plainpainter

That's ok Jon, after Obama ends the war - we'll break even. And to boot all the money that would be going towards the war if McCain were president - will instead come back to the welfare of the people in the form of social services - hmmm, socialized medecine for one. Can't wait for a dem!

I just looked up this link and did some math - in the year 2008 under Bush according to this site - a single person making 30k would have to pay $4098.75 not $4,500! And under Clinton the same 30k would have to pay $4952.50 not $8,400! The difference isn't that much - and totally ignores the fact that different deductions and such lead to different Adjusted Gross incomes - I remember my salaries under clinton making 50k+ - My total taxes of Federal, State, Fica, and Medicare never amounted to more than 28% of my initial total gross income - so this chart is at best irrelevent. And at worse serves to demonstrate that you republican ********** that visit this board have your heads so far stuck up your ****** - that you don't even realize that when your salary is taxed - the WHOLE amount is not taxed at the highest tax bracket that you are in!!!!!!!!!!!!! The first 10 grand of your money is taxed the same if you make 10 grand, 20 grand or a million! Man I can't wait for the next Democratic president to free me and my democratic brothers from this idiotic republican fantasy world.

I defy anyone to post their tax returns for the last 16 years and show conclusively that they paid less under Bush - I don't believe it. Nobody I know says they pay less taxes under Bush - I question your post very much.

**** - I hope my nephew doesnt read this. :lolsign:

Here is the latest technology from Muralo - it is a waterbourne alkyd deck stain. Muralo has always been proactive company in the coatings industry - and for a small company they have really worked hard to put EPA compliant coatings out ahead of the actual laws. While in some ways this has been annoying, because they have let their oil products over the years really become cheesy. This is in part because instead of overburdening an already small R&R department, they simply took ingredients out of the can as mandated, did not reformulate - but instead were buying their time while the chemists were working on vast departures from old technology. The rewards of this have been fantastic - their interior paints are the very best in the industry - I routinely use their waterbourne interior products, especially their Ultra semigloss - and eveyrone thinks my trim work is oil. They have waterbased primers that kill knots, waterbourne polyurethanes that look like glass and more durable than oil based poly's, the most amazing exterior paints in the industry - now they even have self priming high coverage latex paints. And now this product - I will be trying it and seeing how well it works, but as the can says - it has less than 250ml/L - it is basically butyl/water/alkyd. And I believe the 'stainshield' technology is nano-technology. Here are some pics.

You know that elusive concept of a 'perfect' paint or stain. It comes up in conversation from time to time, when contractors remember how good a certain product use to be. In the painting world a perfect trim paint was oil based paints prior to the 80's - Benjamin Moore was considered a perfect house paint 15-20 years ago - not that they're bad now. But there is always a product and period of time it existed that gives it this 'perfect' status. Even on this forum - as bad as ATO is now, everyone always goes back to the memory of ATO as being a standard in decking stain excellence back when it was a good product. So my question is, do any of you have a 'perfect' stain in your arsenal now? And if not - what do think of as a perfect stain in your opinion - a certain brand and time frame when it was excellent - it had all or pretty close to all the attributes that you wanted and if they could just go back to selling that formula again - everything in the world would be right again.

Hijack away Ken. I will try and answer your question as well - but I think we are both asking the same question. Basically what makes a 'perfect' stain for folks is a set of criteria like you listed. For me - I want a stain that is forgiving in terms of uneven application. I think deep penetrating - as good as it sounds on paper, sometimes leaves blotchy results. Some stains penetrate too well - and when you come back a few days later - you see areas where it dived so much, that it no longer exists anywhere near the top and other places where it is fine. Too me woodtux seems to be problematic, especially on softer woods - that's why I have had to adopt the 'drenching' technique then brush out - but even then it wasn't 100% right sometimes. I want a stain to be really tough, especially on treads, I don't want to see wear. When I brush a stain - I don't want one that is 'oily' in consistency for lack of a better term. I want it to be reisistant to flashing and lap marks. I want to be able to pick up a guy from labor-ready and have him working the same day. I want the color to be vibrant and last a long time. Resistance to mildew. I'd actually like a lambswool roller be able to lay on the perfect coat - and have it level and suck into the wood without any additional backbrushing. And be assured of even appearance - and just a beautiful finish that will take recoats for quite some time. And I would like a product that spells out exactly what to do for brand spanking new wood prep. This is a grey area for me - I want to be able to approach a customer on their beautifully brand new erected ipe deck with Fir balusters - and just stain, and not have to explain that it has to be 'aged' via a 2 step process. Or that I have to put on a 'sacrificial' coating that will need to be stripped a year later and then have the 'real' coating applied.

I intend to test these products, James. And I am putting the knowledge out there for others that are interested in testing as well. If any of my currently used stains heads south on me - I want to know I have a backup in the works.

Adrian - if anything that got me upset with you, is your high horse riding sort of tone. You come off as woodie snob. I introduced the knowledge of this product to be helpful for those that are looking for alternatives - and all you did dismiss the company for a spelling error and the 'painting' industry as well - because heck what do they know about staining wood, right? So - I could really care less what you think about my professionalism - and I certainly don't care about your opinion either. It was a post meant to be helpful.

Adrian - isn't this site shielded from the public now?

Hey Adrian - get off the computer and go vote for Hillary. She needs your vote, man.

Adrian, stop being obtuse. I have been using Muralo products for over 10 years in one form or another - and their quality puts such companies as Benjamin Moore, Pratt & Lambert, Pittsburgh paints to utter shame. The obvious quality to any have used Muralo products is readily apparent from Day #1. If you insist on judging a company for spelling errors - that's your problem. My experience with this company is that they are much more concerned with what's in the can than what's on the can. Of course there have been products lately - that have been having problems with what's in the can - although the label was perfect - but who cares, what's important is how the product performs. Muralo is a small company in a day in age when most companies are going out of business because they cannot compete against larger national conglomerates. Even Pratt & Lambert was going out of business - which was saved by Sherwin Williams purchasing them. So I am sure they were aware of this unfortunate spelling error - but being a small family owned company - rather than trash printed materials for the sake of having perfect spelling - went and put it on the cans anyways. So - unlike many suggested - I won't be applying this to customer decks, but rather on test boards and see how it weathers. I am not saying this is a great stain - but something to look into as new technology - I think your comments, however, judging a company by a spelling error is really ridiculous

I think the fact the spelling is wrong is hilarious. It reflects the nature of this company. A company can choose to spend it's money 2 out of 3 ways. Those are - product quality, distribution, marketing. This company has no marketing budget whatsover - everything goes into quality - these guys were the first on the market with latex paints back in the 40's. And unlike most coating manufacturers that purchase their resins - these guys manufacture all resins and polymerize them in-house! And if you know anything about the coatings world - that's huge.

Ken, intercoat adhesion has always been a big concern in the coatings industry. As a painter - I routinely sand between coats - as added insurance, that if a paints ability to stick to itself isn't great{ie chemical adhesion} at least I will improve physical mechanical adhesion by providing micro grooves for which paint can seep into and 'lock' in. This is also achieved when painters pressure wash homes with TSP - we do this to etch the surface, or what we call a 'profile' for the next layer of paint to adhere to.

Beth, another little bit of history. The reason the term 'waterbornes' came into existance - was to distinguish certain lines of paint from just run of the ordinary 'latex' paints. Terms are numerous and confusing - originaly latex paints were made with latex resins, this hasn't been true for decades. And as well oil paints haven't been true oils for even longer. Manufacturers have introduced the term 'waterborne' as a way of classifying their new generation of paints that posess technology vastly different from traditionaly formulated 'latex' paints - but yet still have water as their 'solvent'. The urge is great to call a paint or any coating that contains water as a 'latex' - among painters even coatings with 100% acrylic binders are called 'latex'. And manufacturers are trying to get away from this.

A little history guys...in the beginning...when 'latex' formulations were first invented, they too were made with solvents - it actually took quite some time before chemists figured out how to suspend latex in a water base. But it has been like this so long - that most folks intuition link latex with water. Again most oil/alkyd resins require a solvent from anything from turpentine to stoddard solvents {i.e. mineral spirits}. However if you go to chemical suppliers, for instance Rohm & Hass, they have a myriad of different alkyd resins for sale - and some of them have been engineered to accept water as it's solvent. I routinely use an alkyd trim paint that is waterbased - it is made by devoe. I suspect the cost of alkyd resins that have been modified to accept H2O as it's solvent, is quite a bit more exspensive than a more typical alkyd.

Why do you think the deck will be shiny Charlie?

Hey - don't mess with the Nortons. They're the ones that own that mansion in the movie 'The Godfather' - apparently the family is good friends with Francis Ford Coppola, and let them 'borrow' their home for the movie. BTW - there is no such thing as 'painting' companies and 'stain' companies' these are coatings manufacturers - and this company has been around over a century - they know their business!

Well I will say one thing - it does look beautiful when first applied.

I hate that phrase nickel and diming - what does it really mean? Seems to me customers say that - when you won't do work for free.

I imagine if you got a specialty 2" hose made up as well - that it would work. I will be experimenting with the same thing.

I sand decks down as well - it's spec'd out in sikkens documentation. At some point I will be dropping the sanding and only use it as an upsell once I have a big enough clientale. But for now - I am biting the bullet, as it is a much better job - but extremely time consuming - I did a double deck resto project for 2 g's and 16 hours of labor were just sanding.

If you build a downstreamer just right, where the passage to the venturi is close to parallel to the flow of the high pressure water - you should be able to make it suck even at high pressures - this would be great for applying chems to fleets with high pressure.

I've downstreamed simple cherry with F13 added and 12% bleach and was doing a soffit - and I looked up and it went into my eyes. Used a 5% boric acid solution to clean my eyes out.

go talk to Bob at Buy the pressure washer items you need at affordable pricing. We have Suttner Cat Giant General Pump Delavan Pressure Pro Hansen Mosmatic Comet Whisper Wash AR pumps trigger guns surface cleaners lances wands duct spinners swivels ball valves chemica. He is all you will need for chems. There are lots of other places and you can experiment - but I do most of my business there.