RyanH

neither are appropriate. With all the controversy over whether or not it should be "a lot" or "alot," the consensus is that the term is slang either way and should be avoided except in casual circumstances. Suggested replacements are: many, a great deal, etc.

to: I'm going TO the store. to: We are going TO do it. too: We have TOO much. too: I'm TOO hungry TO go without eating for TOO long.

No. New home is still under construction. I'm finding new errors everyday, including two major structural deviations. The builders are going to hate me when this is all over! No, house we're in now is 1960's. If this is any indication....there not one scrap of plywood to be found in it! Wish I could say the same for the new house......

I have a water faucet in a bathroom in a part of the house neither my wife nor I ever use. Every once in awhile we'll walk upstairs and it'll be running fully open. No joke. With no one else in the house, we can't figure it out. I'm just at the point where I walk in there, turn it off, say to whatever did it to "knock it off or I'll leave all the lights on" (since ghosts don't have functional eyelids and sleep would be a b*tch afterall). Supwidat?

Hey...didn't that time machine have a cameo in Napolean Dynamite? Sounds like he took Stephen King's "Monkey Shine" and changed the characters a little and threw in a little Wes Craven flavor. A fool and his money are soon parted, as they say. I'm with philip...good marketing!

Not exactly sure what an "air gap filler" is. I've never heard that term. And I don't know why Clayton County would require any special setup on this stuff...my experience with CC government is that they wouldn't have a clue what they were looking at anyway. Most of my work is in Henry. I'll send pics of how mine is setup. It ain't pretty, but it works.

Since combining the chems for each job will not only diminish their intended effects but also be EXTREMELY dangerous in some cases, you should keep them in their own containers. As for what works best....there is a plethora of information already posted and reposted in other areas of the board. Use the "Search" function at the top of the page and type in what you want and you're sure to find many answers. For example: gutter cleaner wood stripper stain stripper housewash mix roof cleaner degreaser glass cleaner etc.....

Philip, I just installed my water shutoff the other day and it works beautifully on my 20 gallon tank....no problem why it won't work on your big tote. http://www.kencove.com/ShopDetail.php?recordID=VHV These guys had it to me within a few days. I paid somewhere around $35 after shipping and everything. You will have to pick up a few PVC fixtures to connect everything but it shouldn't be more than $2 or $3 for everything. It's a direct bouyant valve, has no mechanical parts to move and wear out, and responds very quickly. They claim it is good up to 150 psi, so it should work fine for your application. Call me if you'd like for any questions...I'm available after around 6 pm. Ryan 7704907610

Micheal, Yes, you would encounter various conditions. That's the idea behind calibrating it. You would probably want the probes to be very close together. You would also use a table relating wood types and moisture content to the resistance indicated by the meter. If I were going to do any kind of wood work though, I'd just buy the moisture meter. The research they've already done (in the booklet Beth mentions) is worth the cost of the unit itself once you factor in how long it would take you to do the calibration. It was just and idea...sometimes I like to think about useless things :)

Moisture would be measured by a moisture meter. pH (litmus) paper will tell you whether or not the liquid on the wood is an acid or a base. Hmm....I wonder if a homemade moisture meter can be made from a multimeter reading resistance (available at sears for much less than a moisture meter). One would only need to calibrate it.....

Collard greens, deviled eggs (wise name, eh?), and those kick a$$ cadbury cream eggs. Hooyeah!

Go to a local janitorial supply store. They usually rent out decent quality carpet cleaning machines. I paid around $30/day for one here before I finally bought the rental unit from them.

The shurflo in my carpet cleaner puts out around 60 psi, but the actual amount you should look for depends upon the type/length hose you intend to use and the tips you want. A van mounted unit will be able to put out much more than this but you can (and will) tune it down.

Sounds like my cousin. He was making skateboards in junior high, guitars in high school, violins, cellos and some REALLY fancy exotic wood furniture since. Top notch quality with no formal training. I think since then he's turned his attention to masonry work. Amazing stuff, though none of it made it to me. It's cool when people like these guys seem to have these amazing natural talents. i'm more respective of that type of talent than just about any other personal trait.

***Nevermind....found good info through the link Reed provided above*** Original post: Any info on where one can buy ipe or cedar or other hardwood lumber? I've "googled" around my area but just can't seem to find anything. Are there speciality lumber yards that service regions or is it just more available in different areas of the country? PT pine seems to be all I can find here.

Ethanedioic acid...same as oxalic acid. ethanedioic is the "official" IUPAC name and oxalic acid is the common name (like muratic is the common name for hydrochloric acid).

Many years ago a gentleman by the name of Guthrie did a lot of studies and reviewed a lot of data from various industries and came up with many heuristics (guidelines) for getting a general idea of pricing something. For example, he developed an easy way to predict the cost of a water pump based upon materials of construction, desired flowrate, what it would be pumping (water, gasoline, oil, etc.), how it is driven (electric, steam, etc.), and some other inputs. He looked at pricing guides from suppliers and put together relations to allow someone who wanted to buy a pump to come up with a ballpark figure of what it would cost. By itself it may seem like a waste of time, but the point is to be able to come up with how much a large project will cost before ever putting a shovel in the ground (like if you wanted to build a water sanitizing plant, for example). Now, with all of that hullabaloo out of the way, here's the question. Would anyone here be interested in sharing some of their prices (either publicly or privately) for the purpose of applying the same procedure to the pressure washing industry? I know that many people have their own method of charging (based upon area, perimeter, surface materials, etc.), but this would be an effort to make an all-purpose where all parameters can be taken into account (how dirty is the surface, is water readily available, etc.). It could also be useful in commercial or industrial applications if someone is trying to design a site to be easy to maintain and clean in the future. My ultimate goal of this would be to publish the final heuristics to be available to everyone (more as a matter of education than fixed values). Understandably, things like region and location also have an affect. I would provide the guidelines and what exactly I'm looking for as well as accept input and opinions. I am trying to put a poll here so if it goes well and I can get some input I would be GREATLY appreciative. Some of the variables to be taken into account will be: Surface material (vinyl, stucco, brick, asphalt, concrete, marble, stone, etc.) Type of cleaning (house, parking lot, driveway, kitchen, apartments, garage) Chemicals used Recovery needed Availability of water Cost of travel (may include vehicle/trailer type/weight, taxes, fuel, etc.) Danger involved (roof top, 1/2/3/more floors) Severity of gutter work (pine straw, leaves, streaking) Anomalies (bird droppings, repairs to damage) I'll give more details depending upon how the poll goes. This effort will include input from ALL type of work seen on this board, not just a pressure washing effort. Many thanks, and I hope this will one day turn into a helpful instrument for the industry. Ryan H.

Found a good deal (I hope) on a PW today...3000 psi 5.5 gpm 2yrs old. Cranked up and sounds nice. Has moderate rust on the frame and gas tank but motor and pump look really good. K7 unloader. Belts look new. I'll either have to clean out or replace the gas tank as it has some rust inside. Other than that it seems pretty good. Gave $650 for it. Good deal? Bad deal? I'm curious what other's think. I've got two jobs for this weekend that will pay for this thing so atleast I won't be sitting in debt with it. I can't wait to crank it up and see what it's got for a big job. Hopefully it'll make my 30" surface cleaner work a little better than the old 4gpm.

Degraffreed, I had the HD special 3600psi 4gpm. Made lots of money off it and did some fantastic jobs, but if I had known how much better the 5.5 gpm was (and belt drive for better suction and draw), I would have done it LONG ago.

Ignorance really shouldn't be an excuse. Rampant pleading of ignorance and fallability is what has made our society so litigous. Companies/supervisors, when it comes down to it, are people. Just plain human, and humans make mistakes, humans can be stupid, and humans can be ignorant. I don't put my life in jeopardy at the sake of trusting someone else's abilities. Now, I do admit that I fly on planes and use my doctors advice, but I also look at track history and records. Try to make informed decisions, otherwise your (not YOUR, but in general) stupid (or unfortuante) mistakes are the equivalent of sprinkling a little chlorine in the gene pool. And again I stress, I do feel bad for the guy and hope the best for him. His company should have verified that provided products are safe to use. I just don't like the premise that people automatically assume that everything they are handed is safe without question. Once upon a time there was such a thing as protecting oneself and I hate to see that that ideal is falling way to "others must protect me."

Well, I ran it today for quite awhile. It pulls very well and puts out fantastically. My surface cleaner never ran so well. Quoted two jobs today that will pay for the machine easily and I'll be able to knock both out in the same day now that the cleaner will work properly.

Just because I don't want a large footprint I'm going to try and do it with my 20 gallon. If that doesn't work, I have access to 55 gallon drums I can use..I mainly want to keep the weight in my trailer down as low as possible. I think I stressed my axle carrying around my 250 gallon full and I don't want to do anymore damage. I'll post on how it works when I get it setup. Hopefully I'll have it by next week.

Cool. Called them up...very nice folks. It's on it's way. Thanks alot Don.

I feel bad for the guy, but this is were I get really pissed off with people. The suit is claiming that he was never properly trained in the use of the chemical nor told of the dangers. Well, self preservation should be top on EVERYONE's list. If I'm given a task to do or a chemical to use, or equipment to run, etc., I make sure that I ask every possible question about it, read over an MSDS, check it for compounds I know to be hazardous. I mean, come on, who doesn't know that alcohols are flammable??? I wish people would start taking more self responsibility before things like this happen. And en employer can't train me or refuses to pay for training, then why do the job? It's just not worth it. Sorry. But I hope he gets better and --this the most important--that everyone who reads this article will learn from it. Again....PLEASE LEARN FROM OTHERS' MISTAKES. Now, there should be no more excuses. peace out.

Dan, Try a few searches for "roof cleaning" and you'll get some pretty good threads on techniques, chemicals, and safety gear. Alot of what you do depends upon the types of roofs you do. For roofs, you look pretty good on price if they are walkable...I'd add atleast a $100 premium for roofs where extra safety and climbing gear is required. From what others have said about decks, you look to be WAY underpriced on your deck prices, even if you are taking the easiest road and only spraying with bleach or other mildewcide and leaving it to dwell. Try the search feature for "deck cleaning" and you should find plenty. As for your timing and pricing....there's nothing inherently wrong with using the washer you are using, but realize that it is going to take you an extremely long time to complete a job like that. Even with my 4gpm it took me about 8 hours to do a complete 3000 sq. two floor house (plus gutters, windows, trim, etc.). It's not my business to tell you what you should be charging because there are 101 opinions for every 100 people on this forum on that issue, but I think you would do better to figure out how long it takes you to complete a job and charge according to the size (indirectly charging by your time). It looks much better to a customer to charge by the area instead of how long it takes you to do it....if you've ever worked alongside a sloth or a workhorse, you know that time is subjective to do the same job. If you are efficient you are going to be severely undercharging...if you are sluggish you are going to have a low perception of your efforts. Just a thought. And most every homeowner will balk if you tell them you charge $80 or $100 per hour, but if that's what it works out to and your charge was based upon the job size, they won't say much (go figure).