fireandrain

You could of fooled me,Rod! Well done. Its posts like this that assure me that I still have alot to learn.

LOL, as usual another mind-numbingly brilliant expose on the tools of the trade! I love it! And I don't understand a word of it.

Rick, thanks for the clarification. Im not sweet on this stuff. Main concern is better understanding its characteristics so Im more prepared when I come across a deck previously stained in one of these.

ditto. everything Charles said.

Thanks for the info,Rick. Thats beautiful country up there in Annapolis, located in the heart of redwood forest land. Fortunately, I only need to go about 6 blocks from my house for a deep supply of redwood. In fact, I have seven 40 year old redwoods in my backyard! Those are staying though... I checked out their site and they seem like some smart folks up there @ Forever Redwood. Funny you should mention that as I just stripped a heartwood-redwood deck yesterday! Had no idea it was heartwood until it gave up the ghost (CWF-PITA strip) .I'll generate some pics later today...

Kevin, you called it! Just got a confirmation from previous deck guy that he put "Envirolast : butterscotch" on this one. Nice call.

I'm thinking about committing more resource into "sanding" some of the fuzzies that inevitably come up with the redwood decks we do out here... I've usually done a bit of sanding with an orbital/80G on contact surfaces, i.e. handrails,benchs,etc... I have heard some of you folks mention the use of de-furring pads instead. From what I hear, this approach can reduce labor by 2/3. I've never used the de-furring pads...What do you guys think about them? Maybe some of you could share your de-furring ups with us, that would be great! Also, curious what kind of cost this set up would be... Thanks!

I've got 1500 sq. of floorboards to de-furr next week, first major defurring job for me. Im gonna venture to guess that I'm going to generate quite a bit of dust from this one... Rather than blow it "off", which might mean over to the neighbors side, Im thinking it might be better to use the shop vac 1st, and after most of the dust is collected, blow what remains. Any thoughts?

James: Weather in Northern California pretty much shuts me down in October. We have plenty of dry days Nov.-Mar, just that folks don't seem as inclined to put $$ into outdoor "furniture"... Funny you should mention that James....I'm planning on doing some aggressive advertising this fall to see how long I can stretch decks this year. Rick: re: RS-redwood only... I've just been going that way on all of my redwood decks. Do you see any reason why I shouldn't? Curious about that...

That sounds like a great idea you got there Rick! Keep working on your wife w/ that idea! Man, I'd love to do that! Guess I gotta put in a few more years knocking these decks out before I can even think about it...May be an even more difficult sell for me given our mild winters out here... Rick, Do it! I'm sure you would find yourself as happy as you have ever been!

Deck is appx. 1500 sq. ft.

... Picturess taken today after strip, brightening. Minimal furring, discovered a whitish acrylic finish beneath the Cabot, not too much of it on there fortunately, 30 min dwell F-18 @ 8oz/pg. got it up... I'll be back next week for light sanding contact surfaces, bench/handrails, little bit of cabot that wouldnt release...then sealing with RS med-Red redwood only.

Looks amazing Rick! I saw some o that same Honduran Mahagony when I was down in Honduras 15 years ago. When I was down there I bought a painting that was created in fine detail on the inside of a half-shell coconut. So much to see down there, so many talented wood carvers and artisians, mind-blowing really. Speaking of old growth cedar, have a gander at these port orford cedar shingles. These skinned the cabin I lived in for 3 years when I was in college up in Oregon. Cabin built around 1906.

[quote name= Is this a covered porch? No gaps between the floor boards. Fasteners look like they are of poor quality and corroding on nice wood. So many "premier" deck builders sell clients on high quality wood then use cheap, garbage nails or deck screws. Hate that.[/quote] Isnt that crazy Rick? THose floor boards are butted up to one another! No spacing. Nailed down... HO bought the house 10 yrs. back, apparantly previous HO built the deck himself. I'm amazed that the deck is still alive... No, its not covered... Nuts. My client returns from vacation in 2 weeks, hope they are pleased.

Same shot before stripping...

Stpped by the project this morning to asess the post-brightening (+24hrs.) and the extent of de-furring that will need to be done. Here is a picture of the floorboards. The furring wasnt horrific, but definetely going to need to make a pass at it next week.

Thanks Rick, appreciate it. Couldn't have done it without all the great help! Almost turned my back on this project when I first laid eyes on it, but figured it was a necessary hurdle if I wanted to build more knowledge and confidence with respect to stripping. It was time for some dues payin'. Thanks again for your advice,Rick. I'm in contract for my next acrylic strip to begin Aug.4th. I have pics posted on another thread of that one. That deck was done up by the same guy that did this deck! Hopefully she'll behave as well! And I know, I definitely got off easy on this one! Smooth release, no vert work. I'm grateful.

Yes I did. I guess I was expecting that. It would be nice to have more experience with larger buffing/de-felting equipment since I don't have any vertical de-fuzzing to do here. Thinking maybe it would be a good opportunity to rent something larger and gain some experience with a new tool. My de-furring arsenal is lilited to a few buffers w/ 3M pads. But whatever it takes, the HO's return in 2 weeks and I really want to knock their socks off. I built enough margin into this one to allow for mistakes or unforeseen nightmares. Since everything seems to be going better than anticipated, I'll be re-investing this "extra time" and head space into taking this deck to the next level. After all the con jobs these nice HO's have been subjected to in the past few years, I think they deserve a product that exceeds their expectations.

...and couple more taken 10 min. after brightener set in...

Spent a good 2 hours on the 2nd round of stripping. First layer wrinkled up right away, but a 20min. dwell @ 8oz. p/g didnt seem to want to get at that next layer at all. So much peled up finish on surface after 1st dwell, had to rinse pretty thourougly and re apply my stripper (again 8oz. p/g direct) to get that next and last layer to release... Here are a few pictures taken just after brightening. Acrylic finish, full release.

Well, finally got some sleep last night after Day 1 on this acrylic strip proved to be more bark than bite. As I mentioned before, the previous guy had been top coating this deck with ? acrylic for the last few years. This "expert" was returning every year for a maintenance visit that was setting the HO's back $1,200 each visit. Never been stripped before. Nicest clients ever, really felt for them. Anyways, here are todays pictures, still a small front deck to knock out next week. First pics were taken during 2nd strip...

JUST got back after Day 2 on this strip... Downloading todays pics now...

Thanks Greg, Ill be back at it tomorrow, take some more pictures, hopefully the whole kit and caboodle after brightening....

These film forming stains are pretty rare around here. Like I said in previous posts, seen only 4 in 8 years. All four in the last 3 weeks!