Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for June 23, 2023

Luddie is so not worried about how it will look in a hundred years.

Bored is more like it.

He’s just hanging around, waiting for your lunch break.

Same quality advice as you’d get from a spouse, without the chatter

Similar to rubber duck debugging.

Thought for a minute he called the board a sounding board, but then I saw Ludwig.

You have to let treated timber weather for a while before you paint it. Otherwise the paint peels.

Unless you feed me, I won’t even do that.

So, what sound does a board make?

Arlo, you sound like me, talking to my tuxedo-tabby Pistache when I am processing used books for the shop.

Keep it vertical you’ll be good for years, lay it flat you can plan on replacement in a couple years.

What about Trex?

Treated wood needs to be left to weather for at least six months before painting. The treating solution needs to leave the surface pores of the wood before paint or stain can penetrate. As we used to tell our clients, put up your deck this Summer, stain it next Spring.

BTW – PVC trim,e.g. AZEK, is more expensive to buy but cheaper in the long run by not needing much maintenance and being completely rot resistant. It’s what we advised our clients to use and what I used when my own house was re-sided.

Our Russian Blue, Earl Grey, earned the name “contractor kitty.” He would follow me around the house to help on projects.

Ludwig will never give you bad advice.

Measure once

Cut with ax

Beat to fit

Paint to match

Arlo: On bare wood outside I used “Zinsser B-I-N 1 gal. Shellac-Based White Interior\Spot Exterior Primer and Sealer” with great success. The knots covered excellently and no peeling of the top coat. When I used a different primer, the knots showed and the paint peeled.

I understand boiled linseed oil is also an excellent exterior primer. I have bought some, but then never used any. Would you like a free can of boiled linseed oil to experiment with?

What has happened to this strip? It used to be one of my favorites. Has he simply run out of things to say?

“Mr-Oww!”

“I will not hurt myself!”

I used treated wood for a project ,hoping the carpenter bees would leave it alone, but they seem to like boring holes and building nest in it better then the untreated would.

Where would we be without cats? I guess we would go to the dogs…

Treated wood and weather resistent wood are two different things.

Whas up?

one word…. AZAK…. paints well and lasts so long it will be your grandkid’s problem next time it needs repair….

Cats are great listeners.

My wife’s parents built this house 40 some years ago. When I went to replace the worn deck flooring the lumber yards could not supply anything nearly as durable so I turned the boards over, sanded them, and relaid all of them . I had to trim off some rotting ends, so added a few new boards where they won’t noticed as much.

Is Arlo talking to the board or the cat?

Grandpa Green built his house out of cypress boards and planks and everything else related to building a house. He painted it several times over the years and then decided he would die before he really needed to paint it again. The paint was all gone long before he died. Last I knew, the house was still in existence and people were still living in it. But that was some 42 years ago.

The cat’s got Luddie’s tongue.

TIL Ludwig is an outdoor cat!

Don’t paint, stain. Let the treated wood age enough to offgas then stain.

What kind of painting supplies fit in that belt?