. I believe Wood Sentry is similar.

Don't go over 1500 rpm's with either Osborn or defelting. It will wear them out quicker and really doesn't defelt any better. Also with the Osborn you can heat the wood up too much causing stain penetration problems later. Stay around the number 3 on most buffers.

yeah we do know the mist trick, but on a large deck by the time you get halfway through it the wood is hot again and also the sun will be shining straight down on the stain. Some manufacturers say to never apply in the middle of the day or in full sun. It all depends on the stain.

Same as Rick it depends on the stain. It's overall better to stain in the morning with a product like Wood Tux. What stain are you using?

I agree with Beth & Charlie on this one, though I do mist a deck along with anything else on a hot day to cool it off before applying chems

Hey Mud, where do you live at? The reason I'm asking is I think I may be pretty close to you. Never use a waterbased stain to restore wood, grab AC stain and never look back.

Looks Great Charlie! I'm sure the homeowners are pleased.

Scott, the Super Cedar Blend that Rick posted and that they sent me samples of is in between transparent and semi-transparent.

Kirk, just make sure you apply enough Ready Seal to the wood. With an airless you're probably gonna have to apply 3 coats to saturate the wood, maybe more. Soak the floor then back pad.

For Ready Seal with a Titan I would probably go on up to a .17 tip. Turning the pressure way down, just above clean, maybe even changing the filter to a coarse in the gun and pump. I use my Titan for thicker high resin stains and also solid stains. Rick, I use an 18" truck brush for backbrushing, you can get a 24". IMO it's the best thing for that, better than the 18" speed mop pad. Never gets hung on splinters, gets between the boards better and holds more stain. If anyone is interested they can call Paul at E-Spec he has pretty much any truck brush that you would want.

Kevin, the wind just sped up the process. That truck was gonna burn the house down that evening or night. I'm sure we would have escaped just fine, but the fire was gonna blaze that night. My wifes mom had been in prayer and fasting that day after hearing the news from my wifes sister. Those prayers to the name above every name Yeshua the Messiah are what saved my house.

Beautiful!! Thanks for sharing Rick.

That was a close call. My truck burnt to the ground in March of 2007. I had some Wood Tux stain soaked drop cloths in the back. I had delayed getting water on them, and then had forgotten later on in the day. I've never really told the whole story of what happened that day. So I'll share something. My wife's sister had a dream the night before that something bad was gonna happen. She had told my wifes parents about it. By the way our whole family lives a Christian life. Next day I come home from a job, my helper stays at my house for a while relaxing and getting something to eat. My truck is parked just outside my garage door. Later on that evening my helper says he needs to run uptown to get something. Just so happens his car wasn't at my house(he just lives down the road too). So he had to borrow my truck. About 30 minutes later we get a call saying the truck is on fire next to the Interstate. By the time I get to the scene there had been 3 explosions from the gas tank and solvents. My helper said he looked in the rear view mirrow and saw the fire blazing. He tried to put it out but there was so much flammable stuff on the truck that there wasn't anything he could do about it. Traffic was backed up for miles, they didn't know what type of chemicals I had on the truck. It burnt the truck to the ground. It's amazing how everything worked out so that the truck would be gone from my house. That truck would have burnt my house down. Yeshua saved my home.

I wouldn't shake some of the water-based film forming stains or poly's. Those are the ones where you can make a mess of a job by doing that. I did shake that bucket when I first got it, but I always use the paddle. I never take a chance with a product not being mixed thoroughly, even though it may have been easily stirred or shaken. That's a good point about the air even with a penetrating oil based coating, the spray wouldn't be as even with air in it.

Charlie, yeah you can use a cordless drill. The stain I got from AC I shaked and shaked. Then I opened up the lid and sure enough it didn't mix. I took the paddle and scraped the bottom and then brought it out of the stain to take a look. There was quite a bit of pigment on it. When I spun the paddle the color changed. I think it all comes down to when the stain was made. If it's sat for quite a while then it's gonna need to be stirred. If it's recently been stirred or made then a few shakes should do it.

A very good post, that's exactly how it has been with me. I used to would've never tried a job like that. But after constant studying and trying things I would tackle it now. I'm not into mass production. I work on each job that I get. Why? Because I love to do it. And I like to keep it that way. I'm sure many years down the road things will change but as of right now I'm still going strong.

Charlie, when I've used an airless I've always just mixed it up and used the same bucket the stain comes in. I don't think you would really have to worry about debris getting in the stain. Unless it's real windy outside, and then you're probably not spraying anyway. I've never been able to get all the pigment off the bottom of those cube containers by just shaking it with my hands. As long as all the pigment is off the bottom you're probably good to go. Now I know a shaker at a paint store could. I personally believe every stain should be mixed thoroughly with a paddle mixer. I use the black one from Sherwin-Williams, it works excellent. I like to watch it change colors from the mixing and also knowing I've gotten every bit of the ingredients blended. I know I'm probably stir crazy, lol. There are some water based stains that you can't mix like that, including polyurethane. Too much air into the finish can cause tiny bubbles. You will need a paddle attachment for the AC stain.

I know not everyone likes to do stuff like this. I truly enjoy it. Florin you're looking at about $1500 in stripper for that job, maybe more. You won't have to neutralize with acid, unless you want to brighten the wood more. I don't know what type of tools you have. You will definitely need the usual buffers with osborns. Also need an airless sprayer. I would do it for what Jim quoted, that's around $3.50 to $4 a square.

Glad to see your liked it Greg. I know what you're saying about the metal cans. With the great spread rate you don't have to open many on a job which is a good thing. I wish all stain companies would use the buckets that Baker's Gray Away comes in. Anything is better than the ESI stain buckets. I absolutely hate those. I wonder how many people that use ESI stains just shake it and use it without stirring? I take a razor knife and cut the top out of them so I can easily get my paddle mixer in the bucket. Mad as crap the whole time I have to do it. I know a smaller one can fit in the lid hole but with the rigid bottom it's still hard. I've got to a point that I won't use a stain with buckets like that no matter if it has 14k gold pigment.

The Redwood Tone looks more like the orangish-red cedar that I'm used too. I would use a transparent on the 3 year old deck. The 8 year old I don't know, I would really have to see it, especially during the cleaning process. Since it's been sealed before you can probably get by with the transparent on it too.

I won't run from any strip job. I love a challenge. That's why there calling a wood restoration professional. With that said there are many paint strippers that are non-methylene chloride that you can apply with an airless sprayer. Eacochem has them and most log home supply stores carry them. I think Sunbrite also sells them. Once it's stripped and you can tell how much pigment is in the cracks then you can decide what type of finish will be needed. Possibly Armstrong Clark Semi-Solid. That would be a very expensive job like Jim said. A lot of work. But if there willing to pay I would sure do it.

Pretty much all exterior wood can be restored. Once we see the pictures then we can go from there.

Those are called lap marks. I don't know what stain you're using that has something to do with it. But you have to feather the brush strokes out and also don't leave a straight line of feathered out brush strokes when doing the trimming in. You can also cut in and then spray those areas so they don't have too much time to sit. I spray everything when I stain, but I know others here do it differently.