Jeff

Put in contract that all vehicles must be removed from work areas, Not responsible for any residents or guest vehicles or property not removed from work areas etc etc etc............. Now with that said, your still going to have some cars in the work area. If you know overspray is going to hit the cars wet the cars 1st and then rinse them off real quick it adds a minute or 2 but not really that much of a hassle Anybody complains tell them they just got a free car wash LOL JL

It can be done Dustin, your in the south so EVERYTHING has to be cleaned sooner or later. You have to have a lot of drive. You have to put many many hours every week just trying to get the work that will support you. The 1st few years are the toughest. With a lot of drive you can do it. I had to make my biz work, I didnt want to work for anybody any more, I was new to the south, no jobs pay really good blue collar jobs. So I set out and pushed myself to make it work. I'm up many hours in the mornings faxing, writing companies. If I work 40-60 hours a week , I also am working another 10-20 hours doing office work, selling, marketting etc. But its all worth it and can be for you as long as your ready to be your own boss. Its not just 40 hours make a few grand. Its work but I find it fun Good luck and go wash something JL

Dont worry about your competition, sell your company. Tell them "not to put down the landscaper, but this is what you do". That you have the right equipment & chems and you dont use high pressure as many do. You specialize in building washing, not lawn care and tell them that. Vinyl condos easy stuff to do, all it is is a big house Good luck if you have any questions pm or call me. I love vinyl condos JL

Walts as you see have uniform shirts also but I dont like them because they have old logo patches on them, you can request that they send you shirts without any, but they still have the adhesive residue on them and it doesnt look good and I cant have logo screenprinted on them. I haven't found any shirts that hold up, I guess I could buy dickie style shirts new, but in the summer heat they are really hot from past experiences FYI when you buy the pants ask them how the sizes run, I get mine just a little bigger and they fit real well, but Im getting fat, so what I think is big is actually my real size now LOL The uniform pants are great thou from Walts and the delivery fee is cheap also JL

Get some used uniform pants wont get bleach spots or holes I have the same 12 pairs of pants & shorts from last march. Check out Walts www.usedworkclothing.com . Pants and shorts around $4.00 a pair Jeff

I use M-5 Xjet for everything I do, it gives me what ever concentration I want to mix. I have 5 M5's and we fly through condo complexes no matter how much mold & mildew there is. The adjustable M5 helps in tight areas also. I have 35-40 ft of hose on xjet you place the bucket or drum and can get a large area JL

I guess its about right then. I used to be able to get a rider on my policy for the tall stuff, not as of last month, my agents working on something so I can keep doing them, if I want. I just passed on 3 bids for high rises because of it. I got plenty of work to cover the cost of WC its just that my agent said it shouldnt be under concrete construction. Its just been a shock paying all the taxes & comp on 3 fulltime guys & myself. I pay what I have to and dont mind, just want to get the best rates

Steve CONGRATULATIONS to you, I'm sure you'll enjoy it. Its great you & your wife retiring together. Enjoy!!!! PS give me a call when your ready to sell your stuff!!!!!! Jeff

Oh ya have you been calling, writing, faxing & advertising. What have you been doing to get the work and whats working?

You know some days are great, somedays just OK and some are so so and then there are some that are just a PITA. Well Ive had them all this season so far. A bunch of little stuff has made some of my days just a pain. I'm just bitching & moaning a little, I'm having some tough times staying on top of it all. I am staying on top of it all and have no worry that I cant handle it all but wow what a day today was it started yesterday we started 17, 3-story condos, cleaning all buildings, plus all the gutters and dryer vent screens. We get there and signs are posted by PM company, The lift they delivered was an articulating lift, not a straight boom lift like I wanted, but I went with it because thats all they had, plus I had the lift my friend bought and thats a straight boom which I needed to boom over some obstacles. The rental lift we were only using for 1 day to get the gutters and then return it. Later in the day we go to 3rd & 4th building and no notices and theres windows open on many units, plus I have a couple people complaining that they werent notified. then rental lift blows hydraulic line fluid everywhere, lift down for 4 hours The PM said it was their fault the girl got sick and didnt post. We get through yesterday real well ,got 4 buildings done. Today get lifts running, get to keep rental lift for 1/2 day because of break down, Then my regular lift blows up . I go to move it and something breaks make loud noise and wont move in the middle of parking lot, Cant get it fixed for another day or 2, so I keep rental lift for the week now. I had to go meet a GM of a hotel, I get call from my guy telling me the lift sunk into the grass real bad. I get there its not that bad, but hacked up lawn a little, no problem a couple pieces of sod and we'll be ok. We drove all over yesterday no problem, Then I drive to the front of the same building I go to check the ground to see if its OK, Weird stuff I stood on the grass and it sinks & kind of wiggles, never seen any thing like it, So now I put to 3 ft extensions on wand and the hose blows, fix it, then a lady comes out and says we got her TV wet, well there was an open window and my guy didnt see it, wipe down TV no problem works fine, lady still barking in my ear. Rental lift now starts to make strange sound, they'll be there tomorrow to fix it. My earlier appointment calls and says they need the 1 day job done next week, I have work schheduled but he has to get it done because Wed they are digging up area I'll be working in to put a lazy river in, No problem, we start at 4AM next tuesday.. Then one of my guys has a leak on a gun cant get the quick conect to come off, bangs it off and he wants to change nipple , he trys to do it with one wrench, breaks a nice gun, no problem I ***** him out for bone head move. Trying to get last building of the day done and turn corner, cars in every spot cant get close enough with articulating lift. I call it a day, sometimes you just cant beat a bad day. THEN I call for another lift I want two lifts so I can get this job done ahead of schedule because I have other work popping up we need to get on. Sunbelt has NO more lifts in Little River, Myrtle Beach, Wilmington until next week, Call Hertz NONE call RSC NONE What the heck. Oh well I'll get it done. I've had a few days simular to this and I know these days will happen I just hate days like this. But I guess when your the King, somedays you have to expect to get thrown off the throne LOL. Sorry for the long babbling, boring post, I just wanted to get it out and complain Tomorrows another day See Ya JL

TODAY WENT GREAT, they fixed the lift and we got caught up, not a single problem today, YAY JL

The notice thing is a pain, I usually have some of my own just in case, but didnt have any today left them at home. I just tell the people to call PM Thanks Don my heads up, but sometimes I feel like Im on a battle field and should be keeping my head down. Got a ton of stuff just have to keep juggling and get it done with quality & on time, nothing i cant handle, just like a few easy days Just one of those days that sort of beat you up JL

Call me what you doing Thursday need small pool deck acid washed for prep. I know you do acid, I guess that didnt sound right.

I totally agree!!!! Good luck Ken JL

Rfitz,I have to agree with Jon you do quite often sound negative, last year I had residential waiting up to 2+months, thats becase I would do all the condo work 3 out of the 4 weeks in a month & I kept 1 week open for residential, we'd do 20-40 homes in that week. I just explained that its a busy time of year and 98% of the people waited, I lost a few but that it. Now if someone said there having a special event or selling their home I'd fit it in. As I've got busier with the commercial Ive been doing more over the phone estimates for residential, but I still like to as often as possible meet with the homeowner and form a relationship, it has paid off for me so many times with referalls. You never know who a homeowner is, they might own a business, know a PM etc etc and that one little house job could lead to something bigger. I think if you were more positive it might show to your customers even over the phone. I like to have the customer work for me residential & commercial, the more they like me and my work the more referalls and the better chance the referall will wait the month or 2 for you to do the job. I've seen what relationship building can do, I have several PM's that recommend me to other PM's & properties and to residential also. You've said PM's dont give a damn about us, I have to say in some cases maybe, but I have tons of PM's that try as hard as possible to get us on their projects and its because Ive worked on building a relationship, I have commercial projects well into May and they dont mind, some know to call ahead and ask to reserve a spot on my schedule. I know its easier for us Southern PW companies because of the waether than you guys up in northern areas, but I hope the weather gets better for you and I hope you go meet some of these people and let them know in a positive way that you want their business and how you will get to them asap Good luck everybody this year JL

I heard Soda Ash will neutralize Oxalic. I dont think I would bother, Id just rinse & rinse again

Hey barry, I'm not going to tell you not to try to get a fulltime job, you might find a good one. Barry let me tell you, you are smart do what you think is best. I feel for you Barry. Look for a job if you must but also try to get work PWing take your time and use it to your advantage, times are tense for you, but start in the next couple days and start knocking on doors. You can spend maybe 6 hours a day focusing on your PW biz. I think you mainly have done just resdential, how about going after commercial. If you can do residential you can do commercial. Start going to businesses fast food, restaurants, convenient store, look up PM companies etc. Dont be afraid of the big job you can do them too Make up some fliers on your computer residential & commercial and have them printed up and start dropping them off, mail them fax them what ever you have to do. SEND the 5000 card now and send more if you can and keep sending them, a few jobs a week and you'll have a pay check. I think we ALL believe in you Barry, we see you on the board asking inteligent questions , getting excited about the PW biz, you can do it, you have to! Wether you look for and get a full time job and do PWing on the side, you with a ood attitude can & will be your own boss someday, nothings real easy in life, but you can do this Like I said I feel for you and your wife and I already said a short prayer for you, so go do what you got to do and these upcoming nervous times when you cant sleep, work on your biz and then work on it more, fliers & knocking or doors is what you got to do I along with many others are rooting for you Jeff

I'm going to buy a portable machine this week, but I'll be using it off my tank most or all of the time I have 3 4gpm machines and my 5.6 and I use 3-4 of them everyday while doing the condos or any kind of work. So I want to buy the WaterCannon 5.6 portable to help speed up things over my 4 GPM machines I'm just not sure which 5.5 to buy. Water Cannon has a 5.5gpm at 3500psi 20HP portable its around $2100+ or they have a 5.5GPM only 13HP and only 2800psi , but its much less expensive $1370 Would be buying the lesser 13HP 2800 psi be a bad move, Im looking to use it for cleaning houses/condo complexes and running a 30" surface cleaner and rinsing Thats why I want the 5.5 Everybody always says its the GPM not the PSI, so whats the cons on the lesser expensive machine. Is a 13HP enough, will it last, and is 2800psi enough for what I need it for. I dont mind spending more money if I need to, but if I dont need to thats cool Thanks for any advise JL

Hey Jeff I'll give you a call tomorrow, I didnt know you worked for Dodge and thank you for the offer thats great of you to offer the help. Jeff

Ken what I showed you was the only real Xjet. What ever that clown wants to call that brass nozzle he sold you isnt a real Xjet, he's the same guy that told you the 6gpm was an 8gpm, I don't know if I'd beleive anything he says, Look at Xterior website they manufacture the Xjet Jeff

Thanks for the offer, but the Dodges are 7-9K more than the Chevy and i have some issues with Dodges as they get up arround 60 K of miles Thanks JL

Ya think:banana:

Matt, I understand what your saying also. Most of wood restoration isnt that hard or complicated at least the stripping or cleaning of wood when it comes to decks. Im talking about most decks that are bare or have oil semi transparent stain on them. My 1st deck I was very worried about doing it. I bought an SH product and Xjetted it on and then cleaned it and then applied Ox, I actually was pretty amazed how easy it was. I dont do a ton of wood, because of the time & weather factors, but Ive done probably 20+ decks and all but one was a pretty darn good experience, the one that was a nightmare had a solid stain on it and was real tough to clean. i suggest just go with what you've learned and try it Also theres at least a few wood folks with in some miles of you, maaybe if their willing , go work with them for a day or two and see for yourself that it isnt really all that hard to do Like I said I was amazed how after appling SH how easy the old stain came off and the apply the Ox the decks looked great, I felt like a pro, try it Good luck to you JL

I'm working on getting prices for 8GPM set up too, But the 5.5GPM is to add to my exsisting enclosed trailer to run off the same tank. The Condo King is working on alot of stuff, want to give me a loan Hopefully will have or will have ordered a new Chevy 2500 HD with in the next few weeks Buying the portable 5.5 for enclosed traler & reel re-setting up my small open trailer 6X10 for residential work, need to put my 4gpm machine and have it set up and plumbed with a float tank so I can put the cold 5.5 on it and 1 of the 4 gpm, need reels for that too Pricing 8GPM open trailer rig but want to do it right, want Rhino Liner on bed of it, all the other stuff that goes with it Plus we should be breaking ground on the new house in the next week or 2. Building a house is a big money pit, but its going to be almost everything I ever wanted in a house Now when I open my check book theres a big SUCKING SOUND Anybody want to buy stock in JL PWing:lgsideway Need truck 1st and will be ordering 5.5 machine and the new house is very important Oh Ya the medica bills and charges for my pregnant wifey Sometimes the Condo King feels like the court jester:lgsad: :lgbonk: I'm not complaining (not much) just alot going on By the way I'm going with the 5.5 3500 20HP JL How life has changed from 6,7, 8 years ago, back then I was just trying to figure out which bar to go to and if I was going to get any ladies to take home and party party party. I wouldnt give up the life i have now for anything, well Swedish womens swim team maybe, Ah I couldnt get them back in the day, I know I cant get them now. I'll stay with what I got LIFE IS GOOD!!!!

I heard from Ken a few days ago and after talking to a couple of the distributers on this board and getting advise from them , the company Ken bought the rig from has made right on the equipment I hear. I think Ken got a new pump 8.5 put on and they will warranty everything. Its to bad we hard working people have to put up with some of this stuff, but I guess it happens Last time i heard from Ken a day or 2 ago he was washing some concrete and everything was going OK Good luck Ken And to the companies that dont offer good service or products to us PWers watch out the word will get around. We dont want stuff for free we just want the best products, service and a honest business to deal with. On the infomation highway the word can travel fast. JL