Firedkm

Hands down it was worth the rental cost. I would probally still be sanding if I never used it.

You should get easily 35-40 ft out of the x-jet while shooting the chems. Make sure you have the nozzle opened all the way. When you look at the tip there is two metal flaps. They should be open to reach high places. They should be closed (touching each other) for a close range fog pattern. The only time I need the nozzle opened all the way is on the sides with the high roof peaks. The front and back of the house I can still reach the second story gutters on the full fog pattern.

Brad, If you need to sand the floor check out your local rental store. See if they have a 7x13 orbital floor sander. This was recommended to me by Everett this year and it worked great. It cost a little under a hundred bucks for the rental and the cost of the sandpaper. The deck floor was about 300 sq ft. and took me only 45 minutes to sand. I started out with 36 grit paper and finished off with 50 grit. The floor was great. The picture show what the railing looked like. the floor was worst. The deck was sealed with Ready seal dark red.

Ryan, I hope you do not use the tsp on aluminum siding. It states on the box that its not for that purpose. Tsp is mainly used for paint preparation in wood. I'm sure its ok on vinyl sided homes.

If I was to pick from the above two I would go with the olympic. I feel its a superior product over behr especially since there is a class action suit against them for premature failure of the product. Just my two cents

Ditto on what Mike has said about the x-jet and the citracleen. I feel it one of the best soaps out on the market today. You may also want to do a search on house washes. There is plenty of information on this board to give you some more ideas on other house wash mixes that people use.

Brian, I got mine brand new of of ebay for 85 bucks including shipping. I just got lucky that day. They have both the Dewalt and the Makita going for 60-180 bucks. Some are brand new, reconditioned and used.

Efc-38 will not hurt any vegetation at all. Hd-80 is a caustic and you have to take precautions to avoid killing the plants. You dont have to use the Hd-80 at full strenght all the time. Mixed at 1/2 will work for most apllications to remove failed finishes.

The next deck that I use efc-38 on I will try a brightner on it.

I dont care how good you are at your job, you will always have customer that drives you crazy. You will have to go out of your way to make them happy and sometimes that will not work. Last year I had a huge deck to do. It turned out like crap. I had another contractor to go out and look at the deck. He felt I did nothing wrong it was the color I used. I used a clear with a slight tint of gray. I also told the customer not to go with it. (the customer is always right!) right..... Well this year I was going to redo it for them at my cost. They called 2 weeks ago and I pu them on the schedule. I just called them last night to move them to another day because of a conflict I had. The lady got pissed off and started to yell at me for the 3rd time. Her husband got on the phone and I had a civil conversation with him. He understood why I needed to reschedule and then proceeded to tell me I would have to move these huge concrete planters and statues off the deck. This deck is a little over 2500 sq ft. Last year his employees did it. In my contract I stated if my company did the moving it was a $75.00 per hour charge to move it in one hour increments. I told him of that and he said he would not pay. I then told him that I was sorry I would not be able to finish his deck. This was the hardest decision I had to make not to finish it. I still mde money and even if I did do the deck I would have made money. I had "padded" the estimate higher than I should have. I felt I was going to have a problem with these people. I was told by them they had problems with other contractors not completing work before. Now I know why, They were very picky. You cannot please everyone and the best thing to do is go out of your way to try to please them. Mark in your book and never go back again to the ones that are the biggest pain in the a......

I would stay away from any clear sealers. They all will start to gray out in about 6 months or so. They really have no uv protection and thats the rason its starts to gray out so fast. They are still protected from water. The more color the sealer has the more uv protection it has. I would recommend that you find a sealer/stain that you like and feel is whats best for you and stick with just that. I feel as a professional if you stick with one product it says to the customer it must be good. We all have our flavor of what to use and we can all tell you what we feel you should use. You are the one to make that decision for yourself. If the customer really wants a clear and you want an over the counter product, I would you cabots clear solution. I have had good luck with that product. Its also been rated #1 with consumer reports and most homeowners know that.

The sand is used to "lock" the bricks or concrete pavers in place. The sand is basically pushed down the crevaces in between each brick. When you clean them you will remove some of the sand and loosen up the brick.

Reed, I have also used the efc-38 to strip old failed finishes. It has worked very well for me. I have not however used any kind of brightner afterwards. I have had good results. Below is a deck that was cleaned with efc-38. This deck had a clear on it.

Gavin, I think I would just clean the windows. What are you going to use on the awnings. You may be able to just use the same soap to clean the windows. Just brush them down and use a squegee to dry them. You should be fine doing that and will not have any hard water spots afterwards. If they made no comment about the windows and you just do them They may feel they are getting more for there money. I know when I bid on a house wash I always do something extra and point that out after I clean and do the walk around with the customer. Sometimes it may be there patio furniture if they are filthy. It only takes several minutes to something like that. I would say most people are happy when you do that.

If my memory serves me right the above machine is a direct drive unit. If that is the case and you do decide to go with a water tank, make sure you mount the tank higher than your power washer. I also would not recommend using a direct drive unit and a water tank. a direct drive pump is not designed to suck water out of a tank. You really would be better off with a belt drive unit. a belt drive unit was designed for sucking water from a tank. I realize you allready bought your unit and your pretty much stuck with it. In the future when you decide to buy another consider getting a belt drive. I do mainly residential work as in house washes, decks and some flat work. I do not use a water tank and rely on the customers hose bib for my water supply. In my area there are a lot of people with wells and only once I had a problem. I had to ask the lady of the house to please wait to do her laundry untill I was done doing her deck. Then I was fine with the water supply. As for a vehicle its a matter of preference. I have a small Ranger truck and a 6x14 enclosed trailer. I started out in the bed of my truck, then to a open trailer, then to the enclosed trailer. Getting the enclosed trailer for me was the best thing I did for my business. I leave eveything I need in there, its lockable ans I am not stuck on the job site as some people are set-up in a van. I really like to eat lunch a place that specailizes in hot wings. I can just unhook the trailer and go to lunch or leave my helper on the job and go do an estimate if I have to.

Paul just about posted every reputable place to buy equipment from.

I like the x idea on the board. It could save some headaches down the road.

Bryan, Are you sure the gray areas are not fuzzies? The fuzzies can make the board look grey.

Steve, Sodium hypochlorite is Pool chlorine at 12.5% and bleach at 4-6%. I buy mine from the local pool store and cut the ration down myself. I use a 60% water to 40% chlorine. That gives me about a 3-6 % solution. I dont add anything else to my solution. Just spray it on and basically buy the time you are done spraying the roof you can start to rinse it down.

If this is a back pack sprayer I would stay away from it. If it leaks and goes down your back you will not be happy. (speaking from a bad experience). If money is tight go with a good hand held sprayer like Vince posted. If you have some money to spend go with a Decker. Its a low pressure sprayer made to aplly chems and even sealers. Just make sure its rinsed out really well. Beth carries them in her store. There are two types and I have gotten the Decker Topper myself. It works really great.

I usually just use a sanding sponge to clean it up. 80 grit of course. I will have to try James idea. Sound like a good trick of the trade.

Prosoco makes several kinds of brick cleaner. http://www.prosoco.com/Check out there site. You really have to choices for asphalt roof cleaning tto get great results. A product with Sodium Hydroxide or use a bleach solution. Bealch is the quickest and easiest way and using a sodium hyroxide base cleaner will yield better results but takes longer to do a roof with it. As far as using efc-38 it will work but the dwell time to kill the mold is long. However there is really no chance of killing any plants or other landscaping. I would use efc-38 for cedar roofs and I use a bleach solution on the asphalt roofs. It took me over a year to really decide on what to use myself before I launched roof cleaning in my business. I did alot of freebies on roofs with friends and family trying out all different kinds of ways to clean. Good luck

According to the manufacture it will hold up just as good as the original wood tux. I to think this will be interesting to see. I do plan on trying it out but it will be on my own deck first.

Wood Tux is coming out with a new line called Wood Tux Wet. it can also be applied same day after cleaning deck. I forget when Russel said it was being launched. It will be this season though.

I use the same mix as squirtgun. The wax does not cut down on the foaming action of the soap. I have used it with out the wex and it foams just the same. The reason the foamer is added is to give it more cling. Everyone has there favorite brew for house washes and for those of you looking try everything out. Whether its Stuttering Bobs Stuff, RPC Products, Sunbrite or anybody else out there selling soaps. Make your own decision after trying it out. I am sure the f-13 works good for some and not for others. Its all in your taste of how you think the results should be. I have never tried the f-13 so i cannot give my true opinion on it. I have tried several local products here in NJ and was not impressed with them. The mix I use now was the first one that impressed me and thats what I intend to stick with. I will still try others when I get a chance because you never know there maybe a better one.