bigchaz

Although I really dont run into that situation at all I simply expalin that the only way I can perform the quality job I advertise and pride myself on, is to complete the entire project beginning to end. If someone insisted on one aspect or the other, 95 percent of the time I would not take the job. Like you said, its your namesake on the line for the other half of the job that the customer attempts to complete on their own.

you hand stained that lattice??!?!? Nice job though. How many coats did you brush on? Could you do it thick enough in one coat?

Awesome as usual!

If your doing an oil I would want the rinsing to happen while the stain was still gelled up. Wouldn't neutralizing take away that slimy action and in effect allow the stain to sit back on the wood?

A lot of landscape companies require that dog waste be picked up before they will mow the lawn. Or they charge a hefty equiptment cleaning fee if they have to mow over it. Some of these people with 2,3,4 dogs probably get good value out of a service like that. Smart business

Wont work at all. Although you impact the demand side of the equation for a few stations, you are dealing with an industry here. So the events at one company are not mutually exclusive The problem is in the statement: "If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit." If two companies arent selling any gas, the demand at other brand stations will be that much higher. Price on those stations will go UP. This will make the stations that no one is buying from look cheap and everyone will just go back to buying the gas from them at a normal price. And even if people were committed enough to actually never buy from one station regardless of price, the lower number of gas stations would mean gas lines and more shortages as the outlet for supply cant match demand in the short run. Or on the other end: If no ones buys exxon, demand for shell is going to increase heavily. Exxon production has no obligation to provide gas only to its licensed stations. They'll just sell the gas to stations like Shell that cant keep up with demand. The only way to reduce cost is to simple use less gasoline

Get off the loose paint, prime and paint it again

Wood-tux almost exclusively. Brown sugar will be main color this year May use some olympic max for the occasional few who dont like the tux colors

Timberstrip pro (sodium hyrdoxide)(DeckGuide Pro Center © 2004 - G&K Distributors) for cleaning and stripping Oxalic to neutralize

I read his book, powell doesnt and never has wanted to be president

I like how everyone blames the president for the economic problems caused by peoples incessant hunger for purchasing homes on credit they could never afford. You wanna know where tax cuts were working? How about government tax receipts coming in at an all time high and 3 percent above projections the year after they went into effect?

Do you ever wake up and wish you weren't such an angry person? Have you ever had a day when your truly enjoyed life? Have you ever been happy? Have you ever been thankful or proud or relieved that you are an American? How does it feel to let a president you will probably never meet impact you so much that you can barely function in your life as a normal human being?

Cheeeaaapppp Theres no way hes doing volume work either with the level of drought in Raleigh. People would be too cautious even though he does haul his own water. Surprised he doesnt charge more to pay for expensive domain name and hosting package Strategic Pressure Washing moonfruit? hah

Paypal for me They can pay online through our website and it links the customer right to our customized paypal checkout page I use it as a selling point. Paypal takes american express so people love to get their points or whatnot on a large purchase such as a deck restoration

Did I mention the ice road truckers show?

Ken i am soooo ready for axe men. How I got hooked on a bunch of boats Ill never know, but if axe men is anything like it Im already hooked and haven't even seen an episode. As for the rest of this thread, ya'll are probably right. Im just so satisfied with woodtux I honestly dont care about any other products. Especially anything with the word water it in. Or acrylic. Rather cut my hand off than "stain" with those nightmares

Unless you are stripping the deck during your maintenance service, my experiance with water products is that they don't take a refresh coat very well. Hence the shiny comment.

Enjoy the maintenance on that. Say hello the shinys for me

Hey terry haven't seen you post on here in a while. I was starting to wonder if you were still rollin down there How far is your service area from Carolina Beach? Im at school in Wilmington might have to meet up with you if I ever get some free time

I dont want my deck to look like an oil, I want it to actually be an oil. And I think paint companies should stick to making paints and Ill buy my stain from a stain company. Are you actually trying out all these new and great products? How do your customers feel about that? No history or proven results doesn't make the job as a deck staining salesman very easy

Like James said you can get equally decent results in much less time by simply defurring the floor. Ill set the bad nails but you dont have to drive them all below surface if you are just doing a defur. Sanding is an upsell item only. Only one person has wanted it. Although I have added spot sanding into the cost of the job on some very bad decks If i felt it would help the sale.

Good thread but no one has mentioned it yet: Website. Costs me maybe 15/month for hosting and maybe 30/month for great quality adwords click throughs. 80 percent of my work came from people finding on the web. Once they've been through my site they know everything about our company and are generally willing to get started. Then another 15 percent is neighbors seeing yard signs in the homes we got from our website

I'm just jealous I didnt come up with an idea like Wal-mart. Just like i'm jealous I didnt start an oil company Its not like its a one way street with china here. Foreign investment is one of the major surplus units for market capital And the foreign exchange is the largest financial system in the world. We don't live in a world where ever country is self sufficient and isolated. If china can provide a product that is cheaper and ultimately saves consumers money, that money saved is going to go toward creation of new jobs. Its an overly simply way of looking at it (gotta run here) but just as a rough example: You save money on your weekly food bill by shopping at walmart. As a result, american retail in the long run loses jobs. However, you take this extra money saved on your food bill and go out to eat several more times per year. Food services market in the US now much hire more workers. Even when it comes to customer service outsourcing. Yea getting help for your computer from dell is impossible. However, its likely that your computer is costing less due to lower labor cost for call centers. Now look at services like geek squad and home repair computer businesses. Theyve soared in the last decade

Does anyone have a picture of the decker?

I think people would have treated you better had you not mentioned being lazy and cheap 3 or 4 times. Had you approached it saying "I'm an avid diy'er looking for some advice on my deck, i own a pressure washer, not afraid to get dirty, etc," it might have seemed more serious. You will get wet, you will get dirty, you may have to do the job twice in a row to get all the old stain off. Not a job for lazy people And like everyone has said, wear goggles, rubber gloves, respirator. These chemicals are nothing like your average household cleaner or fertilizer. You get it on your skin and it will burn burn burn. Cant just rinse Hd-80 off your skin with water either. It may help but it itches like heck.