Firedkm

I use this gutter scoop for the steep roofs that are not walkable. I attach it to a 16' extension pole and can do most gutters in one ladder placement.

Looks like you have your hands full once again. Can't wait to see the finished product. What are you going to use on it?

This is a pool shock made for vinyl liner pools. It's made so it will not bleach out the liner like regular pool shock. It also costs more money

If you are going to wash the house also yes you can use a powerwasher to clean the gutters. If the stuff is dry I will walk the roof with a backpack leaf blower. Its fast and the gutters are spotless. If there is water in them I will clean them by hand. When I blow out the gutters I usually will leave the stuff on the gound if its in the fall and the yard has not been cleaned yet. If the yard is cleaned my helper will rake the stuff up and bag it. By the time I am done and putting my stuff away my helper is also done. I have found the above is the quickest in my opinion. Using a power washer just to clean gutters is a waste of time.

yes the hose still has ends on it. Stoppie, Let me check our back room at the firehouse and see if there is any old hose laying around

Try going to your local fire dept. They will usually have some hose that has been placed out of service. It will more than likely still be safe to use for your purpose. Its usually taken out of service because it will not take the pressures from the fire trucks pump.If that does not work I maybe able to get some for you. Just pay for shipping would be all I ask for. Let me know.

Travis, Sorry to hear what happened to you. I hope everything is well.

Paul, Where do you get the hydrogen peroxide? I never thought of using that before as I would let my cleaner sit a little longer if I had mold still there. I take it the peroxide will not damage the deck like the bleach can? The only time I have used bleach on a deck was when I clean a composite deck. I wont use it on a wood deck. I know there are people who do it and swear by it, but its just my preference.

I always have a rag dampened with mineral spirits while I am staining. I hate to tape and hang plastic. Its really a matter of preference. Most of the time I am by myself when sealing so I don't want to waste time masking off. Do I get sealer on the places where its not supposed to be? Of course I do at least a couple a times each deck I seal. I usually catch it before it's to late and dries on the surface.

I like using my 4013 tip. It doesn't blow the plants all over the place like the m-5 x-jet can. But there has been times I use that too because I get lazy and forget to change the tip.

James, Do you at least wear your parrot on that head of yours?:)

Don't be so sloppy!:) I never heard of the vaseline trick and I would not want to try that. I would think that and the sun on your skin wont be really good. I always wear gloves. either latex or the nitrile ( the nitrile hold up better) When I get it my arms I will use a a good mechanics waterless hand soap. These usually have some kind of a petrolium based remover in it to take off all the grease and grime. This works for me.

Bummer! I would not seal the new boards untill the moisture content in at or near 12% for the Woodtux. If you apply it now it will not absorb properly and also have a finish that will fail prematurely on the new boards. If it was me, I would let the customer know (nicely of course) what they did to messed things up. I would wait for the moisture content to come down and then seal the deck. Of course if this is in a reasonable time that you dont have to clean the deck again. If you have to wait to a point that the deck HAS to be rewashed then you and the customer should agree on a price. I would charge at a reduced rate for this cleaning. enough where it doesn't hurt your pocket and low enough to keep the customer happy. But as Paul stated, if you have the means of doing it gratis to the customer he/she will be happier to have not to pay anymore than what they where originally quoted. Let us know what happens. Good luck

Rob, I will stand a little corrected myself and I should have asked you first. I assumed you did not ask the customer and you did. That was the right thing to do. You can't always go by what they say either, since it was not true. They may not have sealed the driveway before but I do think Paul is right in one point. We as a contractor should be able to tell if it was sealed or not. I would not be able to myself. In NJ sealing concrete is not popular. I would tend to think there is a way to tell and maybe you may want to research this and even let us know how to do it. Maybe Paul could enlighten us to if he knows how to tell to. For you to have on the contract of what was to be done was right and you should stick to it. I am also sure its very agrivating having the customer come down on you but unfortunatly you are the professional. Good luck and let us know what you end up doing for the end results.

Wow someone woke up on the left side of the bed this morning.:whoops: I do however agree with you Paul.:)

I have a 30 gallon drum on a hand cart. I make up my house wash the night before. I can get approx 4-6 house out of this. The x-jet tub is tie wraped to the hand truck and my gutter cleaner is in a 5 gal bucket. I use 2 nozzles. The m-5 x-jet and a 4013 tip. The 4013 tip I use for wetting down the plant etc. When doing the house I use only the x-jet. and the hose lenght I have is 40' and I can do just about half the house in one shot. So when you say you have extra stuff to take off that maybe, but when you got to shhot the gutters wit something what do you do. Go back to the machine and place the tube into the gutter mix? Than all that chem is in the hose and you have to wait for it to flush out. With the x-jet you do not have to what for that to flush out. Less time using the x-jet is my opinion. Just take the pluge and stop coming up with excuses and use it. After you use it and dont like it thats fine. Just use the damn thing and let us know!:)

Rick do you have a picture of the nozzle you use? If so please post it or send it to me. Thank you Mike, I have 200' of hose on mine. Its has dropped in its out put but I am sure it's not as low as yours. Mine is a 3gpm model

As long as the moisture content is at or below what the sealer manufacture recommends. Both Ready Seal and Wood Tux suggest 12% or lower

Mike, I remember you setting up the sureflo pump on your rig. What was the size of your pump? It does not take me an hour to cover the roofs I am doing but I will say using the x-jet is definately faster. I have used it but on the one really steep roof I did it was not pratical to use the x-jet. It was a 2nd story roof witha 12-12 pitch. I felt like I was repelling down a cliff.:rolleyes:

Paul, I dont have pictures of it. Most of the time I am working by myself, so the only pics I do have of anything is before and afters. Ryan, The roof is cleaned with the diluted pool chlorine and rinsed before the algeacide is applied. The roof I am testing on has only had it one for 2 months now. So I am not really sure how well it will work just yet. I am to cheap to "buy" into a service to buy there products for roofs. I really wish a supplier would market and sell a commercial product for us to use without these stupid "buy" into crap. This is the reason I went to my old boss and talked to him about what I was looking for. He called the manufacture of the stuff I am using and they gave him the "recipe" to try out.

Ryan, The pool company I used to work for about 15 years ago had the algeacide with copper in it. Its also less money than some of the commercial product like roof-a-cide or shingle guard. A 16 oz bottle cost me 18.99 and I will put it in a 55 gal drum and fill with water. That was the recommendation from the owner of that pool store I worked at. I used less that half on my mother-in-laws house. $9.00 for chem is not bad. I use a shur-flo pump with a 60-40 chlorine mix. That gives me approx 4-6% of bleach solution. I walk the roof no matter the pitch. No lifts needed. I have repelling gear that I use to do this and works great. As of right now I am like Paul with not much roof cleaning yet. I am not really advertising for it yet. All the roofs I have done are for friends and family for practice and experimenting on. Its been 20 roofs so far that I have done just charging for chems only for the "victims":)

Steve, Its fine for washing aluminum homes. I use all the time with no problems here in south jersey

Eric, These are two completly different tools. The x-jet is a nozzle that goes on the end of your wand. This will shoot water up to 45'. The extenda wand is an extension pole that can be used to reach high places. Its just a longer wand so to speak. Yes the x-jet can be used with the extanda wand. Both items are great to have but if ihad to purchase one or the other I would go with the x-jet first then go for the extanda wand second.

Steve, Yes I have done the sam thing you are doing and also with a sodium hydroxide cleaner. Both where fine and the test I did I let it soak for about a month. I use beach for my cleanings. Just because its quicker. The sodium hydroxide cleaners do a better job in my opinion but its more work. Some roofing manufactures recommend using bleach for temporary results. It seem to last about a year before needing it again. One of the contractors I am friendly with talked to on manufacture and they stated if its labled for cleaning roofs it was fine to use. I also think a roof cleaned with a sodium hydroxide cleaner stays cleaner longer. There are products out there that will inhibit mold and algea growths on roofs. Some are companies that want you to buy inot there product and program. I would stay away from them. I think its a waste of money myself. Anyway the only way to keep the growth from coming back it using an algeacide. I am experimenting right now on a roof using a pool algeacide to see how it works. I will now in about a year from now, so I have no idea if it will work or not. I think it will and I hope it does.

Paul, The handle comes down like a floor scrubber does. Its also an orbital sander so it vibrates in all directions. It was very easy to handle and went the direction I wanted it to go with ease.