Ok, this may sound stupid....
 

But root is all powering right?

Say I created a folder and set permissions that 1 regular user joe had full access to, and everyone else had read and execute access too...does root still have full access to that folder as well....or just read and execute access.

Whatever you command as root will be done (as long as there is enough of the system to do it).

Don't do this unless you wish to destroy your installation:

rm -rf /*

Basic system administration
To change to the full root account (system administrator), if you are running X, open an x terminal and use these commands from your user account. Note the change in the prompt. You can do the same from a virtual terminal as well, but you can't open an x terminal to do so.
Remember, now whatever you command in root (it's the "god" mode. You can bless or destroy at your whim) usually gets done if enough system is left to carry out the command. :D Sit on your hands and read the commands you type at least 3 times before pressing the enter key when in root.

Yeah I use su quite frequently...my concern though was on permissions.

For the sake of the discussion: there's a reason that root is a word respected by much of the linux community. Simply put, root (unless you're using one of the new Security-enhanced systems) can do ANYTHING. In fact, root can still manipulate a file with 000 permissions.

Gotcha...

All hail to root! :)