plainpainter

lacquer thinner - if vinyl is oxidized, you'll be needing to apply TSP and sodium hydroxide - scrubbing vinyl - and high pressure rinse. By then you will have gotten the wtw out probably anyways - but if not, lacquer thinner will get rid of the rest. And trust me on this - I ripped off a roof and forgot to blue tarp one side of this 25 yr. old white vinyl siding - so I had all those asphalt shingle streaks that I got rid of 100%. So if I can get that out - you can get out wtw.

Man - everything has become instant gratification - I agree, waiting a whole year to watch those shows was the best. And I remember planning to watch the special like 2 weeks beforehand. I remember the anticipation as well waiting for winnie the pooh specials. Man - I would so not want to be a kid in todays world.

Ken - you haven't jumped on the downstreaming stripper bandwagon? What equipment do you use to apply HD-80?

I grew up on Charlie Brown in the 70's - it was a more innocent time, that I wouldn't trade for anything. I was actually watching it again last night. Shulz was really writing about his own life - he was Charlie Brown! He was a sad guy. I think he was also a great educator as well - did you hear some of the words they use? Or how about the jazz music in the background along with the beethoven piano music - and he got kids to listen! And to be honest that's how I first heard about WW1 and the flying aces - society aint the same anymore.

Man, now I am hungry! You should make up a list - I'd like to go visit those spots - I am on the northshore, so I don't know much about them.

Hey Jeff - how much do you miss the Clam chowder up around Boston? I'd never leave this area alone based on that - fried clams and fish and clam chowder at any one of a bunch of seaside fish places! Yuuuummmmmuyy!

Looks great! So how about some technicals. Howstrong was your F-18 solution? And the ox? Do you do a percarb/bleach cleaning after stripping and prior to brightening? Do you do any sanding/defurring? How much? And I agree wholeheartedly with you on the stain - I was putting on another coat of timber oil on my folks deck - and other than blowing the leaves off prior to me starting - I didn't worry about the leaves falling as I was staining. I am beginning to be sold on parafinnic stains - but I love Russel's version the most!

I am curious about what Ken said and jet fuel - why is there jet fuel on vinyl siding?

So what conclusions can we come up with all this testing? Or is still inconclusive?

Wouldn't y'all just love to know this ridiculously cheap concoction of mine that stripped off this latex paint - ha ha ha h ah ah ah aha - was only dwelling for like 20 minutes - ha ha ha a hah ahhah

Rick - will you give it another coat before the winter sets in - or do you let them go through the winter and wait til next spring? I used Russel's parafinnic oil stain on my pressure treated - let it age for 2-3 months and just put another coat on it yesterday so it will have more oomph for the winter snows.

Do I see wand marks all over the place>? Still looks grey.

Ok - Rick, I believe it's that time of year. So how did the Readyseal hold up on your ipe deck. And is there a difference on the railings between the oxalic and citric brightening and longevity? Care to share any pics as to how things look now?

Rich people don't have 'salaries', jon. Their wealth is hidden behind loopholes like you couldn't believe - if you think the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes - you're either stupid, naive, or both. Bring it on Hillary - bring back the taxation! I had a good salary under democratic administrations - I'd rather be paying out high taxes from a good paying job under a democratic administraton - then a republican one, that rolls back taxes, and simultaneously I go from making 85 g's per year with all the benefits - to making 'starbucks' salary, paying for my own health insurance and what not out of my own albeit shrinking pocket - Jon, you really **** me off. You You You You - Republican! Oh yeah Jon - I am part of that 50% poorest people, thanks alot to jerks like you that voted that idiot in. Thanks for 7 years of crappy economy - I appreciate it very much. I'd probably be making 100+ g's now still doing UNIX Admin Tech - if Al Gore had one - oh, yeah - forgot - he did win. Man - don't ever remember paying out $$$ every week in advertizing to maintain my employment - or reinvestment in equipment, other than my car, to maintain my weekly check. Or worrying about yearly unemployment around winter time. ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH.

You know - I don't know anything about what this guy was doing, but speaking from the point of view of a painter and pressure washer. There are two types of pressure washing jobs. The 1 hour house washes with stuff like Simple cherry and downstreaming are great - they do the least damage to the surface that is there and leave it clean. However if I am going to prep a house for painting - I use much stronger chems, and I use a deck scrubbing brush and brush in every sq. inch of the house - this allows you to use low pressure rinsing, it also will remove pesky artillery fungus, and you want to chemically abrade the surface to provide a 'tooth' for new layer of paint. So I feel it is a different animal pressure washing prior to a repaint. I have yet to remove artillery fungus using downstreaming and soft washing techniques. Where as my own brew of TSP, multiple applications, and brushing, high/low pressure rinse - gets rid of it every time.

Is it me - or do others find these constant posts about orgs to be boring? John - what the heck is so important about forming an organization, that you constantly post and post non-stop about it?

I've noticed that until you remove all the oxidation from the vinyl using TSP/Lye/butyl - that no product will remove stuff like that. It will just swish it around into the oxidized vinyl.

I just got a bunch of calls in the last few days - after a very slow september. I'd be happy if it was just warm through November.

As an owner - my understanding is that you don't get the benefits of workmans comp - unless you are an LLC or incorporated.

Here is a customer that I sold a house washing, gutter scrubbing and deck restoration. I didn't take any before pics - but the decks were awful, built 11 years ago - and then a neigbor 'pressure' washed it last year and put a coat of stain. It probably looked worse this year than if it hadn't been stained. This lady, unknown to me, had well water - by the time I had applied the stripper - the well had run dry, luckily there was a drenching rainstorm, and I scrubbed the deck in the rain - and then used a hose along with the scrubber to rinse. It was a nightmare - ended up doing 16 hrs of sanding as well - just wanted a really good customer with good referrals. Anyways homeowner was ecstatic at the results. And lastly reason #101 to use wtw, decks are built only a foot off the ground - and the wood always seems moist - no matter how dry the weather is.

It's funny Scott, in New England - if that house was painted. And I had to pressure wash, scrape, sand, spot prime, caulk, 2 coats of paint - and asked 10g's - people would think I was ridiculous. Goes to show where the painting industry has gone. More than anything - I like how doing decks and coming to these forums - has me more focused on surface area - and figuring out how much per sq.ft. my costs should be. I wish everyone in the coatings industry would focus on sq.ft. costs. Anyways - love the job. Just curious how do you estimate sq.footage for decks with railings/balusters/skirt boards? Do you use Russel's method?

I'll give the spindles a quick backbrushing - I saturate them, sometimes a few drip - I like to soak the wood. I spray like 8 feet worth of spindles - and backbrush 'em out. Too often I have noticed, if you don't saturate spindles - you will come back like 20 minutes later - and some spindles look like they weren't even touched - and then you go back touching up a bunch of spindles - which sucks.

I have a spraytech .33gpm airless and one of those really fat Wooster deck staining brushes. I tarped the whole side of that house with those 1 mil plastic sheets - well half the house. Then used Jarrods' method of tarping both sides of the railings - and shot 5 gallons and backbrushed. I like the sprayer, especially when doing the floors - I spray like a 2-3 millimeter puddle, quick enough so it doesn't soak in - that lets me see how much I am putting on - then backbrush out.

Beautiful work, Ken. I'd like to stain ipe to see what it is like.

The root of the problem, Barry, is the customer who has been lied to and lied to time and time again - and they still think there is a magic maintenance free product out there. What's that saying...fool me once, shame on you - fool me twice shame on me! It's like in painting - guys underprice me by half, and customers are like - why should I pay you double - and I am like, lowballing hacks screwed you over before with lousy paint jobs - and you're still going to bite? Anyways - I hear ya on the extra effort to clean up trex - it's not nearly as fast as downstreaming stripper and acid - but heck I will brush a deck for $0.75 a sq.ft. Just think - there are guys who will sand hardwood floors and 3 coats of poly for $1.50/sq.ft. And guys who will veneer plaster a blueboard wall for $0.80/sq.ft. And I know that is comparing apples to oranges - and doesn't include the whole picture. Still scrubbing decking ain't nearly as time consuming as plastering.