bigchaz

2.50-3.00 per square, $15 and up/linear foot for rails

I usually give them the date that we can get them on the schedule again so it gives a slight feel of urgency.

Is there a way to prevent this from showing up on my new posts? I dread what I find when I come back here

Mike keep in mind these people include gutters but they probably charge 3 times as much as you. Whether or not you include gutters is negligible information without a proper understanding of pricing

HAHAA!! Wow seriously.....

Wrong. Wrong attitude too. I wouldn't be in this business if I didn't think customers could be convinced of it's necessity. Wrong. My prices have gone up every year. Companies are cutting dead weight and refocusing on their core...their profitable core. Increasing speed if its a product of efficiency is something you should do regardless of lowballers. YOU are a lowballer. You live and operate with a lowballer mentality. You refuse to look past your competition, you have worked for years to develop a job not a business, and you focus all your attention on pricing. Only lowballers care about "undercutting". I don't know even know how that's defined. I WANT people to charge less than me....that means I'm running a good business and making MORE money per job than they are. So you take longer to do the work, you make less money, and you don't have any work. And you still think you're the expert here? Heres a riddle for you...most companies on this forum can do decks and houses faster than the competition, charge more money per job, close more sales, and still maintain top of line quality. Obviously he CAN! Sounds like a good business model, make money on the upsell. Take a lesson from that and stop giving away free gutter cleaning. Wrong. The future is whatever you make it out to be. $219 will never be the future for the right demographics and the right company.

Looks great man, what stain?

Why lower the price for repeat customers? My cost goes up each year, why should I foot the bill? If someone liked your work when you charged them 200 dollars, they will like your work at 210 dollars. Dont go down, you're shooting your future in the foot

Nice post edit after you threatened to undercut anyone who tried to come to your area and do business. To be honest I would thoroughly enjoy coming up to forestville md and opening a gutter company. 1)So that I could prove to you how wrong you are about everything and, 2) so I could watch your sorry behind get arrested once you get scared and inevitably start destroying my private property

The fact you spent that much time making more excuses for your inappropriate action says more than enough about your character. Who gives you the right to patrol the town looking out for homeowners who may have hired someone you feel does lesser quality than you? What the heck goes on in your head that makes you think you are actually doing someone a favor by criminally destroying another company's sign? It doesn't matter if he painted that sign with the blood of slaughtered children and he cleans gutters with gasoline and a match. Worry about your own self and your own business. You're a joke Michael. Your employees are jokes. Your website is a joke. Your business is a joke. And your idea of ethics is the biggest joke of all. I hope you go broke. I hope your business fails (how you have any customers at all is shocking to me). Hows that for obnoxious?

Didnt you sign an agreement to act as a professional when you joined the BBB? I know I did. And they certainly wouldn't find that to be "better business" behavior

I keep looking at this thread. Such good work dude

Looks like you barely budged the stain where the old rail system was connected. You just sand the all that off?

Do you use all those for decks Lyle or are you a flooring guy too?

You just show up, unroll hoses and pressure wash a stencil somewhere??? How the heck does that help get business? Thats like me walking around and spraying stripper on random people's decks....seems kinda messed up man

hahahaha ken

What kind of warranty can you offer on a deck? Some decks turn moldy in 6 months other decks fade in the first year. Other decks with the same stain look brand new going on 3 years? Some wood leaks sap, some wood gets covered in leaves and tannin stains it everywhere. How would you word something that doesnt cover those things without sounding like you are excusing yourself from every possibility?

oil wrestling

Jim thats a great website you got. Hope business is great for you FT

Congratulations. You run a cancer awareness group. You go to church. You have referrals. You could **** gold dust for all I care You still don' know how to take care of a deck. You can defend your techniques all you want, but unless you are interested in the right way to do things quit wasting everyone's time if you don't want to listen and you don't give a hoot what anyone else says.

Did you pull off all the spindles in order to replace the "stringer"? I've had decks before where that bottom stringer desperately needed to be replaced but I had no idea how to remove it and then reattach all the spindles without rebuilding the entire rail section and screwing it back in. Is that what you did in this case?

Looks good Dan, sounds like a lot of work. What exactly do you mean by stringers? Around here I take that to mean the boards that hold the steps up (the 2x12s with notches cut out). And you didn't touch the spindles at all (as in they were already like that?) Also what were you caulking?

Aint nothing brown about that "woodland brown". Looks terrible to me. That mountain cedar looks great. Nice deck too Jim

Mike I don't think you're qualified to professionally take care of a deck. If you are good with the wand...it doesn't matter if you're a 10th generation pressure washing expert, high pressure is a NO NO for wood. Sweep the dry dirt off??? After I'm done cleaning a deck I would eat my meals off the wood. I certainly hope you don't have dirt on the deck. There isn't a cheap way to wash wood, however there is a right way. Search these forums some more, I would recomend a weekend worth of reading. If you are cleaning unstained wood you can use something called sodium percarbonate. Apply the chemical, rinse it off and then apply a "neutralizer" or a "brightener" These can be either "oxalic acid", "citric acid" or blends of those. You can also look up "sodium hydroxide" This is typically used to remove stains from a deck, but you can use a weaker mixture (diluted more with water) to simply clean the wood with. Then you still want to rinse and apply a brightener or neutralizer

If you're not using low pressure you don't "have it down pat" Low pressure is the only way to properly clean wood with a pressure washer. There a myriad of chemicals available for cleaning wood. I would advise you read some of the FAQs at the top of this forum and the "stickies" at the top of the wood restoration forum. There is tons of information on wood cleaning