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JFife

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Posts posted by JFife

  2. Posted · Report reply

    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:)

  3. Posted · Report reply

    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,

  5. Posted · Report reply

    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:)

  6. Posted · Report reply

    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!)

  7. Posted · Report reply

    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.

  9. Posted · Report reply

    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,

  11. Posted · Report reply

    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??

  12. Posted · Report reply

    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

  21. Posted · Report reply

    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.

  24. Posted · Report reply

    Ok, my chubby little fingers cannot type fast enough to respond to everything, but I'll respond to a few things,

    Being a french/canadian anathema (feeling that my gender and sexuality are a social construct),:) I'd like to say Meier wasn't insulting me in his post; he was just harrassing a little and I can take it, nothing better than a good argument. I watch Hannity and Colmes like a religion. Before yesterday, I'd have been really insulted to be called French, but did you hear Jacques Chirac's comments about the English and their food?!? That was awesome!! I at least developed some respect for him at that point.

    Beth is correct to an extent, I am being a bit of a devil's advocate, but only because I can at least see the other side of the issue, and cannot call it black and white. If it were, it wouldn't be at the high court. For those that think the farmer that has been in the same spot for 50yrs, and has seen his farm surrounded on every side by strip malls and suberbia, and is sitting there loving life......well, i appreciate your argument for the sake of argument, but let's be serious. You think they are HAPPY about that???? Happy to hear cars honking and guys out pwashing the storefronts at all hours of the night?? My view is also an opinion, but I cannot imagine they are thrilled about that. I'd guess they think it sucks to try and navigate their tractor on a six-way. Why not sell out for the big bucks when you can, buy another farm where you'll be alone and happy, and stop trying to prove a point?? I hold no hostility to these people, just don't understand it. I don't see a farm in the middle of town and say, "man, I wish that was a bunch of McMansions". I see it and say, "man, that guy is stupid not to take all of that money."

    RyanH, you've been adament that I answer your analogy about giving you my equipment to help others, and I'd have to say I need to see the numbers. I believe you were using this analogy in regards to my example about the guy back in MO that wouldn't sell his farm to Walmart Distribution, so I'll continue with those #'s.

    Land in that area would probably sell for $1000/ac, and if they wanted 100ac that is $100,000. Now, i guess this new biz would have added significantly to property value in the area, would have brought jobs to those without (much needed), supported local stores and services (new homes, remodels, apts, food, restraunts,etc). How much do you think the benefit of this would have exceeded $100,000??? Ten times?? 100 times?? More?? So for the sake of answering your analogy, if giving you my equipment would help people 100 times more than the value of the equipment, come get it. That would be a no-brainer for me, and at that point I'd be out of a job, and i'd let the Law of Reciprocity kick in. Now, you said "give" you my equipment, whereas this guy could have sold for fair market value or higher, so to be more correct in the analogy, you'd give me market value for equipment, it would benefit others 100times greater than that amount, I've gotta go to the trouble of buying new equipment, everyone else is fat and rich, and I am hero, and I've got two hot broads telling me how generous I am, and that it is really nice to see such a caring guy. Who loses??

  25. Posted · Report reply

    CrownRoyal,

    That was a good article! I personally shop at Walmart for about everything, and as a single male, I find it saves me between $50-$100 a month, on basic necessities like bathroom products and food. Over a year, that is a savings of about $1000. I know some don't shop at WM, usually as a political statement of some sort. I view it in the micro as opposed to the macro however, and see that it saves me $1000, to spend elsewhere or save. I choose to look at most things in a micro perspective, such as debt. I attempt to have as little personal debt as possible (though not always), and this is beneficial financially to me. But what if everyone in America did this?? Our entire economy would probably collapse (not an economist, but I suspect i'm right). So does that mean we should all take on as much debt as humanly possible?? I'll pass, there are enough others out there willing to do that.

    My point about WM is simply that I don't think any of us are knowledgable enough about economics to determine exactly what kind of windfall they will have on our economy someday. I can point out articles by knowledgable people that say WM is great for the economy. And since it is so hard to predict the impact of a company that composes 2% of our GDP, whether it be good or bad, I'll err on the side of the micro and what helps me, today.

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