Rob R.

Looking for a well written form/estimate or general idea of what a professional proposal should look like.. It will be a for a large neighborhood (condo's) and I would really like to have this job and a well written proposal with the right price should get me there.. Thanks Rob

What about payment, I always hear stories of companies or commercial jobs being extremely slow to pay.. Make a required payment in full within 30 days? With small % of interest after that period?

Never thought of getting a longer draw hose but it would def come in handy.. Been using the X-Jet since it came out and other than the fact that I'm too lazy to really rinse/clean it after every job (gets rusty as hell) I have no complaints

What is EBC?

I have a deck like most other previously stained decks has plenty of stain on the railings and virtually no remaining stain on the floor boards.. I have been using water based stains for much easier clean up and just curious if it would be ok to apply a new coat of water based over the older oil based? I am matching the same stain color that is currently on the deck

Ok figured, thanks for the advise.. Good to know with the increased amount of water based stuff now

I am trying my best to improve my knowledge on proper prep for a wood deck/fence with a lot of mold/mildew.. What procedure do you recommend? I usually apply SH through my x-jet (same ratio as house cleaning) and let dwell for a few minutes before washing.. However some decks seem to have endless mold/mildew in the crevises and grains of the wood that I cannot seem to fully remove.. I never wanted to really increase the SH because it's rather hard on the wood from what I understand.. I have always paid close attention to your post because you specialize in exterior wood where I only tackle decks/fences to stay busy and not turn away jobs. While successful thru several wood jobs obviously I feel a lot of improvement in prep time and know how would save me a lot pain!!

My local place is closing shop and going out of Business.. $17 for a 5gallon with a $6 reimbursement for the old container.. Now the 2 closest pool places want $11 a gallon as that's all they carry.. Any suggestions here in Northern MD?

I would like to add this to my cleaning mix based on the great feedback it gets and of course more importantly I want to smell like a cherry after house wash!! :) Thanks rob

Thanks for the fast replies!!

Bring back from the dead, I have gotten a few calls more recently about aluminum siding and wondering if this is still the general consensus.. Oxidized/chalky walk away, never had great results using my normal house wash mix and almost feel like it's a dis service to any customer unless they are just prepping for paint.. I called sun brite and they mentioned using a butyl degreaser Thanks

Looks great, I have 2 homeowners whom both are unaware of the actual manufacturer of their composite deck, so I am leaning towards requesting they find out if they are in fact warrantied for a cleaning or at the very least will be sent the recommended cleaner and application instructions at no cost to them

Hey everyone, I recently bought a Graco 190ES sprayer to apply stain to fences and decks and it worked great for the first job using olympic semi transparent. I flushed it out with paint thinner then water as directed. Now I went to use the sprayer on another deck and it loses spraying pressure after about 10 seconds. Seems almost like its getting air in somewhere. I then have to price it then build up pressure again only for it to lose pressure after another 10 seconds. Any help is much appreciated.. Should I called the distributor I bought it from but not much help, can't seem to find where I placed the manual either and the Graco site has manuals but they won't load!!! Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Too much! somewhere around $3.50 per gal at the closest pool store here in MD

I am looking for suggestions on keeping this beautiful tree house completely mold free. It belongs to a personal friend of mine, within just a few weeks it accumalated a lot of mold inside. I went ahead and power washed it for him and got rid of all the mold, recommend I or he stained it (wife is against staining/sealing for various reasons) and directed him towards ready seal.. However his first problem is keeping the water from getting in anymore, it already has a full rubber roof (not pictured) and thinking about wrapping the tree inside of the tree house. Even had an arborist come take a look and he had really no idea lol.. Well a few weeks passed again and mold is already coming back quickly. Once the tree house is sealed better would staining be enough to keep it mold free, obviously its in the woods with hardly any sun exposure. Thanks! Also I will try and get latest pictures of the tree house with rubber roof, anderson doors and windows installed, stairs, etc..

Theres mold on both inside and out, my friend is currently addressing the water problem inside the tree house as best he can. Once that is done, I will clean it again and then look at different stain/seal options. I don't expect anything magical just looking for the best options under the circumstances. Again thanks alot for all the suggestions!

Way to informative

I am looking for a really good gutter cleaning recipe..I am about to buy some gutter zap from sunbrite but was wondering if anyone had really good results with anything else.. Would like to make more homeowners happy by getting rid of those ugly black streaks.. Also any recommendations on a good gutter attachment for cleaning out gutters? Thanks

I thought type A personality was very impatient thus having a much higher risk for heart disease? :) (dont mind me I had to do a power point presentation on personality types and diesease connection for a college course this spring) As for the OP's dilemma, I always try to set the expectations after winning the job and mention weather generally controls the work schedule, customers understand that. I try to pick a particular day but mention the variables that can push it back/forward. Most people just want to know that it would be done within the week and therefore everything else is irrelevant... I noticed some older/retired homeowners generally like to know the date/time for the most part b/c they want to be home while you are performing the job, which is just fine with me!

Just called around and the cheapest I found was 5gal/$22 = $4.40 then after container is brought back you get a $6 credit making the next rds $3.20 here in baltimore... Other places I galled were $6-8 per gallon no 5gal buckets available..

Last week I power washed a weathered/grayed cedar playset.. I applied sunbrites ez off stripper with a pump sprayer in the recommended dilution to clean and dwell time..I then power washed, and last applied sunbrites wood brightener thoroughly and let dwell for the recommended 15-20mins.. The playset looks much better but I would like to get it just a little bit brighter, sorry I dont have any pictures at the moment, I willl try and get some up...Any suggestions? Thanks

Great thanks for all the suggestions!

thanks for the info! where can I order the pressuretek f13?

I am pretty sure I get about 30' tops with my adjustable tip xjet, are you using the non adjustable? I really need to get my Ds'er unclogged/working again so I can have both options at all times..

First wood project no.. I should have specified this job was more so for a friend than an ordinary customer and she just wants it to be perfect since she does not want to have any sort of stain/seal put on the wood for various reasons...