Jeff

I agree on more frequent cleaning, thats how I do all the banks i do, I do them every six months building and all walkways. There is hardly anything to clean off them. It takes half the time to clean them then the first time. I do alot of complexes and it wouldnt be cost effective for me to do them in such detail, althou egg stains (Halloween is soon), I do use ladder and hand wash. Everyone has thier best way to do things. Id like to see you work some day Everitt I dont get the ates you folks get up north. I know I use to get good money for house washing many years ago in Mass. JL

Everett, you use ladders and extension poles on all your house washings. Isnt that a real pain and can you get every area that well. Im sure you do great work of course, but it seems like to much work and a better chance of injury being on a ladder so much. Ive seen guys that use ladders all over a house and it seems that you actually would see less, because you are so close to the house. I get customers all the time that tellme thier house has never been done so well and the last guy did it with a ladder and didnt get the peaks well at all. I use a ladder if I have to but, I like the Xjet and sometimes chem. injecter, with know problem at all and if theres a problem with siding, popping off, which there very rarley is, its always because of crappy instillation. Im not putting down the way you do it, it just seems like alot of extra work for me, If I was to do it that way. I can get the same clean results from my cleaning and usually the customers are amazed at the Xjet at work

To bad your first customer is a PITA, but really dont let it frustrate you to much, if you know you did a good job, just move on. I figure if the other company he's talking about did such a great job, why didnt he have them do it this time. You'll be nervous for quite a few jobs to come, if your just starting out. Its natural. But as you do more jobs and learn technique and what to look for it gets easier. After a dozen or so houses that your happy with, it will get you some confindence. Hey you might even make some mistakes, but your lucky you have these BBS's to come to. Ask questions all you want before and after jobs. Everybody is willing to help I'm sure How do you do your house washes. Do you Xjet, what kind of chems are you useing and whats the ratio Good luck JL

Sometimes the weep holes you cant avoid this happening and you just have to let it dry a little then hit them again quick or if it isnt everywhere you can just brush the debris off. Like you said just ry to avoid shooting them as for the bug poop you cant get off, Do you know about Shotgun/artillary fungus. it looks simular, but is impossible or near impossible to get off, its a fungus that can shot up to 20-30 feet and it can come from a bad batch of mulch. Its usaully tiny like black/brown spot and you can pick it off with your finger and it will still have a stain left behind it. Scrubbing doesnt touch it. Do a google search on Shotgun Fungus , theres some articles out there about this stuff, as soon as i see it I point it out to the customer and tell them i cant do anything about it and I tell them to look it up on computer

I see no need to spend the money if your a one man operation or are using temp help. if you are never required to have it for a job. why would you want w/c, just to spend money I have W/C because it is required on many of my jobs plus I have employees and of course i would want the protection for me & them. it doesnt cover me, but I sure wouldnt want a guy to get hurt bad and not have the protection or come after me directly to coverhis medical. In S. Carolina you arent required to have it if you have 3 employees or under. If I have one guy part time I would want it. It cost me $900.00 up front, that covers up to $4000 in payroll and then after that I think its right around $13.80 per $100 payroll. I put up more $$ this year to cover up more payroll, and I'll have to pay more at audit time. My accountant tells me every payroll what to have in payroll account to cover that and taxes, uneployment etc etc I do think having W/C helps with getting work i use it as a selling tool when i advertise, in fliers, when Im talking to businesses etc. the good thing about W/C and employees is that, as long as you haveW/C an empoyee cant sue you, unless theres gross negligance(sp)on my part. Althou the employee could try to sue everyone else , the property etc. I also get alot of request to have properties put on my liabilty ins. as Additional Insured. I get charged by my insure company an additional charge of $106 per additional isured and I put that in any proposal, so if they want to be listed, they pay the $106 not me. W/C is good, no employee should have to worry if his job injury is going to be covered. I was in a major work accident and it cost over a few hundred thousand $$$ in medical and all was paid by W/C and Im always covered if I have problems in the future with my old Injusry and I probably will need surgery in the future years. they tried to pay me off, during, mediation so i wouldnt come back at them in ater years , I passed on taking the extra money and said I want the coverage in later years. They will try to get out of it the cheapest way they can see, during a mediation. These pictures are why W/C is a good thing. If I wasnt covered and I couldnt get money from a company, I would of had be obligated to pay. I wasnt and W/C paid. I didnt sue the company I worked for but we sued everyone else that was at fault this is what happens when a train comes through your work containment and you drop hand & head 1st, 20+ feet OUCH. Like they say its not the fall that hurts its the sudden stop:lgsick:

Dirty & clean pics with Oxalic applied

No I dont rinse the concrete after, I see no need to. Only thing i suggest, is to wet the grass as a precaution, althou Ive never had a problem with overspray hurting grass. I once burnt a spot where i spilt some and didnt dilute it Also if you are using any 12% say on the house wash then you do the driveway with Oxalic, make sure you rinse the 12% off real good before applying Ox. Ive seen the 2 mixed and sometimes it leaves a yellowish drip looking stain.

My little army man. He's such a good boy. I love being a Dad. I bought this little army set up the day my wife & I found out we were having a boy. He's going to be an Army man for halloween, I figured this was time to give it to him

Josh Mike from Monsters Inc last year, Kids are great arent they

No acid stain just plain concrete & irrigation rust. If I took a picture when completly dry it would look almost perfectly white. it brightens up real nice. In this one neighborhood I do around 50-60 driveways every year or so. They take no time at all , there not very big

I mix 4lbs to a 5 and xjet on concrete. For application on the house i cut it down to almost half & rinse after

I love oxalic it just makes a world of difference The house with rust , I didnt get rust off the window, I tell the homeowner it could etch the window, it usually wouldnt but could so i leave up to them to say do it or not, these people chose not to have it removed from window,

Thanks he's priceless. He's been out past 2 halloweens, but this one I know he'll really enjoy

Newheights I'm adding more house washes for those days, get ready to work, LOL. you can help part of day or all day its up to you. These are all real basic and easy houses to wash, 1400-2000+ sq ft, apply & rinse, maybe some gutter shock & rust removal, a driveway or 2. Im trying to get at least one roof job, cant get ahold of the people to see if I can reschedule it

I only have used a few companies chem one local and RPC chems. Steve Rowlett has some great concrete cleaners and he has real good customer support, His # is 1-800-357-6295. call him good luck

Mike you are just knocking out those wood jobs, your work is great! I love to see the pictures, keep them coming

What you doing in MB 11/7, more of that complex, maybe we'll meet up, we'll see Im getting busy. Just got off the phone with JD, it looks like he'll be coming around 10/26 and stay about 4-5 days. Im looking forward to helping him out.

I'd take Newlook up on his offer, learn from the experienced. Leasing is a great idea. Steve Rowlett could get you everything you need 4 gpm machine xjet and all the other odds and ends and could put it on a lease program for short monthly payments.

Hey JD, I have have golf clubhouse & exterior of horse barn & alot of concrete to clean 10/24 & 10/25, 26th some concrete & pavers and odds & ends, Then the 28th, 29th, 30th at least 4 houses each day. If you want to come to SC if thats cool with you and theres some cheap hotel prices this time of year. No decks or roofs at all, but you never know Or the 31st we are suppose to start a belks Dept store for about a week, If Nov is better for you call me I have almost half of that month scheduled JL

Monday we went to start a big job at a Golf course, about a 4 day job, They wanted me to do the clubhouse & surrounding areas on Monday because it was closed. I got to the guard gate and told him we are going to clean clubhouse. He said are you sure, theres a big tourament. Well i got there and there were people everywhere and the head of maint. came over saying I'm sorry. He said he screwed up. YAAAA,. I said lets do the pool area or restaurant, cant do it they have things going on. What a PITA, then he said how about the equestrian area, I said lets go!. halfway there he pulled over and said SORRY, I almost felt bad for the guy, He said they have 8 horses to shoe and the PW will spook the horse. what a PITA. We gave up, so I called some residential customers and asked if I could do thier houses a week early , Sure so I got 3 houses to do and I got 1 call to do a small drive way. and we did another driveway Ive been waitng to clean and seal,That all went OK until my 4 gpm machine died for a while. Got that all done, MONDAY was over what a PITA day it was. Tuesday we had a job to clean out and do iron stain removal on a good sized Lazy river at a large hotel, for a guy that gets me a ton of work. Got there at 8, the lazy river was half full still. what a PITA, so we went to seal a large driveway we, sealed the driveway and headed back to lazy river . Pump lost prime and he couldnt get it going. What a PITA, He rented a couple of sump pumps. I had several estimates to do so I went and started those. Then I got a call from a lady who we did her house Monday. When we did her house she said the last time the windows were cloudy, I never have problems with windows. Well she said her front windows were cloudy again. What a PITA, I told her we'd get over today. Lazy river still not empty a 3:00 pm went and scrubbed windows, they were cloudy, just the front main window, What a PITA, she was saying we must of forgot to rinse them., Well as I rinsed them I noticed white paint running off vinyl trim. They had put cheap paint on the trim and ran right off. I told her husband and , he was OK with it. 5:30PM finally Lazy river empty except for about 8 inches at one end , we started rust removal and was going good, until we got to the end with water, What a PITA. Well we used a roto nozzle and water was everywhere. We got it done at 8:15, Went home and helped my wife clean house because we are having Birthday party for her dad, Tonight/Wednesday, What a PITA. Then I had to pick up my son at my moms house at 10:30pm, had a shower & dinner and in bed by Midnight. Well I woke up at 3AM with a nasty cold, coughing, stuffed up and feeling like ----, What a PITA!!!. Its now 7AM and Im going to start the big Golf course job. I hope today gets better than the last couple day I just wanted to complain to someone, What a PITA I am See ya later cough, cough, sniffle, sniffle , waaaaa, waaaa I hope everyone else is having a better week!

NO WILMA, BAD WILMA, now the would be a big PITA, Thanks for the offer. Thanks everyone, still feel like ----, but work went great!!!!

NICE WORK, got to love the surface cleaner

Just drop them. Just make sure they're stamped. Good luck

Lays chips & french onion dip. Shrimp cocktail about a pound of it and cocktail sauce with alot of horseradish GO PATS!!!

The first year or two your a newbie and during and after that time, you should have the basic knowledge and experience to handle any project you choose to take on. If your in this biz for some time whether its a part-time or full-time I think there is always something to learn and challeges to take on.