Tony Shelton
Environmental Consultant / Past Director
I don't know anything about wood. I've never so much as painted a fence. I'm asking because I'd like to know the science behind it. Why would you not use heat/steam on wood?
Guess it depends on the circumstance. I point out shoddy work, neglected, skipped systems because I need to justify the substantial extra cost for cleaning it up. After cleaning it up the price drops to a regular maintenance charge. I recently picked up a large multi-location account, after doing several I told them it will be an extra 50% (almost) for the first time cleaning.............they balked. I showed them the pictures of what they were getting from their previous cleaner. They said OK, they are ****ed (at what they were getting). The CEO of the company is calling in the owner of the previous company to "discuss" the matter.
http://www.smcwashers.com/fury.htm
Get the drool towels ready. This is going to be the next hot item.
That's a good synapsis, Pat. It softens lignin and raises grain moreso than cold water as well. Jim mentioned using it on ipe which is inherently so dense with sugars and extractives that no much affects its stability. I still don't know WHY he did it, but I'm sure there was some logic to it.
Russ, did it ever take off???