MudDuck

Armstrong Clark has a clear too. Also they have a very light cedar tone and a natural tone that you might get away with due to it just about looks like natural wood but give you some added UV protection. Or do a 50/50 and get just a hint of natural cedar coloring. Then you can come back every year with the Natural Toner for maintenance.

Where can you get V seal? Anyone have a websight.

Don't break the bank on advertising because at 400.00 mo your going backward not forward. What you bid make sure you charge on the upper end of pricing because you can't afford to just "break even", on that your waisting your time. There are lots of great margin jobs out there just market to them mostly. Save the "break even" jobs for family and friends for experience. Do some research on these bbs's and you'll find a lot of guys learn to make more money working less by marketing to higher end clients and not trying to compete with low ballers. I think that is good advice for start ups too. Gives you time to go slow and learn while not screwing something up. But for Gods sake don't take a job thats over your head. Start out 1 job a day and take all day if you need to. Resist the urge to start low balling.

At those prices he's just splashing some Clorox and Dawn on everything, grabbing check and jetting off. Educate every customer you talk to whether you get the bid or not. Do it DURING your bid walk around. Tell them about low ballers and the liability's associated with them IE,,there home owners insurance responsibility if this guy gets hurt on there roof. Is his "low price" REALLY realistic? Meaning do YOU really think he is making a living on that OR is he just working for beer money? I'm telling you thats a 350.00 job and he's going to do it for 99.99?!! You want THAT guy on your property? He's NOT buying the proper chems nor is he using them in the proper strength because he doesn't want to take the chance on tearing something up. Your place is not getting as clean as you expect it to be because of this and you wont know it until next year when you find out that it needs to be cleaned again because this guy did a half arse job last year. I like to kinda "throw" up to them when discussing quality that "I see you have a BMW out there in the drive and you have a 5K flat screen / surround sound system in the living room, or a 3K set of washer and dryer there. You paid dearly for those things because you expect quality. There are what we call low ballers out there who will do it for beer money but don't trust your most expensive investment to save less than the CD collection out there in your car cost you. Its NOT worth it"

Yea a lot of the crete put down for drives these days is almost white and any marks show up really bad. If you can't get it totally clean look into some of the concrete stains they have out there now. Put some light color on it then seal it.

Matt to to AC web sight at armclark.com there are some pics there of some jobs using blends and I think theres one that is 50% red wood 50% cedar tone that would look great on that job. If you have any questions call Jake Clark, he's very approachable. AC is great stuff.

High pressure surface cleaner? NO chems? 250.00 for a roof?!!! STOP and do some research. Dude, don't get on ANY roof for 250.00. Your going to have upwards of 100.00 just in cost. Your waisting your time at 150.00 pmi per job. Theres a lot of guys on here that have phd's in been there done that and no one uses those methods or prices for a reason. You can't compete with low ballers so don't try. You don't want their prices equated to your name, work or quality. Start with house washing and ground stuff. Learn what you need for roofs (no pressure washer) then graduate up. Kill a plant they get mad,,fixable,,kill their roof and they'll chase you down and sue you. If you can't afford 500.00 for a basic roofs system you sure can't afford to replace a roof. Take a start up year learning equiptment and chems doing house washes. Lack of that knowledge CAN KILL YOU. Good luck.

This is my understanding as well

Good point Beth,,,I see it as a good opportunity as well,,to show them that you know what your talking about but like someone else said don't make them feel like a moron. But if you explain the whats' and whys' you may impress the right person and you'll be the pro they call for everything. Good opportunity but I would not do the job as written and tell them so and why. Tell them you would be glad to do it but your not going to destroy the wood doing it the way it's written...Sad thing is they probably paid some engineer (in the neighborhood) more to make that plan than they plan on paying you....

You say "it has SOME bleach in it" with other additives applied more like a pest control. Isn't that just a fancy overpriced pump that doesn't apply it up on a canopy any different than a delevan would? Other additives....Let me guess,,,,Just enough clorox so you don't smell it to avoid being one of those "low ballin bleachers" and some borax, a mold inhibitor picked up at HD and a shot of blue dawn...(Duck poo is blue hence "duck sauce") Looks good though...

Looks great anyway, if you couldn't get a routine maintenance job from that place you couldn't sell water in h*ll....So whats your "Duck" sauce? Come on now share, you started it...LOL, I would be very interested in it and your method. PM if you'd rather not openly share.

Got a bid out now on a 175ft privacy fence (both sides) where apparently the last guy PW'd the crap out of it with a 15 at about 1/2 inch away..blasting the old sealer away, or trying too..then put on what is said to be 2 yr old Thompson's but I don't know for sure it's got a weird tent to it. About 60% of the "whatever" is failed but you can see wand marks stripes in the wood from every direction and angle that look like he down streamed the "whatever" sealer with the same 15 tip horizontally, vertical and X's and uneven..It almost looks like graffiti...HO just wanted it "washed off" and "re treated" but I said no it needed to be stripped completely or what I would do would just be changing the stripes when the "whatever" failed this year leaving my job looking like crap. Made a pretty cheap bid (he's a 91 yr old man, he's got money but still), Bid was what I figured cost + 500.00. He's turned me down trying to negotiate my price and I said I couldn't do it for any less and shouldn't be doing it for twice that. Told him the cheapest guy in town doe's work like that, pointing to his fence, and that I made the decision to be the best guy in town not the cheapest and that I was cutting him a heck of a deal..That he was welcome to call around for other bids..He called back yesterday and left a message asking if "I've reconsidered" ,,LOL...

LOL thought this post was funny revisiting it ONE year later,,,No offense Rick, aint 20/20 hind sight a *****....LOL After almost getting burned last year where I bid two of three decks on a home, (they did not want the 3rd done "it doesn't need it")...I took 1/3 down for materials then did the job over the weekend while they were out of town at their request and pick up check on Monday. Well no one home on Monday, then called all week then on Fri still no anwser or call back I drove out 26 miles one way to the house and "caught" the lady home. The lady loved it but was mad because the 3rd deck looked bad next to the two I did and she thought I should "just work it in" FOR FREE!!! (a 10x20 deck w/ rails) And tried to hold my 2/3rd final payment as hostage to making her happy,,then wrote a check for the second 1/3rd and wanted me to talk to her husband about the final 1/3rd. I refused it and refused to leave until I had the final payment IN FULL as agreed!! I got about as ugly as I've ever been with a lady, almost threatening, and told her she better get her husband on the phone if thats what she needed to do but I expect to be paid before I leave.. I wasn't making another 50 mile trip to have a convo we could have had any time this week if you would have returned my calls. She got him on the phone and he told her to write me a check in full...I then RAN straight to their bank and cashed it,,LOL,, From that point on it's 1/3 before job start (for stain costs) 1/3rd after strip / clean then final 1/3rd at completion...PW and House washes are different as there isn't several hundred dollars of materials involved. I don't require deposits for them unless it's going to be awhile until job so some lowballer doesn't shoot you out of the saddle. But that might change if I get burnt.

Man someone shoot that black raven circling o'l Dan there....LOL...Dan add another half a pill on the wake up meds...Back off the coffee....LOL..(quick someone get the huggy jacket)

Don't worry Dan,,,Obama's gonna save us all!!!! LOL I'm only asking for 1 billion myself to upgrade my buisness so I don't have to work out of the back of my truck anymore...Might even get a hot water unit and an add in the phone book....LOL...Pass the good deed back to the people and drop from 99.99 to 89.99...See I get the money because I have a dream!!! I'm a gonna help the economy by buying a new house, a new truck or two,,getting someone else to do the work for me and having to get new signs with the 89.99 on it and keep hundreds of millions in my account so my buisness will stay solvent. And Im gonna promise not to have to come back and ask for more...and if I do just say "NO"...LOL..I have a dream!!!

Super cold here,,,had down to -20 with wind in the last three days,,not above about 20 for highs. Snowing,,drove up around the NC/VA line today (Grayson Highland park,,about 30 min away) which got 8-10 inches of snow in the last day or so to let daughter play in some real snow...(we get it here but it blows away due to being on the side of mountain) Yea I miss the Southern California weather from back in the Marine Corps days...

Ditto with Chris,,hose length is hose length,,,100ft is 100ft rolled up or not.

Has anyone ever tried with success browsing the Real Estate books looking at the pics of the houses for weathered or failed decks? I grabbed one and went through it and couldn't believe all the 300-400K+ houses with weathered crappy decks and or moldy roofs...I think I'm going to try to make contact w/ Realtors with specific "hey I noticed THIS deck here on THIS house and "What I could do to make it stand out and sell faster in this sales environment" bla bla bla..And not get the regular automatic knee jerk rolling eye spammer bum rush. Has anyone had success with this. Just thought it was a good idea and haven't heard anyone talk about it before.

Good info Joe, my thought is that in this market your going to HAVE to sell your home as fast as possible because prices are dropping like a rock. I'm thinking hey you spend a few K's with me and it saves you maybe 10K because you won't have to drop your price "as much". The market is just now starting to drop here and there are some already dropping by the tens of thousands of dollars. We have a lot of 300K-1.5 mil mountain type homes here (many are second or thrid homes that I expect to go on market very soon due to ecomonic crash) with huge mountain views and they push these big decks w/ views and in every add here's this "money shot" of the house with a 2-3K sq ft wrap around double or triple deck(s) that looks like it's 50 yrs old. LOL...

I'd call them back and tell them the price goe's back to original after the stain fails some more,,,aka this summer....before they call someone else...I wouldn't want to "quit" the job just because they went with someone else first. That sounds like a heck of a deck and too much money to leave on the table if you don't. Swallow your pride and fatten up your pocket...

Beth I would have thought that to be a little dark for a thined out semi cedar. Ya makin me ichiiii to get out and sling some AC myself,,,,:( but it's snowing,,,,,,,Ahhh shucks........

Beth loves a good flex wand,,,he he he,,,TMI.......I've been thinking of ordering one of the dual's but don't really understand them or what they are good for other than dual pressures.

Yea prices are somewhat moot, its about customer relations and trust. I have had several customers tell me after the job that they had cheaper bids, one as much as 40 percent cheaper but they decided to go with me because I explained what needed to be done and what I was going to do and what it was going to cost and why,,,others just quoted a price and left. Hacks are hacks and will be hacks and being pretty new myself to some I am a hack. But I sure am trying not to be with being careful of what I do not getting too far over my head and giving the best service I can. I quote a "real" price not a low ball and the chips fall where they may. I see what your talking about though Dan, I'm not worried about price as much as I just hope I'm still able to accept the US dollar by the end of 09..instead of taking Euro's. You know Russia's trying to crash the gold market (next week or two by calling all gold markers) which will de value the US dollar by an additional 50 percent immediately. Gold will go to 2K and OPEC will switch from US dollar to gold only for payment of oil...Off topic but thats not even a joke. There are bigger things to worry about...But I get your point...

Rick are you saying go across the grain because its a rotary buffer? And Why? I use the Makita with Osbourn's and have always gone with the grain. Both up and down each lane while deferring and changing directions of the surface contact from up to back. That Pic as Beth said, the first thing I saw was the obvious track path he took across the grain. I think and treat each board as a specific specimen and anything done anywhere to that specific specimen should be done to the whole. Chappy did you use the Osbourn to "sand down spots" to pull any of the stubborn acrylic off while deferring? Would be my guess. Second guess you screwed the pooch so you could go back and spend a week NOT stripping an acrylic,,,lol.

Have raft,,,will travel....