gardengal, I didn't know that Quikrete made a casting sand and I don't see one on their web site. You can always contact Quikrete. Maybe the person was just using the bag that their Quikrete sand came in to carry their casting sand mix. Maybe if you look at Quikrete's web site you'll recognize the bag. I've just used builders sand. It's a coarse, angular sand. neshane, The original poster is talking about the sand that's use in a casting mold, not making cast leaves. You use a frame to contain the damp sand, tamp it then push the piece you want to make a copy of into the sand or carve a shape in the tamped sand by hand. Then you put your cement mix into the cavity and let it setup. Billie

rager ... I got quite excited and emailed that company. Here is their extremely thorough response: "we Dillo dirt only. we only level st Augustine grass ". lovely. Seems like there is money to be made in the area as no one either A - knows how to do it or B - wants to do it. Out of curiosity do you remember who you used and what they charged? The picture looks like they did a great job. I'm leaning towards doing it myself and renting some equipment. I've convinced a neighbor to do it with me and rent a bobcat for loading the dirt into the back of a dump trailer pulled by a riding mower than drag it using a homemade drag. Can anyone comment on time of year and if I can do it soon with my backyard already greening up? It would be great to do it at the same time I scalp the yard at the beginning of the season.

Man,that was close,I had my thumb on the flint. Where is Don when we need him?? he is a guy that comes over here every so often that lives in S America,anyway inside floor finish 101, controled inviroment, install the T&G material sand it flat and smooth, some of the sawdust will get in the small space between the flooring the old Carpenters wanted this but latley they have vack systems hooked up,anyway the idea is to have a seamless look, clean up all the dust put on a few coats of urethane inbetween light sanding,allow plenty of time for each coat to dry in a dust free area.Outside finish 101,non controled inviroment, temp change sun,rain,hail,snow things like that. It dosent matter if the project has a roof over it its still outside exposed to weather changes,rain,cold,hot, sun this works on the finish up and down and will shatter a urethane finish,like breaking glass only on your deck the chards will be glued to your deck and will be all but impossible to get off.The finish has to move with the weather. So how do they do it in S America??? thats why I was hopeing Don was around,anyway I am thinking they do it with a hand rubbed finish,that is they are building coats with a product that sticks to the wood and to itself over time they build a finish that will hold up,actually bonding it to the wood like burnished leather,burning it in with a lot of labor. And of course its not a one time thing,them Boys are working it every now and then so you Folks will come back and have a drink with them again. Then there is the drainage thing,water is going to get thru that floor,it dosent matter how little that might be,it has no place to go so it finds a home in the ipe, the ipe being its own freindly self,swells up to make room for more and KaBongo your floor is buckled. Its not the ipe guys fault he was just being freindly,its your fault for not providing drainage and cloging what drain there was with sawdust and urethane. So how would you do it?? John you ol smarty pants! crawler thu glass know it all!!!We might want to start another topic for this,its time for my pain meds. J

Yes! The system is old and clunky. It takes a long time to cycle which leads to people double pressing SUBMIT and double posts posting. So there's something that checks if you've just posted. It doesn't always know if there's a message between, because of the lag, or it uses a timer, or something. There's an easy cure. Hit the back arrow, and your message should still be in your browser unless you have your privacy settings on dump immediately. Change the SUBJECT of the message. Click PREVIEW so the change will register, then SUBMIT. If you don't want to retitle it, just add an extra space between words--in HTML multiple spaces draw as one. With a different SUBJECT the filter will know it's a different post than the one previous to it, and it will let it through. That's not the most annoying thing about the software, but it's up there. Also know that if you want to make an inch mark (e.g., 48"=4') in the title, you have to use two single quotes in a row, rather than a double quote, because when it posts the double quote will change into a single quote. Having fun yet?