Greg R

Honda and Suzuki are my fav.. I've owned all 4 brands over the past 25 years of riding and Suzuki is probably my 1st choice. I have an 05' RMZ450 4 Stroke right now.

I've found the horizontals to really need a second coat on most decks so far. We haven't used the grey yet but none of the floors have held enough color at the surface with only one coat. A light second coat just before we leave has helped to even things up and leave a much richer appearance to the wood. I have a bunch of pics as soon as I get my camera back from my lead guy :) We started another log home and it's been in his truck the whole time.

It appears Sealmaxx is now out of business.... all phone lines on their corporate site have been disconnected :) Didn't see that coming now did ya

I can't speak for every finish but I know oxalic left on a protected surface (as in no rain to rinse it off) can haze a film based finish. I've seen it happen. Penetrating oils will for the most part allow the "salts" to rinse off in time whereas the filmers hold them under the finish potentially causing some unsightly issues. I'm confused about the "soaps" myself. When I think of soaps it leads me to assume where talking about an alkaline base of some sort which I would expect to neutralize off the acidic nature of the acid. A blend of acids I can understand... just not the need for a surfactant in general.

Thats bad news there.... it creates chlorine gas which when mixed with H20 creates muriatic acid. This stuff can kill ya dead if you inhale too much so be carefull out there. The chlorine gas when inhaled mixes with H20 in your body. One of my guys did that same thing in our shop and just a few minutes we had to evacuate the shop for about 45 minutes. You couldn't stand to even walk in there!

Hard to say.. TWP 101 Cedar or something similar perhaps. Thats a pretty vibrant color...

We'll weve used the AC on about a dozen and a half jobs so far and I have to say I'm loving the stain and so are the customers. The semi transparants are the way to go IMO... we tried the toners this week and while they look good I think the semi trans with the additional pigment is far more versatile and consistant. Rustic Brown is an awesome color on newer decks ... a little dark for the 30 year old projects though. Cedar Semi seems to be the most popular however. I was a little concerned over the cost but the coverage seems to average the cost out to be in line with the other products on the market. We're finishing up decks and a fence at a beach house on Lake Michigan currently. We're using the Natural Toner on some Palupe decking they have down and they wanted it put on their pressure treated fence and decking as well. I'll try and post pics when its done....

Should melt right off..... I second the open a window thing :) That stuff puts off some fumes for sure.

Easy Off Oven Cleaner Just test it first to make sure it doesnt remove any finish. I wouldn't expect it too but would hate to hear your shower is down to bare fiberglass :)

I agree - any water based product I've ever tried is tough to work with. Tried some Behr Water Base the other day just for kicks (for the wet wood friendly theory) and man that stuff looks horrid....

Hey Bryan - Call Steve James at the Stain Shop - 810-735-8600 - www.thestainshop.com He just left my shop this morning from dropping off 90 gallons to me in a last minute need. Great guy to do business with. I'm still more less in the trials side of things but the product has been pretty impressive and I think you'll like it.

Ahhhhh...... the power of the boards :)

I just used a stir stick :) I'll shake the next one to see if it mixes well enough to use the pour spout. UPS banged it up pretty bad so Im a bit afraid to open it right now. The can is about an inch shorter than the other one.

It really depends on the wood. Newer decks that are less porous will most likely bring more of the orange to the surface and I would expect for cedar to do the same. The two tone deck had a little nicer tone to the floor IMO but it was 12 year old neglected pine that had been stripped and sanded out.

Finished out two decks with the cedar semi transparant today. One a two tone with white rails (painted solid brown before floor and all....) and one a Pressure Treated deck that we stripped. Pros: Overall application is pretty easy. The stain goes down well and leaves alot of color at the surface. One thing I loved about it was how much pigment was actually in it. It allowed the grain to show through nicely but still had enough color to provide a consistant look and hide any blemishes (such as in the two tones often...). Coverage was really very good. We used about a gallon and a half on the elevated deck 3/4 of a gallon on the two tone maybe. Average is around 150 to 200 sq ft to the gallon I would say. Cons: Not much really.... Cant stand the metal pails and I would say the pour spout is pretty much useless if you truly have to mix it as directed. The metal pails in general never seem to seal back up very well. If you could simply shake it (haven't tried) the pour spout may be the way to go. Application is easy but you have to be conscious of drips and cut in areas a bit and feather out any spills. Overall I would say it's a great product to be honest. No real complaints and although I would like to see a better pail it's not something I would want to pay additional for :) Both customers loved the color and the finished product when we were complete so it gets good marks in my book. Our pictures are not the best but you get the idea

I'll be staining a deck with the Cedar Semi TRans tomorrow so long as the weather holds out. This will be our first with the AC stain though in an effort to see what its about.

Ahh the fun...... We always turn the solids into two tones. I dont even present the offer to strip the rails anymore cause they are such a PITA and so time consuming. I'm finding more and more that I would rather say to heck with the houses and nasty strip jobs and keep rolling through typical decks :)

Its distributed through www.thestainshop.com . Appearantly they own Great Lakes Pressure Cleaning and have stepped into the distribution side of things early this spring. Pretty much the nature of how most pressurewashing and supply distributors were born :)

We're on about our 12th solid job this year already... and my guys truly hate them :) Bid em' high and let em fly ya know. Rick - are you getting the grain clean enough to actually use Ready Seal on them? Majority of our painted decks have so much gunk in the grain Ready Seal would pretty much highlight any imperfections. We typically use TimberStain UV Semi Trans on those for the added pigment.

As they say... opinions are like .. well.... anyway everyone has one :). For me personally I've never rebuilt our Rapid Reel Swivels from day one as they've never leaked and some are 4 years old. I've rebuilt my 1 year Cox reels (2 of three) twice now since last fall. They were spec'd for well beyond what we use them for. Appearantly I just got the sh*tty reels :)

Here's one set of reels in one of our E250 Cargos. We welded up the tree as I said but it saves alot of space and they easily coil on 200' of hose.

Rapid Reels have long been my favorite. I used to buy the trees to stack them but they discontinued them. Now we weld up our own :) Cox reels are probably the worst that we've encountered. We're constantly replacing the seals and they get bent up easily. I have a Titan stainless but I would sooner buy a Rapid Reel 4000 series. Just My 2 Cents We've been running the same chem reel (a RR 4000 series) for 4 years with stripper and brighter running through it numerous times DAILY and it's still cranking out the work. They are just awesome IMO.

20% down SCHEDULING DEPOSIT on all work under $5000. Over $5000 we do a 30/30/40 split. 30 down at signing - 30 due prior to staining and the 40 balance due upon completion. I always try to get a credit card for the initial deposit as a backup payment source. To me it's important to get the customer off the "street" sort-a-speak and the deposit does just that. It doesn't hurt to have some extra cash flow either when the weather throws rain at you for 2 weeks straight.

I'm thinking about Ford Escape Hybrids from here on out :) The fuel costs are just getting out of hand!