RyanH

with VOCs the flammable vapors evaporate. This has a cooling effect in addition to removing the flammable substance from the cloth/paper/etc and effectively drying the chemical. With lower VOCs the residual flammables retain the liquid solvents and heat (higher heat capacity than the dry cloth) and, like philip said, oxidize faster than the heat can be dissipated by other means (evaporation, convection, etc.). Nice work, EPA! Save a few birds or trees or whatever the VOCs are responsible for damaging in exchange for causing spontaneous combustion. No, there aren't dangerous byproducts when stacks of rags or ENTIRE VEHICLES/BUILDINGS burn! For crying out loud, if the EPA wants to stop VOCs build a processing space around farms to catch cow farts.

Sodium Chloride is common table salt. Go to a grocery store and buy it in various quantities. I'm pretty sure it has to be mixed with a mild acid (like citric acid) to work. Xterior claims their X-Crete will clean copper when mixed with sodium chloride. http://www.xterior.com/html/chemicals_2.html

Decks? No no no no no no no!!! (Okay, I was on a Queen tangent). Seriously though, I would never use a surface cleaner on a deck. I don't do many decks, but of the ones I have I've found that it's best to keep a consistent pattern when cleaning, typically along the grain. A surface cleaner cleans in all directions and would cause too many overlaps. On concrete overlaps aren't a big deal because clean is clean (meaning that once an area is clean, you can overlap as many times as you'd like and never be able to see a difference). With wood, each time you make a pass the soft surface is attacked. Besides, with the proper chemicals the stuff on a deck should melt off with a wand and clean up faster than using a surface cleaner and then having to go back and get the sides/corners with a wand. There's also the issue of wood needing much less pressure, but I think you can get tips for lower pressure.

I have a 30" Steel Eagle spinner. Before I bought my 5.5 gpm machine, I was ready to toss it from a moving vehicle (was using 4 gpm for awhile). Afterwards though, I love it. I can clean at a rate of 1000 square feet per hour on really tough concrete surfaces (LOTS of dirt/mold/mildew/grime). I can clean a lightly soiled driveway at twice that rate. If you get one, make sure you couple it with a reasonable machine; i.e., I wouldn't get a monster 30" for a 4gpm, but something like a 18 or 20". As for being a worthwhile investment, I can do the same flat surface work in abotu 15% of the time as doing it with a wand, the customers think it looks really cool, and I'm not hesitant to "low ball" a driveway if I'm already in the neighborhood doing other work. If someone comes up and wants their driveway done, I'll gladly do it for $50 - $75 (figuring a 500 - 1000 sq. foot driveway) because I know I can be in and out less than an hour.

Hut wartuh too.

Technically all she has is a claim that her plants were fine before you arrived and dead when you left. Considering that there have been no issues with other properties in the area, and that your methods are consistent, and that the method you used on her house is identical to the methods used on the other houses, there should be no disputing the fact that you were not solely responsible for the damage to her property, unless every other property had something special done to their property to prevent whatever you did from damaging it. You will have to verify the premises as being true, but it should be an easy syllogism to propose to her (modus tollens or modus ponens, I believe) and for her to accept, providing she can follow logically constructed arguments. If she can't, that's when you need the recorder so you can capture her incorrigibility for all to hear should she decide to take you to small claims court over the issue.

Snagged mine from Beth&Rod awhile back for around $115.

...Thanks.

So I don't sound like a goob when I call asking for ipe, is it pronounced I-P-E seperately, or all together, like the ipe in "stripe," or is it like "ipey."

White surfaces reflect heat/light. We've had dry conditions in GA for awhile (dirt is cracked and dry even two days after three days of heavy rainfall). That grass looks like a thin-blade variety, which are typically not very heat tolerant in the south. Is it possible that the burn is a result of the house reflecting a huge portion of heat onto the grass? I know it sounds preposterous, but consider this: while walking around the yard at the house we're building, I felt a sudden blast of heat. Two steps forward, and everything felt fine. Took two steps back, and it was very hot again. I looked at the house and one of the windows was reflecting the sunlight. Being the goober I am, I was carrying a thermocouple in the car at the time (use it on my day job). The dirt in the area catching the reflection was almost 25 degrees warmer than the surrounding area, and there was a very fast fall-off of temperature around the area (conduction through the dirt). My point is that the reflection was enough to raise the temperature of that particular area by a significant amount and it was a very sharply defined region. Perhaps you are seeing a similar situation.

Part timer here. I have another full time job with benefits, good pay, and very stable. Working part time because I enjoy the work, but work primarily for referrals and past customers. My rig ain't pretty but the combination of equipment I have allows me to be more efficient than many full-timers and handle any situation that will come up with residential cleaning.. I love being outside and working on the weekends, the money is good, so I keep it up. There are enough full-timers out there....I enjoy my day job so much I wouldn't think of leaving it, and I also don't want to disrupt the full-timers work. I charge a little more than a "pro" also, so it makes it worth my while to keep it up.

Shurflo is self priming. 1.6gpm with 60psi has enough static pressure to get to the top of a 30' roof and still have enough oomph to spray on.

How long have the spots been there? When I used to do cleaning, if a wet mat was left on a floor I had waxed (acrylic finish), it would leave a white mark where the mat was for a few days and slowly disappear. Maybe it has something to do with the length of exposure?

Mixing tip: a mixer (whether wooden stick or fancy drill "beater") works much better if you incline it in the bucket, say around 30 degrees off vertical, rather than straight down in the bucket. You will mix faster and more thoroughly like this and avoid having to continue changing your "angle of attack" or reversing direction.

Personally, I wouldn't want anything with the word "benzyl" in it. Benzene is a known carcinogen.

Taxes are basically two parts: income and deductions. You claim every penny you earn from performing your service as income. You deduct every cost of doing that business as a deduction. You pay taxes on the difference of those two values. Things you purchase directly for the business such as chems, fuel (for the machine), ladders, computers, cell phone, advertisement, etc. are 100% deductible if used solely for your business. Other things like vehicles, a home office (as a small business you should ALWAYS claim a home office if you pay a mortgage...rental doesn't count), fuel for your vehicle, large equipment purchases, taxes on your property, taxes you collected/paid back in the form of sales tax, state tax, etc. are all deductible but only to a certain degree. Somethings (like large equipment, vehicles) must be depreciated over time and are not 100% deductible your first year of use. From doing my own taxes since Day One and being involved in my own business, I can tell you that you should 1.) Go out and buy a tax program (I use Turbo Tax but others will work too) and 2.) Document EVERYTHING!!! Make copies of your checks, keep copies of invoices, and organize every receipt, even if it's for a $0.29 screw...it all adds up. The program will walk you through everything and tell you where to send your form and payment. It's overwhelming at first (and will downright **** you off when you see that "Amount you owe" value creeping up) but is doable and you'll get the hang of it. That's just paying the taxes on the business. You then have to pay taxes on your personal income (if you're smart, you'll have a total of $0 left over for your business after paying yourself and deducting expenses, atleast in the first few years), social security (you'll get raped on this as a small business). Check with the SSA on social security measures as the Tax programs typically only handle taxes, not SS, medicaire, FICA, etc. Unless you collect in cash and don't report all of your income, you will most likely understand why so many acheivers despise our current tax system. Contact your local representatives and tell them you want a FairTax, then you can ignore EVERYTHING I wrote above should it ever go through because it will no longer be necessary to keep up with all that crap. RH

buzzy, could you possibly post some pictures of this? I will most likely be encountering a similar problem in the next few months. Sorry I can't help out now, but I'd like to learn from your trials. RH

The way financing is typically done is just like you mentioned with the furniture store...they sell the loan to a financer. Actually, calling it a sale isn't exactly proper....The financer will get a portion of the payment and the store will get the remainder. They have to do this for those that actually pay off the loan in time and don't accrue interest. You would have to set this type of service up with the lenders in advance and they will have to approve the loan for each customer based upon the repair amount and their credit rating. You would also have to roll their cost of taking the loan into your selling price. I don't know the actual value, but based upon the financing I've done in the past on my own consumer goods it isn't too high.

Welcome. For commercial cleaning, I charged between $12 and $25 per 1000 square feet. I've seen companies have all different types of pricing structures. Personally, I prefer to charge a constant fee and offer an all-inclusive service. This might include carpet cleaning, floor stripping/waxing/buffing, wall touch-ups (if they provide the paint), etc. The level to which this needs to be done will determine the unit cost per foot. For a basic office building with trash cans, bathrooms, and vacuuming I charged around $12 per 1000 square feet. I was in and out in no time. For a larger customer who hosted wedding and catering functions, had a full size kitchen, LOTS of carpet to vacuum, tile floors to be buffed every weekend, and kitchen tile to be degreased and scrubbed weekly, my fee was around $25 per 1000 square feet. This one required alot of work overall than the office, so I charged accordingly. For residential, the best rule is to clean like you do before you have company over to spend the weekend with you. You know, making sure you don't leave hair in the corners of the bathroom, dusting the shelves behind the pictures, cleaning the tops of fan blades, maybe vacuuming air filters, etc. The price you charge here will be much less than commercial on an hourly basis and will be determined by the customers perceived idea of quality and depth of cleaning. From my experience, I would NEVER touch another residential property. Commercial cleaning isn't bad, though. Once you can buy the big equipment to service multiple accounts (floor buffer, carpet extractor, etc.), you can really start making money. I was cruising along at $45 - $55 per hour at my height. Not as good as pressure washing, but then again the skills and equipment involved aren't as specialized. Feel free to call me if you have any questions. I still remember a few tricks of the trade. I'll be available Saturday. Ryan 770-490-7610

Milky oil is a sign of water mixed in with the oil.

Best to paint the smallest area first then go back and paint the largest area. The guys who painted my house did it the other way around. Airless sprayer will inevitably get paint in unintended places (any wind can carry it) and you will get light spotting elsewhere. It's easier to go back and touch up by hand the smaller areas like trimwork than trying to touch up a large wall. If I were to do my house (which I will most likely do in a few years) I will be painting the trim first with an airless (taping off the glass on the windows and gutters and shutters), then tape those off once they have dried and go back to paint the broad side of the house. Remove the tape, and I have any overspray on the trim I'll go back and touch them up.

I kept a raincoat in my toolbox for the times I used the backpack sprayer for this very reason (chemicals on my back). The coat's trashed now, but it saved me many times over. Tip: If you do decide to go with a backpack sprayer or similar arrangement where the seals are at the bottom of the reservoire and are in constant contact, it's a good idea to empty the chemical out before putting it up for storage, even on the drive home. Some butyl cleaner chewed through my Viton seals overnight and made a mess of things (I forgot I had it in there by the end of the day and left it).

The concrete alone would run between $100 and $130 in my pricing range. The home I would charge between $175 and $300 depending upon the number of windows and accessibility and severity of gutter streaking. I wouldn't touch the deck for less than $300. For $150 the homeowner should understand that the property will look good from the road (maybe that's all they want) but they won't be impressed when they look out their windows or walk around the house. Unless the $150 guy is an anomaly who will do a good job and isn't looking to make high dollar. They are rare, but they do exist.

Here are of the few before / after pics I've taken recently....some are older scans from a 35mm some are new with the digi cam. In all of these cases, I just cleaned with 6% bleach applied with a shurflo pump at 60 psi. You can see from two of the pics the distance and spray pattern I use. One of the roofs looks like the shingles are curling....I guess that's what 40 year old shingles do in the southern sun! At any rate, they were like that *before* I got to them.

The precaution was not to save the pump. Something to do with electric pumps having a tendency to spark with loose connections, and those pesky VOCs tendency to ignite from those sparks. Shurflos cautions, not mine. Personally, I think it would look pretty cool to jet some fuel and ignite it!