JFife

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Timbertramp, Were you big Roulon's coach?? Wasn't he from Sheridan?? Screw those Alaskan crab fishermen, I think I used to have the world's most dangerous job......I drove boxvan deliveries from Denver up I-25 through Wyoming.....about the scariest thing I've ever done!! I don't know how many times a wind gust would blow my van up on two wheels, man it was awful!! Constantly seeing 18wheelers laying on their sides in the median or ditch.....i did it for about a month and couldn't take it any more. Part-timers----think long and hard before quitting your day job. The $100 an hour stuff doesn't last, trust me. As Doolittle said, it won't scale linearly with employees, and you'll need about six guys before the money starts growing much higher than what it was when you were just a lone washer out there.......I chuckled the other day, some newbie on here said he made $250 doing a two hour house wash, and that is more money that doctors and lawyers make!! It takes a few years, but you'll finally realize that you are not going to make more than a decent amount of money, unless you have over 15 employees and the biz is running well. Not trying to be a downer--just don't expect the money you make part-time to be nearly as high once you are full-time. If you are doing this because you absolutely love it, or because you absolutely hate your day job, that is one thing--but if not, I'd keep it up part-time, charge high, and keep your family feeling secure with the fulltime gig.

David, I REALLY appreciate you taking the time to write all of that. It is always awesome to read a success story like that, you've got to be proud of those accomplishments. What are your growth plans for your PW biz, or do you have any??

Yeah Beth, Dead-on with the lighter colors. I've heard people complain about multiple coats of stain darkening, but you have to lighten the successive coats. I.E., i've cut TWP cedartone in half with clear, which makes it a lighter color, but makes the re-coat look the same as original Cedartone. If you don't, maintenance work gets dark in a hurry.

Beth, Some will probably say, "why not just use two coats of the pig. stain?" ....And, the reason that won't work is that the wood is already darkened from the first coat, and RS doesn't have large enough pigments to do any masking. ...But, clear looks clear, no matter how bad the wood is, and if the wood is sealed in clear, and then stained, the color may be great!! I called Pierce and told him to chime in (voicemail) or call me and discuss. We may have just solved the world's wood sealing problems:)

Rick, I've done RS Redwood Only Light Brown with beautiful results--and found it as easy to apply as regular RS. I know what you mean about the wood turning dark--i don't think it is residual stain left over or anything else, except old, porous wood that is degraded. You can sand to good wood as beth said. Now, one of the manufacturers for log products I use came out with the most brilliant product last year, it is called Afterblast. You see, when you blast wood it gets an orange peel texture, becomes extremely porous, and the stain colors go on darker than you would expect. Now, since the products are waterbase, they build on top of each other. So, they came out with Afterblast, which is a clear sealer which is used as a primer coat. So basically, when you go with the pigmented stain coat, you are sealing Afterblast, as opposed to pitted, porous wood. The colors come out even, vibrant and beautiful. Here is what I'm wanting to test---what if you saturated this deck with RS clear and allowed it to dry, then came back the next day and stained it with a medium coat of RS tinted stain?? I remember from using RS that a second coat about 1hr later made the color better, but I wonder if you did a true saturation with clear, allowed to dry, and then went with Light Brown or something if the color would come out vibrant?? If this did work, it would solve all of my issues with RS, which is basically that it doesn't look good on anything that has aged much at all. I think I'll call Pierce and harrass him a little and see what he says. That is the best I've got Rick. Only other thing is to try TWP, it is pigmented enough to usually "save" you on a drab-looking deck. Good luck,

David, So did you grow to that size in only 20 months?? How legit were you?? (illegals, taxes, WC, etc.) I'm curious, what did you pay a guy that was a leader of a crew?? Was he empowered to make any decision related to the job?? Was he salaried, have bennies, etc??

h2oWizard, Don't worry, nobody was questioning your ethics. Some are adament about supporting a guy they met at a PWNA convention, and have great results with that. They are probably the same people that buy milk at the Mom&Pop grocery for $3.99, when you can buy it at Walmart for $2.64. There is nothing wrong with that, just differing opinions. Perhaps they like the small crowds, etc, and that is work a couple bucks to them. Point is, make this decision yourself for what is best for you, but make sure it is BEST for you. This is a money-saving step that I would not even consider unless you really have the other aspects of your game down, i.e. plenty of work, quality, MO, etc. Making chems should not be your FIRST avenue to take for saving money. You should have already improved efficiency, lowered bills however possible, learned the EFFICIENT ways to advertise, etc., before you start trying to save $20 per job on chems. If you done and are comfortable with all of these things, give the chems a go. It will take some time/experimentation to achieve the results you want. I'll leave you with this--i assume what you are trying to make is a housewash additive/product---a buddy of mine that does lots of housewashing and does a great job only uses bleach, water, dishsoap, and Cascade Cleanrinse. Told me he has tried other additives but aren't worth the money, his results are just as good with his homebrew. .....And back to liability--that is always the drum the distributors beat whenever people talk about mixing their own chems, and you gotta have MSDS, etc., etc., etc., First off, I've never spoke with ANYONE who has ever needed an MSDS for anything, but if you do, a chem. supplier must give you one by law with every sale. Now, people talk about how if you mix chems, you need a separate MSDS, etc., etc., etc., but the same people have no trouble mixing bleach with anything/everything that has to do with a housewash. Lastly, the only chems i really ever use are Naoh and acid (citric usually) and I merely mix them with water, which is their exact intended use, so if i did get apprehended by the EPA or whoever, I didn't have my MSDS, they decided to take my chems and break them down to see what I'd made, I'd be in the clear. But frankly, that scenario is about as likely as getting hit by lightening inside of a car:)

Aplus---Dead-on about the box van height-no fun. I think this question breaks down better if you define what work you do, and how you do it. I think for a PW only company (commercial/trucks/flat) a large box van with two skids would be a great solution, whereas a cargo van would be too small. If you do decks/residental, a cargo van works well. Another consideration is your size. Owner/op?? Then you only can have one vehicle, and I'd say a large enclosed trailer is the best bet, becuase you need room for EVERYTHING (or a cargo pulling an open trailer). And I think that is a good place to start out, and then add cargo/sprinter vans as you grow with employees. My experience--employees driving anything is scary, much less pulling a trailer or driving something the size of a school bus (speaking of, you can buy school busses EXTREMELY cheap!)

I say try their sample and see what happens. I would buy chems from someone else up to a certain point--and once you are generating a certain amount of work, you should consider making your own to save money. On small quantities, you'd be better off buying from someone else. Pete's point about liability is a significant concern, so figure that out if you have employees. This has been discussed in the past, and Beth and I respectfully agree to disagree. An emotional argument just doesn't cut it for me--besides, the 100 or so stripper products out there are basically very similar, and each has been knocked off from the other. I doubt when Sunbrite (I use them because they do such a massive amount of work and biz) started their own chems they told a chemist, "here is a dried stain, figure something out to take it off." I am sure they went to a chemist with a jug of DeckStrip and said, "this works good, can you make something equal or better?" I remember from a marketing class that Gillette spend about 1 billion dollars creating the SensorExcel, and once it hit the market, Schick came out with something nearly identical within a very short amount of time for a few million dollars. They let Gillette do the legwork, and knocked it off. I've heard that Wendy's does no market analysis--they just wait and see where McDonald's (lots of analysis) puts a location and they are close behind. I guess my point is, if you have a buddy/buddy relationship with your supplier (which they'll try to create) it will be hard for you to leave them. You'll be sympathic to their cause, and try and help them as much as you can. Heck, I know established contractors that buy re-packaged Oxalic and re-packaged Percarb for 10 times what they could buy it for at a chem supplier, all in an effort to help and support the pwashing supplier. If a guy has gone to an effort to make a product different, I'll try and use it, if it works better or is safer (like F18). Stripped a house the other day that had five coats of Behr Liquid Rawhide (the lawsuit stuff) and the wood felt like it was coated in semi-dried strawberry jelly, and was black with mildew. There are solutions all over the country of how to tackle this---Removall, followed by cornblasting, blasted water, Meth.Clor. strippers, etc. I mixed up 12oz. Naoh with Dawn dishsoap and it was falling off with about 10 minutes of dwell. This is considered to be one of the hardest things to remove. I just try not to get caught up in the whole thing about how you "owe" your supplier to always do biz with them, etc. I think you "owe" it to your family and yourself to be as profitable as possible. If this attained by buying your chems for 10 times what it would cost you to make them, due to the support you receive, then so be it. Still the liability is a factor to consider, so weigh that.

well said,

There are only a few reasons that you should consider doing this: 1) save a lot of money, 2) chems will work better, 3) save you a lot of headaches. From what you said, I assume it is not saving you money. It sounds like you've knocked off another product, so yours probably won't be any better. The only plus for you that I see is that he'll deliver and fill for you, which would be nice. If you have knocked off the formula, feel free to post the recipe here to help all of us fellow contractors. Good luck with what you choose to do,

why can't you just call and order some more WT red cedar?? I'd get four gallons of SRD, or even five. Better to return than not have enough. With 500sf left to do, you could easily be down in the 100-200sf per gal. range, so expect it to be low.

Long time, no see Littlefield!! I've officially given up the search for a rotary palm. I have, however, found a new pad that you can use on a 4" angle grinder, etc, that looks very promising. Make for RAPID fuzz and stain removal, but I'm still testing, etc. I may try and sell them for a while before everyone jumps on the bandwagon. How's work been going for you??

www.dynabrade.com Thanks Scrub-a-dub, So are you using air power??? I found very little on their site for electric, called them, and didn't find out much. Do you have a model # of what you are using?? Let me define again what I am looking for in case we got our wires crossed--- Size/shape of a palm orbital, but is rotary instead of orbital, electric, 4-6" With that definition, is that still what you say you are using?? thanks a lot for the help, jon

Beth, do they spin/rotate or just do that orbital/shimmer/vibrate thingy?? I am looking for something that continuosly spins--and if what you are saying is true--then that is what I need.

Dale, Right, just ease of use on a ladder, etc. And lighter is nice. I've been scouring the 'net, and the closest thing i've found is an air tool, but is small and is a rotary sander. The search continues.......

That looks really nice!! So much better with the underside done, it would have looked bad without it.......was that Redwood Only formula?

I've never like palm orbitals due to their slow speed, but I've found that it they spin they work rapidly, and would be an exceptional tool. Problem is, I cannot find one in a decent size like an orbital. The Mouse sanders are convenient, but slow like an orbital.

It's a pain, but if this is a big problem you might schedule your deck jobs with the afternoon sun in mind. Seal those in the morn, seal north and east facers in the afternoon. On houses, I plan my MO by the sun location, so i am staining out of the sun.

Good job Bill! Glad it all worked out, and good luck in expanding your operation. Is that RS Light Brown on the deck???

Something like this, don't even mess w/ percarb cleaner. Just use stripper in a weak solution if its an easy job, strengthen if it gets tough. Sounds like it could be Behr like Beth mentioned. Just bid a house Thursday with Behr Liquid Rawhide, and I've never seen anything this black before, and i suspect you may have the same thing.

If you have a decent painter working for you, I cannot imagine they cannot figure out a good way to do this with a ladder. There is one painting guy I use on a lot of jobs that does stuff with ladders that makes my stomach turn (i don't do heights), all very safe. If the ground is uneven, use ladder wedges, and this would also help if it is soft. Dont forget, you can rent 60' ladders readily.

Didn't realize Karcher made/sold enough pressurewashers to donate something of this magnitude. One of you Easterners should offer to wash/stain all of the boardwalks for free:)

What are you trying to get to on the house?? This sounds like something we'd need to see a pic of in order to give you ideas. For now, that seems extreme to me for anything residental. If I see a pic I think I can give you an easier idea,