20-1/2 month old A.C. Cedartone Restoration

[plainpainter 217]

Here is a maintenance customer that I performed a restoration for back in Nov '09. Here are the pics of the deck prior to me doing a bleach wash and pressure rinse. Just curious if you guys think if this acceptable looking close to 21 months after restoration? Maybe I am being too hard on stain products - at least it washed up nice, will get those photos once the hurricane passes. I think the spread rate was about 115 SF/gallon on a wet-on-wet application, completely absorbed everything - deck is 12 feet off the ground.

Edited August 27, 2011 by plainpainter

[bigchaz 157]

I don't expect 2 years out of the Toner, which is why we mainly use and push the Cedar Semi Transparent....3 times the pigment

[Celeste 341]

The toners have zero longevity. We got nine months on a stripped cedar sided house before mildew started and the bleach wash removed anything remaining. Just love those total redo's that send you upside down in a job :(

[plainpainter 217]

I modify the stain now, and I am thinking of putting the modified stain on half the deck and the unmodified stain on the other half to see if I am getting any more longevity. I hate to do this to a customer - but she seems cool with the product as is, after SPF, anything will make this lady happy.

[NateF 14]

Bigchaz what kind of longevity have you been seeing out of the semi trans cedar?

Anyone have a pic of approximately 2 year old armstrogn semi cedar they would care to share?

Reason Im asking is that I've started applying the semi trans cedar to probably 90% of the decks we do and just wondering what you folks are seeing at the 2 year re-application point. Thanks

[bigchaz 157]

Here's a two year old AC Cedar Semi job (pictures are from last year). Some are better some worse, depends on conditions of course. Main thing is the product use goes way down on the reapplication, since you got a good amount of oil in the wood its much easier to get a fresh top coat on after cleaning. Even if you have to use heavier chems if you got lots of dirt and grime you still have oils in the wood protecting it

[bigchaz 157]

Here's when it was first done. So definitely some fading, but rails hold up great, and still have plenty of pigment on the entire deck...this guy didn't even pay to have it done at year two. Will be trying to get him back from year 3 this month so will see how it looks then

[bigchaz 157]

But to Dan's original post, for the Toner I think you did pretty good. If you have to have the look of a cedar toner go with the Super Cedar (Amber) color which is more transparent than the Cedar Semi, but has additional trans-oxide pigment in it.

[plainpainter 217]

These decks, including one fenner posted have been very far off the ground like 12+ plus. How about one that is more in the normal range of only several feet off the ground?

[bigchaz 157]

I'll keep you posted, I sent out cards this week been trying to drum up the repeat business from the 09 season. Not a lot of proactive people for that so gotta chase them down myself

[NateF 14]

Here's a two year old AC Cedar Semi job (pictures are from last year). Some are better some worse, depends on conditions of course. Main thing is the product use goes way down on the reapplication, since you got a good amount of oil in the wood its much easier to get a fresh top coat on after cleaning. Even if you have to use heavier chems if you got lots of dirt and grime you still have oils in the wood protecting it

Wow that still looks pretty darn good. Is that one or 2 coats? Thanks for postin the pics.

[Tonyg 14]

Dan, I think that looks good for a toner. I won't use them unless the deck is in full shade though. I would not not expect for a toner on PT with the sun to last more than a year at best.

Here are pics of 24mo Cedar Semi on new PT. CORRECTION - SUPER CEDAR/ (AMBER)

BTW, the deck was standard 24in off the ground but was tightly enclosed with vertical 1x6's by the builder that offered no ventilation. I suggested tio him originally to install a couple of vents to keep the moisture down but he never did. The last pic was at the estimate when it was new

Edited August 29, 2011 by Tonyg
Added pic / Wrong Stain

[plainpainter 217]

Tony - we all live in different areas, that deck is a little too faded for my taste at the 24 month mark - but acceptable. At least it's not black.

A woman described a deck of mine that looked probably like that at the one year mark for a deck that's in the shade.

[plainpainter 217]

Here are some post cleanup pics of a simple bleach downstreamed house wash solution. I think of all of Jake's stains, his 'toners' are probably the best unadulterated. They are the thinnest from my notes in terms of coverage rates {they have the lowest coverage rates, so I am thinking greater penetration} I will go back and take pics of how it came out in a week or so. I used just slightly more than half the original amount of stain when I restored it two years ago. I will document the whole process from original restoration - how it will look 20-24 months later - how it cleans up - and recoat. And show this to prospective clients as an honest summary of what they can expect. Maybe you just can't get that almost like new finish two years after the fact unless you are using a real hard tung oil based film former. This finish also had much less mildew than the semitransparents. I am going to keep track of my notes - but I think I know what's wrong witht the semitransparent finishes.

[carltoncleans 16]

I've started using Ac last year. I mainly use SC,CST and MC. Because I deal with many older decks I've moved to pushing MC first (semi solid) which hides better plus I expect the customers to be happy with longevity. Does anyone have 2yr old MC pics?