hoosierwindowtek

I'm wondering if the problem isn't the 4 washes with bleach. I know you said very weak, but 4 washes have to have an effect and the picture has a pale look to it. Just a thought from a relative newbie.

Rick, I know you've already done a lot of work on this sample board, but for future reference it helps to cut a little groove in the board between areas you're staining to keep the oil from migrating from one area to another. You can do this with just a utility knife or for more resistance a saw would work better. I made a display board to show customers different stain colors that way and I have several different stains side by side on one board and they stayed separate. H

My understanding about the pressure/flow equation is that if the pump is rated at Xgpm at Xpsi, then lowering the psi will result in increased gpm up to a point. When a water pump, car engine, or electrical circuit has reduced resistance to flow, then the flow, or current will be greater. It's just physics. H

I use a $300.00 karcher I bought at Sam's club that puts out 2500/2.5 but with bigger tips I find the gpm is just fine for house washing. I get pretty good flow at a lower pressure from a size 5 or 7 tip and it works great for me.

I don't do commercial work, but I think homeowners know the water is part of the cost so I've never had a problem using their water.

A shurflo/delavan type pump is so effective, why worry about downstreaming? Just use different 5 gallon pails to put each chemical into and a good spray wand at the end of the hose and you'll be able to apply chems quicker than you can use them if you want to.

I use the nylon cup brush but because I used to do spray in bedliners I got them from here: Spray MaxLiners equipment Truck Bed liners - TrimTape They're only around 22 bucks plus shipping. I don't know if that's helpful but hopefully it is. :D

I'm a bit confused. when you say 0030, do you mean a zero degree nozzle with a 30 orifice? If so, where do you get one? Thanks, H

I'm a little higher, probably around 3 bucks for strip and seal. Those are labor rates, not including sealer.

You are right. The more I try DSing, the more I think it's the way to go.

I'm still relatively new and I've been using my x-jet for a couple of seasons and I'm now determined to do DSing this year. there are a couple of advantages to Xjet for the beginner... If you have a small machine with a short hose and you don't have a tank to leave in your truck, the xjet is great because you move the chemical supply with the pwasher. All you need is a long, low cost garden hose to get to the pressure washer. In order to downstream you have to have enough high pressure hose to wrap around the building while the pwasher stays put. Having said that, I'm really starting to see the profit potential of the business, and the benefit of upgrading my equipment so I can start to use downstreaming effectively.

Hi, all, I'm not a frequent poster, so sorry if you don't recognize me, but... The above post is very interesting. I don't know what kind of houses the painters were talking about, but that would make a huge difference wouldn't it? Maybe the guys who were bashing you were the kind of guys that drive a rusty old piece of junk truck, have no concept of appearance, and to them a normal day is a 1000 sq. ft. ranch that's 40 years old. On the other end of the scale, I think you have the high end clientele that those guys don't even work for. I've been called one time in the last 3 years to do a trailer wash, and I could tell the person thought my price was way high. I didn't care because I didn't want to wash a trailer. I only deal with nicer homes for people who value good work and don't own a pressure washer themselves because they know there's more to it than that. To make my long story short, I think that the perception of the business depends on the customer AND the contractor.

I just finished a job a couple of weeks ago (while it was still warm here) stripping Deckscapes acrylic semitrans and applying RS. The stripping was a nightmare and in order to strip the stuff effectively I still had to rough up the wood quite a bit. I spent a lot of time sanding afterwards. The end product was stunning, thanks to Ready Seal, but from now on my acrylic stripping labor charge is double or triple that of stripping an oil based sealer. I would never try to strip that stuff in sub 60 degree temps, either.

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I'm not sure there even was any stain, just maybe some thompson's or something else clear. I might have let things dwell too long, I'll watch that in the future, but the thing that confuses me is that once I finished rinsing, there were still little spot areas with what I think was mildew that were black, so I guess I didn't get enough chemical on those areas. It seems a bit tricky to kill all of the growth without harming the wood.