RPetry

Jeff, We only service residential exterior wood. Sales have been strong, about 20% over last year to date, which was our best year ever. Despite the poor overall economy, people in this area seem to want their homes maintained and improved. The problem has been nearly constant rainy weather. Since April, I would guess we have "lost" 18 working days due to wet wood. If this keeps up, it is possible our gross billings may be down year over year. Getting to the point where I'm considering not joining the fun in Orlando.

It has been a long while since we worked on new pressure treated wood. Finished a job on Friday, 530 sq. ft. of floor and steps and 57 linear ft. of balustrade, built this past April. Two separate applications of stain on the floor, steps, and handrail. One heavy application on the balustrade. No problem with penetration, the job took 8 gals. of Ready Seal medium red stain.

Jason, Either Ready Seal or Armstrong-Clark stain would be fine for your new deck.

1) Be at work, each and every day, on time. If you need a day for whatever reason, let me know at least 3 days beforehand. 2) Please come to work at 8:00 AM sober. Hangovers are acceptable, but no dry heaves permitted in the work truck or on customer property. 3) Listen and do what I say. If I have to repeat clear, concise, and reasonable directions more than twice, you are on your last paycheck. Hah!

Ken, Hmmm. Shaded, with no rain. Yeah, I guess that could help in pigment retention! Still looks good, and it is ipe'.

Ken, That is a nice color for ipe'. That A-C has held up well at the 3 month mark. In Sept., my own ipe' deck will have one year of A-C rustic brown on it and there is still some pigment on the wood.

Daniel, In all honesty, I dislike the color. Looks like mud on mahogany. But for a solid stain, guess it is OK.

Ken, Not so sure what you are asking. WWC will be around for a while. I'm not in the mindset to retire at the moment. Having too much fun.

Hah! Now that is funny! This is really very good advice. The first two years involve pounding the pavement, trying to market effectively, establishing a referral business, and just getting more efficient and better at your trade. This is America. The strong survive somehow and grow beyond their business projections. Others fall by the wayside, only to rise up again.

Daniel, Just goes to show, different markets have different tastes. Our hardwood customers would kill me if I put anything beside a semi-trans oil onto their ipe' or mahogany. Of course we would never do that, I could not in all good conscience hide the grain of premier woods.

Daniel, That is a very difficult restoration. Real nice work. I have to agree with Tony. Mahogany is such a fine looking wood, why cover it in a solid color? Semi trans oils are so much more attactive, IMO.

Daniel, Been there, done that, for a handful of jobs. Each one was a problem, whether it be the stain, our application, or maintenance. We are parafin oil contractors, plain and simple. Our operations, vendors, chems, sprayers, and equipment is all geared to using RS. Been using it now for 8 or 9 years. A-C is the best of the few we have tried. But RS in too many respects beats the pants off of any linseed oil product.

Pat, Hey, if you are a contractor that prefers linseed oil type stains, I do not know of a better product to recommend!

Maybe strip the old Wood Tux off and redo with Armstrong-Clark?

I can be a real idiot at times. We finished a large multi deck cedar job a while ago. The large rear deck had a huge, stainless steel grill, almost a portable kitchen, at the far end. This thing weighed a ton, too heavy to easily remove off of the wood. As have done in the past, decided to work "around" it, ie: move it for stripping, brightening, and staining. Did not notice that this monster grill had hard casters about 2" in diameter instead of the normal larger wheels. First picture shows the results of my inattention and my kids moving it around, after the first application of stain. I was horrified and was not quite sure what to do. Fix was a fairly hard, 60 grit random orbital sanding of each complete cedar 5/4 x 6 deck board that was affected. Not a "spot" sanding, but a complete sanding. This removed some surface pigment and resin, as can be seen in the 2nd pic, if you look at the non sanded wood in the upper right corner. This worked very well, as can be seen in the finished 3rd pic. There are still some faint wheel marks in a few places, but hardly noticeable. It is always a crap shoot sanding cedar, but this time it worked out well.

Jon, In the lower 48, I think grizzly bears are now only found in the Northwest, ie: Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and maybe Washington. Florida does have a large population of the smaller, black bear. That is one gigantic snake. Send them back to Burma, they do not belong here!

Well said Charlie. But what is more important, how to you and your crew see your efforts after the end of the day? Satisfaction of effort pays dividends, money is a sideline.

Constant and unremitting rain.

Ken, I cannot see it. From a satisfaction standpoint. House washers around here are probably the veritable "dime a dozen". Is there really that much difference in a detailed professional co. doing the work as opposed to a part time, HD washer spraying some bleach? I don't know. Wood, with the right customer and hurtin' wood is an art. Spraying vinyl is kind of a letdown.

Daniel, Tell that to ne're do wells in Central NJ. They would spit bullets in the Gov's face! Let alone our esteemed Governor Corzine, who is a liberal Wall Streeter that made his money off the backs of the working class, and now is a Democratic champion. NJ is the political pits. Probably worse than Mass., if at all possible. It is an an embarrassment and shame to live in this state.

Rick2, The *ell with warped siding, look at that siding. Friggin' ugly, nonsense Penofin all over the complete cedar sided house. It's an outrage.

Pat, Beth, & Ken, Thanks for the input. Maybe this old dog can learn new tricks. But not this year, we have too much wood to do. Odd thing is, I give out one of my local wood competitors business cards to my customers that want a house wash. He does them, we don't.

Beth, Then how can one scrub and adequately rinse those real high up gutters?

Beth, Yeah, I can be a bit pig headed. The ~ 1K in advertising we now do translates into about 30K of business. Finally getting around to designing, coding, and getting the website on line also has paid off in spades. Your right about the help. This week will be a meager paycheck for my kids. Other than no interest, a few other things keep me from considering house washes. First, I don't like working off ladders. 20 yrs. ago, no problem, and I'm not afraid of heights. But one fall at my age could be disastrous. We use a Hydrotek 4.5 gpm portable cold water machine. I am of the impression that more gpm is needed, along with hot water for nasty gutters, etc. Also a skid unit with hose reels is preferable. Don't think I could mount that stuff in my E-250 and still have room for wood equipment and supplies. Although Tom at ACR could probably figure out something. I also refuse to wash windows. Won't even do my own at home!

Scott & Beth, Yeah, one side of this monster was very flimsy, and you could not lift it without damaging the grill. Wheels were not locked, just small in diameter and hard rubber. Does not mix well with soft WRC. As soon as I noticed the damage, out came the masonite boards we use for spray shields!