RSuds

I was Saying that I did a lot of the work when I was younger and now I know a better path. I agree that for a company to grow and make a lot of money you need to have systems and the right people in place. Last year was a great year for Power washing in Pa. becuase of that. All I do is put out fires and give estimates but it does not mean that I do not work a lot or have stress. I hate it when people say to me "I guess it is raining so you have the day off" What do you think everything stops. But now when I do some power washing it is fun and it is stress free, I even like it as long as my phone does not ring. I do seem to find more time for my wife and I to go to happy hour?

I have done the striped raised decks in the cold and yes it sucks when you are wet and cold. My guys use then sometimes. I was just having fun with ya.

I had a very good year last year with all the roofs we are now doing. This winter sucked but we are starting again. I hope to se you guys again sometime I had a lot of fun a couple years ago, golfing, a couple drinks and B.S. I still never saw any pictures from our foresome?

I think he was selling for 750,000.00 and said that it was worth it. Well even if he does only 40-50 a month that is not worth it.

A little water will not hurt-Wimps.

That is the area that mark from Thunder Wash does??? I do not get it, Maybe my fault?

We should all focus more on what makes you more money but I have a question about what to do with the part that makes only a little bit of money and is a pain in the a$$ to deal with. I have been doing decks for a long time and we also stain them for our customers. My prices have gone up with staining and most of them I try to use the same products (I do not want to talk about what kind to use F&P or Ready seal) that makes it easy and we can just prep and recoat, but we also will use some products that people have already. Were I have a problem is mostly with scheduling the stain work on top of doing other stuff. Every year end of april we get 7-12 days of rain and we then have 20-30 decks on the board to seal and then the calls come on that nice day. (I know we all have the same thing) I have some painters that I sub the work out to and give them 85% of the job, they like it because they do not need to do anything but go paint it and I will pay them. But they also have some problems with doing the work they have first and well most painters that want to help are?? Also I can keep only employees for power washing. So after doing my numbers I'm leaning twords cleaning everything and telling people that we do not stain anymore? My question is have some other guys done this and how does it effect your other jobs? We do a lot of residentail work and when we do decks we also do the house and roof, so if we do not do the deck staining will they go with another guy? Then I think I will be able to focus more on the commercial side of business and not worry about the Decks. In business it is tough sometimes to know if you are doing the right thing or not??

Making money is what makes me happy but I do think it will reduce a lot of stress and we can focus on just cleaning. It is scary to give up any work. Still thinking. We also do a lot of the staining ourselves and make more than 15% but it gets hard to schedule.

I hate you.

It is even harder when you go to the 8-10 gal. machines to get chemical.

We have done it all over the years. We do a lot of buildings that we use 300-600 feet of hose and we have used a small pump that you can put a line into the super suds sucker that will help ( turn the pump on-when you change to bigger nozzle it will go on and not work with a pressure nozzle) but it has some problems. The best way is to put the chemical thru the pump and you can turn a valve on and off. Only use cat pumps for this and you will need to change the seals every 3-6 months. It is not hard to change seals and will cost around 100-150 but the time it saves on everything is worth it. You can turn the valve off and wash down with bigger nozzles also.

Yes Ashtons are good, maybe Jim and I will share one soon??

How do you know the # you came up with?? 3850 and 7700 wow why not 4000 and 8000 do you know something I do not??

Prep clean only 1,000. clean and seal 1 coat same color 5,000-6,000.

I would at least double that price.

This will be a large project and if you do not have a good size crew to do all this it will not be good. You need to give a price on time and chemical. If you need help before april let me know. We do this stuff all the time but it will take time to do all 8 buildings and I would think they should have them sealed. Can you get a lift around?

Nice, I got to do one.

Cat pumps are the best!!! It sounds like you may have something stuck in 1 of the valves. Open up the cap and take the valve out and check the spring.

Just wanted to let everyone know what happened to us and hopefully will help. So we did a deck and had some extra stain that was left. The guys came back and they left the cans with very little stain in each can out back behind our shop to dry out and we can seal back up to get rid of them. They were out back for only a couple days. The guy who owns the buildings is looking to get a new motgage on the buildings, so when they looked at the buildings and saw the 3 cans and a brush in a empty bucket they called the EPA. A Environmental Hydrogeologist company came out and said that they will need to dig 3 feet down and se if the ground is contaminated or not. If it is it will cost a lot of money. They came out and dug then tested the soil. Everything turned out great and the soil is good with no problems. The thing is that I am now supposed to be happy that they only billed me (Thousands) instead of 50,000 or more if they found a problem. What a business. Also I had to buy drums 100.00 each and fill them up with the dirt they dug and then they will pick up the dirt and charge another 180.00 for each drum they take. So after 5,000 or so at the end of the year, I wanted to alert everyone do not leave anything outside!!!!

They were thinking that it smelled and that maybe we used paint thinner that could have got into the soil.

Yes, it is good to help others. What comes around goes around.

Yes you must have the apartment manager give them a notice. Water the cars before and after, they will be fine if it is a regular house wash. When they complain and they will tell them they should have got a notice and it is only soap that can come off easily with a wash.

Phills will win it all. Are pitching is great this year, I hope we get the yanks and kill them.

Can you tell us a web site?

We have even used our roof pumps for getting alot of chem. on the stucco and let it sit while you water all plants good.