RPetry

Scott, That is some real nice looking work. As well as colors, could you divulge the series of TWP?

Charlie, This will not help in your scheduling dilemma, but may give you a chuckle... The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up. -- Steven Wright

Today was the first day in a week we were able to stain. Felt good to get cracking again. Ipe' floor, steps and handrail will get one more light oiling in the morning. Then its on to a bunch more jobs just dying for stain! Hope this decent weather holds for a while.

Charlie, Learned this a long time ago in the wood business. Your customers have to understand from the start that the weather dictates the schedule. As well as customers that signed on for service prior to their contract. Not them, not their wants or even supposed needs. Its a deck redo, not emergency heart surgery. We always give a customer a "projected" schedule, with a start date sometime within a week. They are made fully aware that this can change, either earlier due to a stretch of good weather, or later in the case of a lot of rain. No. Yes.

Daniel, For a first time RS customer, yes. For a RS maintenance customer, no, one oiling does the trick. This is a new customer with an ipe' floor and toprail that will take a 2nd, very light lambswool oiling.

Glad we got the first oiling done on the job at the top of this thread. By 10:00AM, the ipe' floor will get blown off, and dried with towels. We are getting this job done today! Pic of my own ipe' floor this morning. 9 month old AC rustic brown stain. Has held up very well. Like the water marks...

Beth, Arrggg! It just started pouring rain here. Another blown schedule...

Business is booming, but it has been one tough Spring and early Summer to get any staining accomplished due to incessant rain.

Ken, Well, ported is the more correct term. MS does not believe or practice strict standards. There is a lot of open source software in the past few years that is only written for the MS operating system framework. Use to be the other way around. Redmond slaves use to have to wait! On a quick search, Joomla is available for Linux. The only problem is now learning a new code generation system. Already have the primary software tools for writing and testing. Probably a toss up...

Ken, I only run and work in Linux. Will have to see if Joomla is open source and ported.

Scott, Sure know that process. A few winters ago spent a lot of time learning HTML, CSS, a bit of XML, and Python. Use to code database systems moons ago, so picked it up fairly fast. This winter will have to do some changes and updates to my site. Will probably have to learn all over again!

Ken, I hope so. We have 3 old beat up PTSYP decks to sand and stain, real restorations, and one new PTSYP. If it is clearing, you should be good to go. About the only good thing about cedar is that it dries fast for a softwood!

Ken, Holy smokes, just looked at the NWS radar. Phila. envivons and S. Jersey are getting smacked with thunderstorms. Northern NJ is also getting hit hard. At the moment, Central NJ is in a sweet spot. Watch out Diamond Jim, coming your way...

Beth, Yeah. Ipe' floors, handrails, steps and fascia. Red mahogany spindles, bottom rail, and porch framing. Western red cedar pergola, with mahogany clad posts. Real nice wood. Ken, The weather looked a bit "iffy" all day. Had a few drops, but nothing to stop us completing the first staining. One nice feature of RS on ipe', it can take a hard rain after an hour or so from application with no ill effect. Not sure about hail!

I like spammers. They are the only ones thoughtful enough to send me emails! Between the appendage enlargement, youth prescriptions, and Nigerian attorneys willing to give me millions, I feel like a 16 yr. old with a ton of dough.

Scott, Congrats on the plan. I'm sure Jake Clark will be pleased with the results from a well thought out design. Did not realize you actually do the design and coding. Your new Sealer Store website is terrific, one of the best vendor websites in this business that I have seen.

Jacob, No doubt purchasing the operation is a quicker and easier entry into a new market. Ken's figure of 15K seems somewhat reasonable, as long as you can keep servicing the existing customer base.

Rob, You can try straight oxalic acid mixed at maybe 6 oz. per gallon of water. Faster and a bit more powerful than the citralic mix.

Ron, If I ever get out to northern Arizona, I will certainly call and visit if you are available. Would like to travel further west and visit Jake Clark in the Sierra's for a few days. Maybe I'll catch up with you in Orlando this October. Problem is we are still usually working wood until the end of the month or even into early November.

Ken, That is a real good analysis. Jacob, You may not want to take this tack, but it is possible. You state that you are already in the PW business. Do you currently have the equipment to service dairy barns? If so and there is downtime where the equipment is not being used, why purchase an additional PW and truck? Maybe you could be a competitor instead of purchasing the operation.

Dan, Beat up old 3M defelting pads work well. But you still have to use elbow power.

Daniel, That is a very good suggestion. Kind of works hand in glove with a "throw away" stain!

When it comes to $ and cents business, listen to Ken.

Ken, Friggin' pirates. It is now 2009. We still have bonafide pirates! This is great. Gotta' love their moxie in a country gone berserk. Allah bless them, will wonders never cease. I like pirates. Especially in my lifetime. Thought that the WalMart generation killed pure entrepreneurial spirit. Guess again...

Not a chance!