Lucretia, first of all, great name, real or screen! Secondly, I am quite the fan of arborvitaes, be they WRC or otherwise, so unless there is a more compelling reason to fell it (The pipes should not be a concern within any reasonable time-frame), and not seeing the site myself, I'd advise leaving a tree that you love in place. I would like to clear up one misconception that seems quite common-that pruning a plant somehow spurs greater root development. Pruning results in the loss of foliage. Foliage is the food factory for plants. Less foliage equals less root growth potential, for a time. One could actually kill even a well-established plants' root system if they were to continuously remove its foliage. Not that that is what you were asking about, but just to aid in understanding what plants are-energy-capturing systems. I don't know of any way to prune arbs that won't result in a less attractive appearance than that with which they are naturally equipped. Actually, the creation of a hedge with such plants is one exception, but has nothing to do with your case. True enough, WRC has the genetic potential to become very large, but the species is not especially rapid in growth rate. My guess is that you would be able to enjoy this tree for as long as it matters....to you. +oM

Between life, work, weather and inexperience, my new 20' x 16' cedar deck has taken me a year to build. The horizontal boards were installed last November. We would like the deck stain to look like similar to this except with white vertical rails too. It doesn't have to be quite as orange but we like that overall look. We hate grayed decks and solid stains for the deck boards . Here is the current color of most of the deck. The step and rail were built in the last 2 months, showing the oxidation. *Sanding* 1) Horizontal surface- after cleaning the deck with the recommended agents, should I sand or power wash the cedar deck to reclaim some color? Or is that unnecessary, problematic and or overkill? 2) If no to sanding/power washing overall, is it ok to use 80 grit Sand paper to fix a few trouble spots? A few 20' boards stuck out of the wood stack and grayed unevenly by August (like a wicked sock tan). I saw some warnings about sandpaper closing the pores of the wood. *Stain choice* 1) What stain would you recommend for the deck boards? I was leaning towards Armstrong Clark Wood Stain. 2) We want a solid white stain for all vertical boards ( treated posts, cedar risers, balusters & rail boards). We'd prefer to avoid the flaking and sanding of paint and some stains. If we apply enough coats can we achieve a vivid, strong white? Here is an early sketch of the design (except it won't be this dark and the top rail is continuous) : *Temperature* Naturally rain is a concern for staining, but does it matter if it is 85-95 degrees when staining vs 70?

Hello, I wrote a post last night, then apparently failed to "submit" it. Thank you for your thoughts, and we will see what changing the wood selection to western red cedar does to the cost of the job. John et al, about a year ago I posted a query about a Norwegian material called Kebony -- soft woods treated with furfuryl alcohol (sugar cane processing byproduct) in a kiln so that it becomes a nontoxic resin, making the wood hard and rot-resistant. Has anyone seen this material in the interim? They have a representative in Virginia, apparently, but there don't seem to be many projects in the US yet. Norwegian projects look interesting. Hope this process holds up well under scrutiny and time, because it would be a nice alternative. We're requesting a sample of southern yellow pine treated with the Kebony process -- their weathered Kebony maple is beautiful, but also quite expensive.

The cause of color fading is primarily UV light and that will not be uniform. The later darkening is caused by fungus and it will also not be uniform. Trying to prevent these natural processes from happening is difficult and expensive. Siding stain is essentially the same as paint except the synthetic resin binder that interacts with the linseed oil to form a tough surface film in paint is greatly reduced in stain. With both materials, after the linseed oil and mineral spirits mixture penetrates the wood and the solvents start to evaporate, the oil combines with the resins and oxidizes leaving a tough surface film in paint and a soft pigment finish in stain. One of the major advantages of stain is that the lower resin content allows the oxidizing of the oil to occur within the wood. Cabot makes a very low-pigmented, solvent-based, oil-modified (linseed oil modified with alkyd resin) stain in 4 colors called "Wood Toned Deck & Siding Stain" (#3000 series). It slightly darkens the wood and provides a flat translucent finish with UV and fungus protection. The finish is supposed to slowly weather to a natural wood hue. Field applying stain to shingles that have already been factory dipped in stain at the factory is a bad idea and not recommended by Cabot so you should ignore your architect's advice on this matter. A second coat of stain must be applied while the first coat is still wet otherwise the second coat cannot penetrate the wood and may leave a sticky top coat. The same problem can occur with an excessive first coat. Stain does not build up a finish like paint. This issue can also make frequent recoatings difficult unless the surface is very carefully prepared each time as recommended by Cabot. There are pressure treated shingles that will hold their color and resist decay but I have not used them. Here is a link that might be useful: Cabot Wood Toned Deck & Siding Stain