fireandrain

Ive got one in my backyard! Love them redwoods!

True Rick, I know, lucky me,eh? Funny though, I live smack in the middle of Berkeley, and I havent seen a wacky leftist in over 6 months! MOst of the leftists round here are too busy making a living to afford the high cost of living, not much time leftover for wackiness. Bought my first house 3 yrs. back, paid a median price...800K! Crazy. As far as the quakes, yup we've got em! Havent felt one of those in over a year though...pretty fun usually! I'll take the quake every few years if it means putting up with 70 degree averages bayside with a nice pacific breeze at the end of the day.. hehehehe

Well done. I have quite a few enviro-minded clients here in the Bay Area. Fortunately, I haven't seen a solid yet in 2 years. Lots of grayed-out redwood decks that seem to love a strong percarb-simple cherry cocktail. Clients really appreciate the extra care. Lots of nearby watershed, try to avoid caustics if I can...even it takes me longer to get the decks cleaned up.

I hope this isn't too off-topic... I designed and built (super-easy) this backyard garden water feature and coated the door with RS. See, cant be that off topic, I mentioned RS! Anyways, just thought some of you might be interested in this 'folky-rustic' design. How could a deck guy, after spending 8 hours in the blazin' sun not want to come home to the soothing sounds of water! This water feature cost me $250 and took an hour to assemble. Really had to hunt down the cattle trough, guess there isnt much of a demand for these tanks here in urban California! Anyways, if you want more info on this, just lemme know! AM I the 1st one to treat a water feature in RS/ And, yup, I know, the wooden french door will likeley rot out being submerged in the stock tank, but whateva! Just cost me $20 at my local recycled building materials store!

Nah, Kevin. "Water feature" has been around awhile I think. Landscape designers use the term to describe the element of water in a design. Yeah, the dog 'Kodiak' was pretty curious about this new addition in "his" kingdom. Fortunateley, he's too big to fit it the tank! 160 lbs of sweet lovin!

I just stick to doing what Im interested in doing and do it the best I can. If my job is to clean up after someones else mistake or poor judgement, I do it. Whatever, thats life. There has always been hacks out there. Always will be. Always will be people opting to pay low prices for crappy work. Thats the way it is. I've never had such an experience because I only work in demographics that can afford professional service. I don't offer coupons, never have. Not my market. Not my game. Clients never ask for any and I dont have any associated with my services. If someone is shopping a project based on cost, I don't even get involved in the bidding. Not interested.

Cedar deck? Love it. Never seen one out here in Northern California. Everthing redwood. Love the grain expression in that deck, super deep and rich. Well done. Must have been fun masking that house off for spraying? I imagine you had to mask off higher than what is shown in the pictures...

Ahhhhh, almost therapeutic to watch that stuff lift! :)

Thought I would go ahead and share some after pics on the redwood deck that was,in fact, 80% lichen and moss, and only 20% wood fiber... Still need to visit the project to snap some more post-ReadySeal pics.

Thanks for the feedback everyone... I appreciate that quite a bit. She phoned me today and referred to me as a "magician"...Guess thats a good sign! 95% of all decks I see are redwood. Really nothing else here in Northern California with the possible exception of the occasional exotic. I love working with redwood. It can fuzz up mighty easy, but has big transformative potential.

Searching through these threads, and I mean Ive been at it all day, I see a near split opinion spread on Ready Seal and Wood Tux. So lets lay it out, if you had to choose one over the other to use this summer, which would it be? IS it true that, with Tux, you can seal immediateley after pw'ing? If so, this may swing this guy's vote!

Funny thing about this one, I never had to open a bottle of bleach to get those blimmy little critters to release from that trellis! Soaked it heavy with Sod. Percarb/Simple Cherry for an hour or so while I was washing the floorboards and the adjacent redwood fence. When it was time to start my 'lichen assault' those critters had been soaking so long they really just came right off. Staining the trellis was more of an event due to all of the nice landscaping below and around the trellis.

Thanks Beth, appreciate it. The homeowner had been out of town throughout the entire process, hoping she's pleased when she return this weekend. :)

So many guys raving about the Harbor Freight polisher... went and had a look at one today. Price was right, $29 on sale. Didnt like how it felt in my hand, super heavy, big drawback for me as Im fighting CTS and a bad tennis elbow. Yup, 37 yrs old and Im already fallin apart! While the Makita runs around $190, I think Im going to pull the trigger on it anyways. If I had 5 guys out there defelting 3x p/wk, I think Id stock up on the harbor freight model. For now, Id rather have something more light weight and better quality.

Okay, lets say its 90 degrees outside when the house is stained. The surface of the cedar shake is really baking in the afternoon sun. Wouldn't this ambient situation contribute to ignition point?

Good stuff!

Thanks Rick. I was in the office working today and I spent over an hour hunting tips for the sprayer! Hard to believe that Sunbrite and ACR are te only ones selling tips for a deckster gun!

isnt there a ballgame i should be watching?

Ha! thats great. Actually, I dialed in an auto chem mixer yesterday I think... I was mixing up some sod. percarb and just filled the 5'er, tossed in my mix, dropped in a mixer paddle attached to my 14V drill, set it to low, clamped the trigger engaged with a standard tarp clamp and walked away! The drill slowly spun around the edge of the 5'er and I got my chems mixed while I was clearing the deck of plants,etc.. Anyone else do this? Seems great in a pinch w/o help around and in a bit of a hurry.

You look great Ron. We all could learn a bit from Ron on the virtues of self-deprecation. Taking it like a champ. Honestly, If I was on the outside looking in and happened across this thread, (and Ron's responses to all of this lightweight criticism), I would hire him based on his dignity and humility. Yeah, okay, run spellcheck, pretty quick, pretty easy. Mel's mispell-a-phobias perplex me a bit but I wont get into that. It's too late it's putting me to sleep.

Great input as always Rod. Very inspired by what you and Ken have shared on this topic. I'm feeling ready more than ever to start the 'letting go' process. I have previously been OK with doing so much of the work myself considering the profitability factor. Bottom line is that it becomes irrelevant how much you make on one big fish of a job one day if an injury or illness renders you out of commission for the next 14! Spread that big haul out over 14 days and you may as well be a cashier at Target. Wise words Ken and Rod! Thanks

Kens got it there. I agree. This has weighed heavily on my mind the last year. I have usually worked alone. My philosophy is that I would rather wait until I have really dialed in my 'system' before imparting it on a crew. Having said that, I had help last week and found that it was quite easy to delegate tasks. I'm not ready to let a guy near high pressure or stain spraying, but it was sure swell having a guy manage all of the hoses (load out/load up), hang tarps, put tarps away, touch-up work, sink screws, and sand furred out verts.

Thanks.. im thinkin ill get more done with 3 of these in the hands of three helpers for now. thanks for the tip... oh, do they sell the pads as well?

Hey Rick, im looking all over the place online trying find these confounded 3m defelting pads, any ideas where I can buy some?

Looks great Matt! WOW, 500 tip, gotta feel good! Still looking for those 3M pads online, cant seem to get any bites from google... any tips?