plainpainter

what about Scott Burt?

The Nor'easter that hit New england slammed my town with 11.5" of rainwater that started Saturday, and it's finally over late Monday night. Man the footage of the rising rivers is just amazing! I hope this means mother nature has exhausted all the moisture and it will be a dry year for wood restoration?

i am going to start using the TWP500 series

I just cracked the numbers following the dimensions Ken gave - and man, what a lowballing ***** Ken was!

So here is the unthinkable for the 'woodie' world.....Do you have a favorite waterbourne/latex deck stain that you actually like to use? I must admit - I love working with Cabot's 1800 series solid latex deck stain. Some of my happiest customers of '09 where ones I re-stained their peeling latex stain decks. The finished product was beautiful, for those that don't like the look of pressure treated.

Why not quote it the same? I quote the same, what do I care if they give it some bottom feeder? Would you be happy working for less, just to get the job?

There comes a time when you become emotionally unattached to particular jobs. You get some jobs, you don't get others - but in the end you get enough to make it worth your while. Michael, I think the hallmark of a successful businessman is to not get wrapped up in the 'job' - looking back I realize now that wanting certain jobs really badly is due to ego. Let the ego go - and you'll be a better businessman for it. I'll be honest, every time folks tell me they are moving - or are already living like a hundred miles away and trying to sell their home - I run in the other direction. Is this the customer you want, the one that is going away? What if they don't pay? How you going to get your money?

unemployment rate for the great Baystate ticked up to 9.5% - supposedly we added jobs to the tune of 400 net increase - but the work force increased at a faster rate of 1,700 more folks added to the workforce. So even if we increase jobs, and none are lost - the workforce is still growing at rates that exceeds job creation. This sucks. I have no clue how this is going to play out this year.

I haven't done it personally, but I came across a customers deck that was under warranty work - whereby the company paid a contractor to stain it - to give it back color. I have to admit - it looked beautiful, was like 2 years old - and not one hint of peeling. It didn't even look like a surface coating, it looked like it had become the composite - if that makes any sense?

So here is a post about the eventual demise of the pressure washing industry. I know this post will touch a raw nerve with some, but I think it's fair question, most trades have seen their 'heyday' and have declined to the point it's hard to make a buck. So many of you from what I have read, look down at painters in general for instance as that 'scum' trade. Painters have the oldest orgs on the books - the PDCA for instance - well over a hundred years old - so let's be honest. Well here is what I feel - I firmly believe that at some point in the future that pressure washing will be another trade that will fall by the wayside in terms of profitability, I think it will run it's natural course like so many industries and so many careers - where in the beginning there is little knowledge of said industry - then recognition rises along with demand - but little supply, aka the contractor - and eventually the hoardes come rolling in the to meet the supply - and pressure washing will settle back down to being another trade where it's hard to make a buck. For comparison's sake - the best, very best most professional painting contractor with million dollar homes and wealthy clients with every single i dotted and t crossed may get around $55-$65 tops per man-hour. Normal high end guys mid 40s to $50 an hour. Run of the mill quality contractor $35-$40/hr tops - while many guys below that asking for $20-$25.

John - the Muralo paint company is a neigbor of yours in Bayonne, Just pick up the Ultimate Mid Gloss in their stock black color. Get a plastic trash barrels and fill with water and TSP and dunk the shutters in - let 'em sit for a good while, take 'em out, scrub down real quick and pressure wash off. Spray on a couple of coats - it will be good for 10 years.

you couldn't go wrong with $25 a piece, includes all labor to remove, clean, paint, cost of materials and put back up. But I am sure guys will do it cheaper.

Is ASQ yet another form of pressure treated or are you guys misspelling ACQ?

I replaced two boards this past fall for a customer, wasn't a strip - just a major percarb clean, sand deck and reapply Benjy Moore's oil semitransparent stain. This deck was done like 5 times, so it was solid in appearance. Even after screwing down the two boards, waiting for a couple rainstorms to try and leach some stuff out, and then cleaning with percarbs, ox neutralize, and then sanding with my floor sander - the stain still just sat on the surface and was very 'thin' in appearance. Maybe readyseal's parafinnic oil absorbs alot better - timberoil which is supposedly parafinnic didn't seem to absorb either on a board I replaced. The only products I found to really absorb are like those cretowood water based products, that stuff disappears into the wood.

I agree, you can't get decks easily cleaned unless there is an even layer of degradation. And I experimented with cleaning a new pressure treated railing the other year I installed that had mildew growing all over it with percarbs. There was always a shadow of where the mildew was in the wood - and I believe it just grew right back a few months later. I am also done with the idea of new wood care. I know the argument about protecting the integrity of the wood before nature ruins it. But everything I tried on ACQ lumber suggests to me that nothing penetrates and nothing sticks. What' the point of trying to protect the wood if nothing works to protect it? I think Scott/OPW has the right opinion - if folks absolutely demand their new deck stained - use something like timberoil and tell them it will be gone in 12 months and will have to get it redone.

Jim, sodium hydroxide followed by oxalic acid the best at killing mildew either? I don't think we are actually killing mildew the majority of the time - rather I think we are actually removing a layer of wood where the mildew rests upon. I don't think percarbs are the best either at killing mildew - but if you remove a layer of wood - does it really matter?

I have a theory that the majority of the stains post 2005 were formulated with softer resins - as it seems the new formulations didn't dry as hard as the previous formulations. And this leads me to think the harder curing stains of the past were better able to lock in the mildewcides from leaching out too quickly. Where as these newer softer curing stains I am hypothesizing do not lock in the mildewcides as effectively and thus mildew growth takes place sooner.

it's just mildew growth - throw a couple cups of bleach into a gallon of water and spread it over and rinse. Some products haven't evolved with the newer VOC laws - and for some reason the same mildewcides that worked well in the past no longer work with newer formulations. Don't overthink it.

I am surprised, Celeste, I thought you were a big fan of Cabot's SPF product.

I worked with this stain as well - and it's a killer product. It's actually a Pratt&Lambert formulation that Sherwin corporate decided to use under their own label as well. Here is another useful tip - Deckscapes is an absolute killer product for trex composite decks. That stuff becomes the deck and not a surface layer.

Is this the TWP 300 series?

6 more weeks of this dreaded weather. I don't know about you, but looking back at all my memories - if spring came by mid-march that was considered an early spring. I never remember an 'early' spring right after Feb 2? The earliest spring like weather I remember in Mass - was spring of '98 I believe - I was at a party, it was like March 9. and there was green grass and warm weather. But that's about the earliest I remember. I remember a nice day on the beach with friends on a March 22, 6-7 years ago and nothing earlier than that since. I dream of nice spring weather by early March - but it doesnt happen very often, let alone right after Feb 2.

whipped out my prob and stats book and conducted my own poll Martha Coakley is leading Scott Brown by 14% +/- 4% with a 90% confidence interval. Go Martha Go! Keep that democrat 60 vote edge in the Senate!!!!!!!!

Well I guess my career as a pollster is shot.....

I was just brushing up on my probability & stats book - I was a math major in college on top of being a physics major. We'll see how good my forecast is tonight....