I know that there are a lot of organic folks on this web who will flinch at what I'm about to say, but it's what works for me, and after all the work I put into growing my peppers from seed to picking, I have to go with what works. Let me start by saying that bell peppers are the only ones I grow that are prone to grubs. I won't say that grubs will never go after hots, sweets or whatevers, but this has been my experience. I spray my bells with insectecide twice: in early July, and again 3-4 weeks later. Last year I did not lose a single pepper. I've just started picking my bells this year so it's too soon to report my results, but I can say that no peppers yet have fallen to the ground because they were rotted inside as had happened numerous times before. What a simple cure!

Would love to see the photos, but when I click on it the only thing I get is a cat food commercial. I'm fairly new to this, what am I doing wrong? We are about to embark on a deck redo also and have looked extensively at Azek. I'm going to do the floor in Acacia color and the railing in Kona (because there is no railing in Acacia). To tie it together I'm going to have the second board in from the outside be in Kona and the Kona color railing will go on the outside board which will be the Acacia.....just trying to change it up a bit. Your comments are letting us know we are on the right track....especially about the ketchup and wine as we entertain outside a lot. Thanks for the informative post.

"As to normal varnish..." What kind is "normal varnish"? Varnishes come in a number of flavors based on solvent. Within the oikl based varnishes the two major classes are long oikl and short oil. Long oil varnish (spar varnish is of this type) stay relatively soft and flex with the surface they are on. Short oil varnishes dry harder, but the penalty is they then crack with wood movement, moisture penetrates, and teh finish quickly fails. Any old ship originally had the finished wood coated with spar varnish. That is how it gots it name. You do not want a hard finish varnish in this environment. The soft (almost gummy) finish from long oil varnish has the best chance of staying attached. using 8 coats would also indiacte there is way too much solvent in whatever you used. Eight coats of sapr varnish would probably pile up at least 1/16 of aninch thick, and tehn fail from being too thick. Thicker is not always better.

I’m amazed that OSB ever was approved for subfloors. Yours is an extreme example but I’ve seen rain soaked OSB that started to swell and become soft many times in Dallas. It’s pouring rain right now in Dallas and every time after one of these heavy thunderstorms I have to sweep the still exposed floors from my addition under construction. These are concrete with concrete walls so the slightest irregularity traps water. In a conventionally framed house with OSB floors all that water would percolate through the glued strands of a particle board. The sheer amount of water that these boards may have to deal with can be enormous. Your situation seemed to have exceeded the max. capability of OSB. Based on your videos I’d replace all OSB floors. I’m usually for compromise and often accept flaws but your OSB is damaged beyond acceptable levels in my opinion.