RPetry

Charlie, When someone responds to the poll, it updates the timestamp on the thread.

My business is entirely home based. Office is the entire 3rd floor, and equipment and inventory is in the garage. Only doing wood, don't have a great need for space. Not that much equipment. Only inventory in quantity is various pigments of stain. Advantages are low overhead, no travel, and the office is only a stair flight away. Major disadvantage is you never leave the office.

Keth, It may depend on the type of pressure washing you do. I only work on wood and agree with Rod. We're not using high pressure and hose weight is important. I was talking recently with a commercial flat work guy. Told a story about working a retail location during the day, and a large truck ran over a 1 wire pressure hose. Yeah, the hose blew and started flying around like a Kung Fu banshee. Said he was fortunate no one was hurt and no costly damage done. He now only purchases the best quality 2 wire he can find.

Hey Dan, I kind of fell into wood restoration. After seeing my own deck nearly black after 1 year of Behr stain, did a bit of research. A DIY stripping and some Wolman's F&P made the wood look better than new. A neighbor saw the work and asked me to refinish his deck. At the time, I was a recent casualty of the great "tech wreck" market crash and had time on my hands. Snowballed from there by word of mouth. Within a month, woke up and realized I had a new business.

There are methods to discourage or even possibly prevent theft of photos/logos/graphics from web sites. I'm spending a ton of time at the moment constructing a photo gallery for an eventual business web site and would be real *issed if someone stole the work. Another thread here discussed this to a point.... http://forums.thegrimescene.com/gadgets-gizmos-pc-help/9303-disable-right-click-2.html I posted some info in the last post on the page. Have not tried any of the techniques yet but they do look promising.

I miss not working...

Beth, With all due respect, YOU WATCHED THE WRONG GAME! Cartoons, the Food Channel, movies, the Weather Channel? At 6:30 PM last night, one of the greatest battles in the history of the NFL took place. The Patriots - Colts collision make Ali-Frasier bouts a walk in the park. Even my wife Judy, who cares less about football, was literally screaming at the TV. If you love professional football, the game was one for the ages. All kidding aside, enjoy your new window to the world.

Beth, Forgive the intrusion but inquiring minds just have to know. You just purchased a top of the line HDTV. Yesterday, you spent viewing time watching movies. The clarity is amazing. Is this correct? Yesterday, one of the greatest battles in professional sports took place. It was broadcast in high definition. Are we to believe that you missed one of the best sporting events ever seen by modern man? Shocking, inexcusable, unAmerican! How can we hold our collective heads up high? We're Americans, dag nab it. We watch FOOTBALL on Sunday. We buy what they sell, and watch the game in-between. Ms. Clinton surely knows that (blame Celeste, she started it). Tongue in cheek of course. Congratulations of joining the rest of us recent converts in figuring out HDTV is more than worthwhile. I'm sure you and yours spent a much more peaceful day than us gut-wrenched NFL idiots.

Hey Shane, Sorry I had to bail on the tele. call but my neighbor was at the front door and my wife is bedridden with a bad back. Enough of the tech talk, its now time for... NFL Championship Football ! Oh man, can't wait....this day has taken close to forever. Time for a quick trip to the store for more Heinekens and settle in for the best team sport ever conceived. The rest of the world be damned, soccer is for wussies. God Bless America. We are the greatest show on earth. Period.

Hey Shane, I won't be going satellite. Too many analog TV's around the house and a STB for each one is not wanted. Soon most HDTV's will have a card slot and the STB will go the way of the dinosaur. Know what you mean about cost. The Olevia I purchased this xmas will probably be 5C's next year.

The United States constitution is a hallowed piece of art that has served this country well for over 200 yrs. Lets be serious. With contiuing breakthroughs in genetic technology in short time we will be able to raise the dead. Given that astounding ability, who better to lead this country and be King if agreed, than the finest leader of the 20th century. No one can hold a candle to history's greatest, Winston Churchill. "To be conservative at 20 is heartless and to be a liberal at 60 is plain idiocy." This is the finest, most astute and insightful political statement ever made. We could sure use a Winnie now.

Shane, I don't have a clue at to Dish verses cable for audio quality. I have Comcast cable here and Dolby signals sound fine to my unsophisticated ear. One thing I did learn was that typically, you do not want to run audio through the HDTV. Most are only stereo capable and I guess internal circuitry can degrade the audio signal from the service provider. Just bypass the TV entirely and hard connect the set top box to the receiver. Thanks for the link, looks like a very active board. In the past I've used AVS Forum - Home for similar information. Due to the configuration of our viewing area with built in shelves, was constricted to a 37" LCD. After a lot of due diligence settled on the Olevia 537H. Seemed to hit that price/performance sweet spot and the screen is actually made by LG. Didn't hurt that an on line retailer has a warehouse here in NJ that was 1/2 hr. away and I was able to pick it up. The $850 price didn't hurt either.

If that self serving, mealy mouthed squirrel is elected President of the United States, me and mine are fleeing the country for Costa Rica. Hillary Clinton is synonymous to leadership and responsiblities for Chief of State as Barry Manilow and Barbara Streisand are to good music. And yes, Celeste, I am being very nice.

Shane, Yeah I was real surprised when I installed the HDTV and set-top box. The receiver, which must be maybe 4 yrs. old, had a fiber optic connection on the back. Ran to Radio Shack and immediately connected the cable box to the receiver, bypassing the HDTV for true Dolby audio.

Shane, Yeah, I'm chompin' at the bit. I've had the surround sound Dolby audio receiver hooked up for years for DVD's but stuck with a friggin' analog TV. What a waste, the NFL is soooo much better in high definition. Crank up the volume and listen to teeth rattle while the sweat flies off the QB's face when hit by a 230 lb. defensive linebacker. Almost better than being there. These two conference championship games today may very well be better than the Superbowl. Don't see either NFC team being a real threat to a healthy Colt or Patriot team. Here on Hillary Clinton's east coast, we have to wait until 3:00 PM. Saints may well be a better team than the Bears, especially with Duce running like a monster and Reggie just waiting to explode. But I don't like the fact that New Orleans practiced in the Dome all week, Soldier Field can be a crippling environment in January. Should be a brawl. Last nights line was 1.5 pts. favoring N.O. My heart is with the Colts, but recent history and the tandem of Brady - Belichick is going to be a tough hurdle. Admittedly the Colts defense looks more solid than in recent years but the Patriots are again peaking at the right time. New England is a worthy 3 pt. favorite.

Snake-eyes Shane, Not sure, new owner purchased the home this past August. My guess would be ~ 2 yrs. Do bears relieve themselves in the woods? Learned long ago never do an estimate without a stripper kit. Aside from peace of mind, that nice new looking cedar spot brightened with citric acid is a great selling point when it dries. Amen to that. But thats why we use paraffinic oil based stains! (insert "smilely" here).

Shane, You are the master at custom avatars! Fear the BDA, what a hoot! In your honor I'll change mine for this one post in sympathy to the BDA cause. I like cedar. Agree its harder to work on but it just looks so great when finished correctly. Did an estimate yesterday morning on a job with clear, old cedar, well maintained and in good shape, with a failing Olympic stain which will be easy to strip. I want the job just because I know how great it will look when done. 'Course I have to be patient, another 2 months before the antifreeze is flushed from the pressure washers and pumps. Nice job on the Behr mess posted above. Looks like that junk with the Sillycone in it.

Argg, new post in a moment.

Shane, Didn't get the job, not that I really wanted it. Tested a few specialty strippers on it and Back to Nature's BFSII was the most effective. In the intact areas, 3 separate layers of foul acrylic. The real shame was that the wood was rotten in some places, both on the floor and even vertical wood on the balustrade. This was old clear cedar. Figured the trapped moisture over the years just rotted the wood in places. You could literally poke your finger through the plastic acrylic film into some of the wood. If you could purchase similar quality cedar today, my best guess for knockdown and replacement was ~ $30K.

Jon, I'm jealous. You're down in Fla. working on wood and we poor souls in the Northeast are freezing. Really like that deck with the huge tree trunk. That's one piece of wood you don't want to clean the mold/mildew/moss.

Been sorting through some photos recently and came upon this gem. It is said a picture is worth a thousand words. Can you say "Do not use acrylic stains on exposed exterior wood" one hundred times?

Anything with a sodium percarbonate base. [EDIT] Wait a minute, aren't you representing a co. that manufactures exterior wood stain? Cart before the horse.

Customer says solid stain. Savvy wood contractor says no thank you. Sure looks like a ton of sanding or a boatload of BFSII to get that wood right.

Daniel, 100 yr. old wood door, wow! Consider yourself fortunate to work on such rare wood and your customer lucky to own and take care of such a piece of history. Nice job. Live Free or Live in Massachusettes. - unknown

Yaz, Left handed? Doesn't someone make an ambidextrous pill? These friggin' drug pushing pharmaceutical monsters have 21st century snake oil for everything else. Kidding aside, you have to talk to Tom Vogel of ACR Products. The guy is a pure wizard at anything in PW, and if someone doesn't make it, he'll fabricate it.