YVPW

Ken, which Baker's are you using? I know Tom makes a deck version with more mineral spirits in it. I've used both, and they both look great. The deck version has a cleaner look, not as dark since there's less oil. The standard version(more parrafin oil) is great for older neglected wood, the copper pigment also hides the imperfections in old wood. I'm doing a log house with Super Cedar this week.

I've never really noticed a difference in the weight of the Makita or Dewalt to a Harbor Freight buffer. I have a friend who owns a detail shop and he has both the Dewalt and Makita. I've picked them up and didn't notice any difference at all. All of the buffers get heavy after about 10 hours under the eaves of a log house, lol.

Beth, those are the brushes I currently use. I'm looking for the square bristle Osbornes. Some websites say they are more aggressive. Anyone used both and notice a difference?

The Harbor Freight buffers are very good, DO NOT waste your money on Dewalt or Makita. With some tools it's good to pay more, but not with the buffers. I've got 7 of the Harbor Freight buffers, and after 3 years only have had to replace 1.

You're gonna have to go the solvent route. I don't think Magic Eraser will touch that stain if Hydroxide won't. You can use the original Good Off or can try Goof Off 2, try the second first which is water based. If Goof Off the original won't work, go with a mixture of laquer thinner and acetone. You'll need a pretty stiff brush, handheld.

LOL, Neil, too funny

There's not that big of a difference in strength, but there is some. I'd say HD-80 at 4oz.'s, F-18 8oz.'s.

Bleach is a high alkaline also and needs to be neutralized like any other alkaline soap. Although you can get away with not doing it on penetrating stains. Log home finishes are a different story though. If you're doing maintenance washes then no neutralizing is needed cause the bleach hasn't soaked into the wood. 90% of the time I use an extra step after stripping to hit the wood with bleach. The stripper doesn't get rid of the mildew in the wood, and percarb is a sorry cleaner of real tough mildew and dirt IMO. I've used EFC-38 at 8oz.'s a gallon and still wouldn't touch a baked on mildewed deck.

I get the round bristle 6" Osborns from McMaster-Carr for around $40-$45. There not as aggressive as the flat bristle Osborns. I've really never looked into finding a good place to get the flat bristles. I know Permachink and log home supply stores sell them for a ridiculous inflated price of over a $100 a piece. They wouldn't rob a person, or nothing! I don't see how they sell any of them. Maybe someone else has found a good spot to buy the flat bristled Osborns

Dan I understand what you did with this customer. I've did the very same thing before. You did an excellent job with the deck, and I'm sure they're very happy with it. If you want a variable speed buffer go to Harbor Freight and get one for $30. Don't waste your money on the Makita's. You can get about 7 Harbor Freight buffers for the price of one Makita. Really I don't see why someone would wanna waste there money on the Dewalt's & Makita's. The buffers I have aren't junk either. I use the crap out of them had them to get wrapped up in cord and start smoking, rained on you name it. I've also used them with 7" sanding discs for 8 hours a day at times. They still work! I've only had one to ever stop on me and took it back and they replaced with a brand new one. You can't beat it. I've got 7 of those buffers all with Osborn's. I keep some for backup just in case it goes out.

I could get between 400 and 450 here where I live for that house. Mind you I don't spend 45 min.'s on a house. I don't understand what some of you call clean, maybe thats why you can't get anymore for a housewash. I make sure it's perfect when I leave, and that don't come with 45 min.'s of cleaning.

It seems for all the work you did it should be more than that. With what you gave us I came up with 626sq.ft. plus 7 steps. I think you could get a couple hundred more for what you did. A variable speed buffer and an Osborn would knock that sanding out a lot faster than a random orbit.

I had a brand new pad and you could rub over it and the bristles come out. It covered the deck with them. I have some more pads, maybe that was a bad one. I'll try them again. When it happened I thought to myself does everyone have this problem with these pads. I have used the small Shurlines from Lowe's before but they weren't as good as the Padco lambswool. I used to always use the Padco lambswool pads, they worked great. Then I switched over to using the 10" lambswool pads at Sherwin-Williams. I've never liked the Shurline pads cause they seem to be cheap made, but thought I would give the 18's a try. I was using them to backpad Wood Tux.

I used the 18" pads on one deck and it left bristles over the whole thing. IMO the lambswool pads are a lot better, would be nice to have them in 18".

I would use Baker's Gray Away stain on that deck. It will hide the imperfections in that wood better. I had a deck like that earlier this year around the same age. It was gray but really no mildew. I could tell it had been sealed with something before, a clear. I stripped and stripped and neutralized still the wood didn't look right. I would try and scratch it, but it felt real weird. I even tried F-18 at 20oz.'s to a gallon on one spot to see what it would do, and it was same as the rest. I don't know what was in that wood and the homeowner hadn't owned the house but about 5 years so they didn't know. I had thought there might be some water based stain in it, but after that many years it should of been easily stripped with HD-80 and F-18. I'm puzzled by it. For time reasons I used Wood Tux WHG on it and it didn't look good at all, cause the WT is so transparent. The homeowner was pleased but I definitely sure wasn't.

With Wood Tux as long as the shiny spots are gone when you leave the job you are good to go. It doesn't matter how much you apply at first as long as those are gone.

From what I've seen with F-18 and HD-80 is when using the same ounces per gallon. The HD-80 is hotter and will work quicker, but the F-18 can be mixed stronger. If you were stripping a stain at 6 oz.'s to a gallon with HD-80 and it took it 15 min.'s to be ready to rinse it would probably take 8 oz.'s of F-18 to get the same 15 min.'s. But you could get by with 6 just a longer dwell. The surfactants in F-18 make it cling better to verticals. But with that it is harder to rinse. I think F-18 is better than anything for cleaning unsealed gray wood. I don't think you could go wrong with either one.

You might have to X-jet some bleach and soap on there at around 5 to 1. It depends on what downstream injector you have. Your injector might not get a strong enough solution on the surface.

I think with the way Ken does it by downstreaming is the way to go if you're not rinsing. A couple of ounces a gallon should be plenty to let dwell and not rinse. If you apply a strong solution of acid on a deck and then don't rinse it may make the wood too acidic. Since water is around neutral after a rinse it should balance it out.

If you want easy cleaning with light pressure on a deck downstream a light stripper mix of either F-18 or HD-80. Also EFC-38 will work too. I know F-18 at 2 oz.'s a gallon will work with about a 5 min dwell time on wood that's never been sealed.

With Bob's brightener 9oz.'s to a gallon is too strong. 4-6oz.'s works great. X-jetting it on is quick and easy. You can use a weaker dilution just let it dwell longer.

After watching the 5 seasons of the '24' series on DVD nothing else seems to satisfy me anymore. I can't find anything to compare to them. I've saw quite a few movies lately but nothing that sticks out as being very good. But I don't watch the R rated movies that would probably be pretty good if not for the language and other stuff. So there may be some out there, hope to find a good one some day.

I would go $1500-$2000 more on that deck. I know some would more than that.

I've sprayed a light mix of stripper on them before and it didn't hurt them at all. I would do like Rick said and to a test spot. As far as staining, the stain should wipe right off of them. It's according to if it's like the ones I've done, but you could just spray the whole deck and then wipe off the metal if some gets on them. Ready Seal will work better if it's sprayed, hard to get enough on with a brush.

Looks great Paul. I always love to see pics of IPE.