Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Human habitat; dreaming out loud

Actually, it was snipe. I held that bag in the darkness of the nort woods of Wisconsin for over 4 hours. Finally, when it became evident that nothing was going to come out of the hole, I grabbed my trenching shovel and went in after them. I got about 10 scoops of sand out when when all hell broke loose and this came flying out!

crikees, got me again!!!

Where is Dwight when you need him ? Badger , Badger ....

There is nothing wrong with a healthy respect for wild critters. I have a Mountain Hare that patrols my property that has a serious attitude problem. I have learned to show respect for this menacing bunny and therefore give him a wide berth...

JHAP i bet yer house is a fun stop for the kids on halloween.

I would be if it wasn't for the unfortunate Halloween incident of 1998. Because of circumstances that I was blamed for the town council has banned me from displaying any and all Halloween decorations. Apparently causing a third grade class to exhibit symptoms of "mass hesteria" and causing many students to "soil their Halloween costumes" is looked down upon by our townsfolk. Sheesh, some people have no sense of humor.

Victor,

I've found that Minwax makes a product called Gelstain that you can buy just about anywhere. It's designed for fiberglass and metal doors to make them look like wood. Then you put a finish clear coat over it to protect it.

My tests looked really good on the Hardi siding.

I built a gazebo for our hottub over the summer and put the Hardi lap siding on it. Then my wife stained it with the Minwax Gelstain and sealed it.

Thanks for sharing your pictures and tips on staining the siding. It's only been a few months, but so far, it's amazing. Everyone who's seen it thinks it's real wood. Even after touching it!!!!

Eddie

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Nice. Real nice.

Wow Eddie!

That's really sharp. Turned out great. Now you've got me thinking. That's never good for my wallet when I "think".

Good point. "Thinking" is a dangerous thing for those who are good at self-rationalization.

...especially when you are in the planning phases of building your dream home. It's only money right? (gulp)

I'm almost under roof on a home we're building. I thought everything was cool until someone told me that you build your dream house twice.

That upset me.

Right now I'm trying to convince my wife that we don't need landscaping and that we should go with the "au natural" look. Eventually, I'm going to have to use a method that I use on my 3-year old daughter which is called the choices method.

"Honey, we can either have a driveway or landscaping. Which do you prefer?"

Landscaping can always be added later as an ongoing project.

I bet every week you throw away stuff that could be used for fill and beautification - tin cans, banana peels, dirty diapers, etc.

I've already started to leave 12oz. glass bottles around the site.

EDDIE!!!! That looks fantastic. Got some questions for you.

Is this the same Hardi Board siding that is made out of fire resistant materials?

I noticed that the stain has color variations (light and dark areas, etc) just like real wood, is that the way the stain applies or is your wife real artistic and added those touches?

My wife and I are gonna use Hardi board in our new house for resistance to fire but we wanted to have more of a hunter lodge look - what you have created looks perfect. Any information related to what you did (type of siding, specific stain information, etc) would be greatly appreciated. You can PM or email me if you prefer. Thanks!

I can't believe how much like wood that looks!

Sunil, I didn't realize that you were in the process of building a house. How did I miss this. Did you have a thread on this somewhere? Am I truly that unobservant? Is this gonna be the new international corporate headquarters for BISA?

JHAP, this will be my residence and more importantnly, not located at my pond, so I have not posted any details.

We are using HardiBoard for our siding as we are also going for the Craftsman, Lodge-Type look. It will look like cedar shake.

Well I'm glad to know I just didn't totally miss this (which would have been entirely possible). Even though it won't be at your pond I'd love to see photos of the siding with the cedar shake look.

Now the two of you (Eddie and Sunil) have got me wondering. My wife and I drove up to Tahoe last year and saw a bunch of lake side houses that appeared to be wood. I though at the time if this is wood siding it this must be (1) an extreme fire danger and (2) a real maintenance issue. I'll bet that they used this process above.

Dang this bean counter is learning new tricks.

JHAP...
to be sure your haven't missed a trick, there are some oxcellent posts by Victor earlier on within this thread that sparked Eddie's (and others, including me) interest in the cementitious fibre siding with killer faux finish. Victor offered substantial detail and more pics of a truly woodsy look.

Jeff,

Yes, this is the same Hardi lap siding that you buy at Home Depot, Lowes or just about any other home improvement store. It's real easy to install and like you mentioned, it's fire resistant, bug proof and it will not rot. I've put scrap pieces into my burn piles and found them still intact a week later!!! That's a full week of burning hundreds of trees type of burning.

The stain is like jello in the can. You paint it on with a brush and just paint it on. The painting of the brush gives you the random colorations. One thing that I learned the hard way is to never go up and down the wall. It is very important to stain the length of each Hardi board one at a time. If you go up and down the wall, you will end up with a very ugly, unatural looking line. Left or right is good, up or down is bad. hahaha

It takes a full day to dry. Don't rush it.

You can stain right over the caulking and anything else. It will make it all blend together. It's not really a stain, but just looks like one. It's really some sort of weird paint that makes whatever you put it on look like wood. There are at least a dozen different colors, but none were what we liked except for the oak. Walmart has small samples that you can buy for around $5 each.

I used cheap chip brushes that I throw away after each use. It's not about a nice finish with this stuff, just total coverage.

I don't know how long it will last, but since it's designed for exterior doors, I'm hopeful that it's a permanent. If and when it fails, I'll update the thread with pics. My ultimate goal is to build some rental cabins with this as the siding. If it doesn't hold up, then this is a failure and I go to plan B.

As of right now, I don't know if I'd risk trying it on a house. I know that if it fails, you can always paint over it, but I don't think you can try a different stain or wood looking technique.

As for the cabins in Taho, I think they are all real wood. At least the ones I've seen have been either full logs, or log siding vineer to look like log homes. I've never seen the Hardi done like this in person, just the pics that Victor shared. His home looks amazing and it might be the way to go. I'm trying this as an alternative with off the shelf products that I can buy any day of the week right here.

Hope this helps,
Eddie

Eddie, thanks for the great response. Thanks to B'ski's prompting I have reread this entire post and Victor's comments about his process. I am just stunned at how real this all looks. I think I will probably go for the guaranteed finish as I dislike with extreme intensity (my momma taught me not to say hate) painting.

The cabins in Tahoe are probably real wood. If you have enough moola to by a water front cabin in Tahoe, ya probably have enough dough to pay to have it refinished every couple of years.

Thanks for all the great info.

Check this out - perfect for this thread. -

From Jim K. with Ray Scott Outdoors - FYI

FLOATING GAZEBO




I was going to build the Gazebo on the edge of my dock down by the lake but I thought ....I might just as well build the deck with floats on it and I can then take it out fishing too. Has 15,000# capacity.


The deck is 18ft x 18ft with 12 plastic foam filled dock floats that are 4ft x 4ft by 18 inch. high.and the Gazebo is 10 ft. Hexagon with a table and chairs inside.


Under the table is my trolling motor so I can take it out to my favorite fishing hole. The trolling motor is remote controled wireless so I can be fishing outside and operate the motor. On the top of the table I have a LOWRANCE Fish-Finder with depth sounding sonars and temp gauge.



I have 2 electric winchs with 40# anchors. I have also built in a water pump so I can clean the fish right on the spot.


Now I can relax and fish while my wife can sit and relax.

Ewest nails it!
I had to call Donna-ski over to look at that one. "Cool!...I want one...does it have air conditioning?"

Now dat dare is cool I don't kare who ya R.

Bravo!

My oldest daughter's exact quote was

"We SO need one of those!"