fireandrain

Nice job Rick, wow, what a transformation! Yeah, I don't do many of these exteriors either, but ended up as a nice little ad-on to that garage restore. Im pretty comfortable up on a ladder, actually thats my winter business, rain gutters. Gonna try and let that percarb do most of the work for me so I can do a rinse at a greater distance... planning on testing the lower areas with this appraoch first. Im guessing its gonna be a wet one though! :)

Nice work, looks great, happy client I hope...

Thanks Beth, appreciate it.

Ready Seal makes "Redwood Only" formula that supposedly addresses this issue. 98% of my decks are redwood. I've used the non-Redwood formula before when the sent me the wrong stuff, and, according to Pierce @ RS, its OK for West Coast decks. Apparanlty the tannin pull was a Northeast issue. Don't recall where your at, so keep that in mind if using RS. Other than that, like Rick said, Redwood is a softwood, so easy on the PSI, and dont be too upset if you get some furring after your wash is dry. Hard to avoid.

Nopt sure whats on there right now. I agree, I think the old finish is pretty beat up by the UV's, should come right off (HOPEFULLy!)

HAHA! I believe your right Rick! Thanks

I mixed @ 10z. p/gallon.

I have a liability waiver in my deck contracts that requires clients to "protect as they see fit" any climbing or trailing vines that share the deck or handrail surfaces. Its in the small print. I have never had to lean on it as we always do what we can to protect surrounding vegetation when we strip or spray sealer. I just embedded this disclaimer in order to protect us from the PITA client who swears that a few drops of RS will kill their vines in a week or two. Again, Ive been lucky enough never to have had to refer to it, but it certainly brings me comfort when Im all suited up spraying a deck with lots of surrounding plants...

Or, just move on...

Well I use both HD-80 and F-18. Love them both. Cost-wise, i think its a non-issue, frankly. That is, used alone, both are equally effective (IMO). You mentioned that you have built in enough margin for strip, which is good starting point, but is this job really, as you put it, "worth the effort"? Guess you can only answer that. I rarely see solids or acrylics in my neck the woods. How do I get that lucky you ask? This is what works for me: Whenver I'm at the front doorstep of a prospective clients house, after I ring the bell, but before they answer, I cross my fingers, look at my shoes and whisper to myself, "Please, no solids, please, no acrylics..."

My point would be this... If your really eagr to tackle this strip job, as daunting as it may appear, that is, if you have the time in your books and need the extra $$$, than go for it! The advice your getting from the pros on this forum is worth its weight in gold. Me, on the other hand, I'd skip it. Not because Im uncertain as to whether or not these chems that have been recomended to you wouldnt be sufficient if professionally administered, but because I find in an average month, I do better skipping the nasty acrylic strip jobs and focusing my attention on the not so nasty ones. Love to see you knock this one out Nick, but not if it means you lose your arse with respect to time and materials. I'd advise the client that they should seriously consider replacing the deckboards. How many sq. ft. again? Did you look into flipping them?

Yeah, dont be temted to take up the 'challange' (potential nightmare) of stripping these decks. Can you flip the deckboards? Nailed in or screwed down? Species of wood? May be most profitable for you to just, 1. Pass, 2.) Flip, or 3. Tear out, Replace. Tearing out and replacing will be FAR more profitable for you than playing around any longer with stripping. Time is money and stripping woes are the worst~

Y'Know Kev, I'll take the sore shoulders over grit in the corners of my eyes any day! Yup, wood is a different beast all together, still hard work, but much more creatively gratifying. Back when I was, as Rick so aptly put it, a tired out ol' concrete guy, I would really tune everyting out when I was cleaning flatwork. I reckon I'd spenmd most of my mental energy just "zoned out" thinkin about anything OTHER than the moss rippin off a driveway. Now, with deckwork, totally different ball game! My head is always so in the game at hand, mentally flippin' through all of the woodie wisdom you folks have imparted to me. I've been working for myself since I was 13 yrs. old and have 2 college degrees (Biology/Sociology), but Id have to say when it comes to absorbing real life, durable knowledge, this forum has been, BY FAR the most profitable for me! I really wanna thank all you guys (and gals!) for your generosity and enthusiam for the process of learning THE RIGHT WAY to handle a deck! Cheers Y'All!

Welcome Nick! Might think about flippin a deck board, see what the underside looks like. Pain in the can, but might be your only solution unless you have a flame thrower handy!

Ive been using the deckster for a year now and love it. Question. It seems Im always going through a bunch of arbitrary "fire-it-up" procedures, i.e. connect hoses,spray gun, connect battery terminals, drop the 2 hoses in the 5'er, prime the black squeeze bulb, and turn it on. Trouble is, I do alot of suspended deck where I like to drop down the hose fro above, connect below, and back up to spray the deck. I seem to run into trouble when I forst begin spraying with not getting any pull from the pump. Should I ALWAYS be squeezing that black bulb (from below @ deckster, PITA) OR is there some sort of regular sort of start up procedure that will work all the time? If I wait long enough will the pump build up pressure on its own without all the trigger pulling and primer bulb squeezing? DOes this make any sense? Its late and I have a head full of RS! Maybe someone could post a step by step on the proper deckster "set-up" routine? That would be great. I can always get the thing working but not after a lot of futzin' around... Thanks!

Alright, I agree, this may possibly be the most boring thread in months!

:lgangel: Would you say that the right precautions were taken when that sweatshirt heated up on you?

I agree with what Ken is saying about the relative 'dangers' of the various chems/stains that we use. True, really comes down to safe practices at the jobsite and a solid understanding of how to use these tools safely. On the other hand, I'd agree with Beth...accidents DO happen, even with the professional. Obviously, chances are reduced significantly if you are paying close attention to safety procedures, but they CAN happen. I dont choose my seals/chems solely based on how safe they are. Again, I agree with Ken, that would have us out there scrubbing decks with laundry detergent alone! That said, I think its a reasonable consideration when choosing a stain to work with. Not alone, but a 'consideration', thats all I'm saying here...

I kinda figured that would turn into a general discussion on 'fire safety' , no worries. We always follow a strict safety regiment when working with anything w/ a flash point. Firecans, extinguishers, all on board. Not paranoid, just curious Celeste. I was mainly just curious about WTW vs. RS with respect to flash points. Thats all.

Thanks for the info guys, appreciated. Any special techniques in using these osbourn brushes?

I ran out of some of my favorite "plant friendly" deck cleaner this week and found myself in the back of the truck digging through my 5'ers of chems trying to mix something up that would do a good job cleaning an old redwood deck that had some very old, gulp, BEHR solid on it in spots. I mixed up some Simple Cherry with a some straight Sodium Percarb.... pretty heavy on the percarb... Sprayed it on thick with my deckster and let it dwell a good 45 minutes. Did a bit of misting to keep it active and rinsed it with my .70 tip and it looked great! Ive got some question that Id love some chatter on.. 1. Can I mix some F-18 or HD-80 into that brew? Percarb/Simple Cherry/SH? 2. When Im working with straight percarb do I really need to be misting to keep it active? I ddo that with my caustics, but is it neccessary with a percarb? Thanks!

i agree with Kevin on that safety info! I tend towards tarps myself, spray them down after a staining and stuff in my firecan. Anyone ever burnt a deck down? Never seen pics of that....worst nightmare....BE SAFE

Thanks for all the input. I've used " a certain percarb" that has the stripper in it and I love it! Wasnt really trying to save $, although thats always a plus. It was more of a situation where I didnt have my "certain percarb with stripper" around and was left with the straight Sod.Percarb, and some simple cherry. I was mainly concerned with any sort of bad chemical reaction if I was to mix in some hd-80 or f-18. Im guessin from what everyone has said, that it'd be OK? I'm hoping I wouldnt have any bad fume issues,etc...

Got a call from a previous client of mine, said he had a beautiful garage door installed and had a hack attempt to stain it with a dark brown Benjermin Moore 'Alkyd' "Semi-Solid" stain. He was very unhappy with the result. I had a look at the finish today myself, and he's right, it looks pretty bad. I don't know why B-Moore calls this this stuff semi-solid...? There is barely any grain showing through the finish. IMHO, I think it looks like a bad first coat of latex paint! So my question is this... Is there anything I can do to restore this garage door back to its original bare wood state, then proceed with getting something nice back on it? I'm not sure what species this garage door is.. hard to tell with the dark finish on it now. It looks like a softwood. Is this job really worth getting into? I dont want to start the season off with a big PITA right off the git go! I dont want to get 1/2 way through a HD-80 strip only to discover that Ive severely raised the grain of his door, let alone end up with a blotchy mess! Any input is appreciated as always. Thanks

Thanks for all the input... Just got inspired to call this client again... explained the variable outcome potential with any sort of strip work, and likely the need to sand post-strip work. He said that if the strip work ended up blotchy, we could always re-coat the door with a solid match of the b-moore semi solid and just live with that. In other words, hes fine with just painting the garage doors if the strip proves unsuccessful. Im still uneasy getting involved with such a *****y little project...Especially when theres a lot of other more striaght-forward deck jobs in the works for me... But, he's a nice guy, and I always seem to be drawn to a challange...mainly to help this guy and his wife out so they can feel good about there beautiful new garage doors....