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.

Hi, all, haven't posted for a while, but I've been reading and learning a lot, thanks! I've been reading and searching, but wanted to ask this as a combination of questions. I just recently finished a 16'x16.5' deck, strip/brighten/seal. When I was done with the strip, I was a bit disappointed with the amount of furring caused, even though I tried to be very careful. The deck is a very neglected PT deck that was very grey and green with algae. I used RipIt from sunbright to strip, and I use a 2500psi/2.5gal/minute pressure washer with a #5 nozzle @ 25 degrees. I think I'm getting about 1000 psi with that nozzle. The questions: How much furring is acceptable/unavoidable? How much work do you put into sanding when furring is present? And, finally, how do you factor in the time to deal with sanding in your price when you don't know how much time it's gonna take before you start? Thanks for the help!

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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.

I'm no expert on stone, but that looks like granite or something, and you're not going to remove the color of that. Maybe they mixed in the wrong type of stone when they built the wall.

Is it normal for a newly sealed deck to have the oily, rainbow look when it rains? I've used Ready Seal light brown on it, PT lumber. Also, the deck is slippery when wet. Is that normal? should I tell the homeowner not to walk on it for awhile? This is my first deck project, so any input is greatly appreciated.

So having some residual oils on top of the wood is not a sign I didn't strip enough then?

Thanks, plainpainter, for the response. Being new, I didn't realize there was a difference... What's an example of a curing type of stain?

I recently did an asphalt shingle roof that had major major levels of moss growth on it, and I don't know if I did it right. I used both regular household bleach, as well as some 10% pool chlorinator. I didn't get stronger stuff because the job came up quickly and I didn't think I needed it. Anyway, what happened is that I sprayed the chems on the moss, which included chlorine, tsp, and borax mixed 2gal/1cup/1cup. I used an x-jet and also a bug sprayer to apply chems directly on the roof. When I applied it to the roof, the moss turned mostly white, which helped it come off, but I had to use direct spray on the roof to blast the stuff off and It still took 5 hours to do about 700 square feet. What did I do wrong? Thanks very much for any help. H

UPDATE: The super nice lady who hired us to do the job sent us a thank you note and a check for $30.00, bless her heart, I know she's tight for money, and that was a really nice gesture on her part.

Thanks for the input, i greatly value the comments! I definitely did underbid the job, and I have a feeling that the homeowner knew that because when I gave her the quote, she seemed to think it was expensive, and said she was gonna call for a couple of other quotes. A few days later, she called and said that she wanted us to do it. After finding out how difficult the job was, I have a feeling that others were pricing it at 2-3 times what I priced the job at. That having been said, this was a person who clearly had a limited income on a pretty old, run-down home and I viewed it as having done her a nice favor. Pressure Packed, Why did you ask about someone on the ground?

Yes, sorry, i didn't explain very well that I used a total of 10 gallons of bleach, all of which was bought that day, but I don't ultimately know how fresh it was. I didn't add water to the chemical mix, but it was diluted part of the time I put it on with the x-jet. I later used the bug spray pump to put it on undiluted. This roof had some seriously bad moss growth, though. I mean, pretty much EVERY shingle was covered with moss along the bottom edge of each shingle tab. I'd have to estimate approximately 30% coverage. My dwell time varied, because initially I didn't let it sit very long because I didn't realize it was gonna be so stubborn. Later, I let it dwell 15 minutes in some areas, 30 minutes in others. Did I just need a much stronger chlorine? Should moss just disolve if hit strongly enough?

I like the backpack idea, I'll work with something like that Thanks!