ls1cameric

I'm going to painting 3 houses starting this weekend and decided to invest in a paint sprayer to make life easier. My question however, is that I want to be able to spray stain with it when doing decks or fences. I'm a solo guy and have no problem appying stain with a brush but if I spray it on, does it have to be brushed into the grain afterwards or can it just be sprayed and left alone? I've seen a couple vides on youtube with guys spraying it but they always have a helper dragging a cloth pad or something behind the sprayer to "massage" it into the wood. How could I do this easily by myself? Also, if i am spraying stain on a fence instead of brushing it on, do I still need to go over the wet stain with a cloth or spunge afterwards? What would work pretty good for that if so? Or should I just go over it with a big stain brush to get rid of excess stain where it collects? Thanks for the tips, Eric.

Thanks Rick. I'll be using a Graco XR7 commercial airless sprayer and I'll look into the paraffinic stains.

I'd like to know what others charge for this type of work also as I'm about to pas out my flyers for some work and would like to know what to charge people.

The summer is finally here and my in-laws hired me for my first job. They have a large stained deck that they want cleaned so that my father in-law can restain it. He doesnt want the current stain stripped because he's redoing it the same color, just cleaned to get all the dirt and grime off. Are there any chems I should use to help with the cleaning prossess? I have Simple Cherry from PT but should I even use a detergent or cleaner at all or just plain water? Whats the max pressure I should use? 900-1000? I dont wanna screw up my in-laws deck the first time I clean it. He's paying me 150.00 just to clean it and if he likes it said he'd let me do it every few months. I also have a 19" surface claner shoud I use that on wood or could it dammage the surface? Thanks for the advice guys...

MAYBE....But no.... I'm off on weekends and i dont sit around chatting on forums in my spare time. . I have plenty of time to do that at my reg job. (now)

Well considering I'm in my 20's and tight on cash and they are in thier 50's and both retired execs from a large computer comp and live VERY comfy, I have no problem taking money from them when offered.

Hey Bro! I mentioned I only had 1 day to research this and trust me when I say I spent several hours while I was at my day job surfing this forum and others TRYING to find some usefull info but was unable to find anything pertaining my my exact question. For someone to say "Yeah just use some dish soap and bleach on it" as a solution is not very good advice to give a beginner thus the reason I asked for specifics.

Thanks for the info, I'll know for next time. Unfortunately i dint know what type of cleach to use so i only used a strong mix of detergent and it seemed to work pretty well. It was my first deck job but turned out pretty good.

46 views and I comment... I guess I should have known better from last time I asked a simple question. Do you have to be a seasoned "pro" to get any "usefull" info on this forum?

Can someone elaborate on this for me a little? I would research this myself by time is the main factor here. I'll likely skip the bleach but can someone tell me how much dish soap to use per a 5 gallon bucket of water?

Exact same product going on.... So what type of dish soap? What type of bleach? How much do I mix? Do I mix them together with water and downstream the premix? Or do I mix them seperately for a bleach clean and then a soap clean? Sorry for the lack of knowledge. He just brough this up to me last night and wants it done tomorrow so I havnt had much time to figure all of this out and If I dont do it, he'll hire someone else because he want s to restain the deck next week.

What if your client doenst want the current stain stripped away because they are applying the same color stain? Should you just use a detergent and then rinse it? Any bleach with the detergent?

I am trying to remove black spray paint from the wood planks on my trailer. I bought it new just a few weeks ago but they halfass spray painted the wood for some reason and it looks like crap. Yesterday I hammered it with a strong concentrate of F18 or F13 (which ever one is the stripper) and it only removed paint in the areas where it wasnt applied very heavily. The outter sides of the trailer are caked with it on there and even went back and applied a second coat and let it sit about 30 minutes instead of 20 minutes like the first time and still didnt pull much of it off. How can i get this crap off my wood so i can stain it? BTW, I was wearing shorts and caught some over spray from the chems on my leg and with in seconds my leg was burning like hell... I guess this stuff works pretty good. ;)

I ordered my cold water PW from Bob at PT. I got the 20hp honda, general pump, 5.5gpm @3500psi. It came in a couple days ago and the box was drenched in oil because whoever tested it forgot to put the pump oil cap back on very good. It was only like halfway on there but no worries, I went and got some more oil and filled her back up. However, when I opened the box, and pulled everything out. The wand, then the gas tank, then the pressure washer, I noticed this very tiny little ball valve looking thing down at the bottom on the box. It's like a 1/4 long and look like a minature trailer hitch ball. What is this thing? I cant see where it would go on anyting and none of my manuals say anything about it. I'm wondering if it fell in by mistake when they packaged everything. I fired up the pressure washer and it works great so i'm scratching my head trying to figure out what this is. I'll call bob after a while to see if he knows.

Ahh... I 've got an orbital sander so it might do the trick. Thanks for the idea...

I just received all my equipment that I purchased from Bob at Pressure Tek and want to get my fet wet by refinishing the wood planks on my trailer to practice. I bought a new trailer but they spray painted the wood planks black and half-assed it so it 's all blotchy and uneven. I also want to seal and stain it so that it holds up against water best as possible since it will be used as my rig trailer. I have already purchased wood brightener and stripper from pressure tek but would like to know what stain and sealer I should try as well. Do they make stains that can just be sprayed and left on? I've stained furniture before and you have to remove the excess stain or its more like paint and thats a messy hastle. I know its a long shot but would someone be so kind to explain in detail how to correctly achieve my goal from start to finish? Should I wet the wood before applying the stripper first? How long do i let it work into the wood before I wash it with low pressure? Do I need to let the wood dry before I apply the brightener? How long do I let it stay on the wood before I rinse? Do I apply the stain before the seal? Does the wood need to be completely dry before applying stain??? and so on until I am finished. I know I'm asking a lot but its my first attempt at wood restoring so want to make sure I do it correctly and dont miss any steps. thanks a million!

I'm going to be ready to purchase my pressure washing equipment this weekend but need some advice so that I make sure I have a sufficient setup. I am going to be doing it all. Residential homes, commerical jobs, flat work, and even wood restoration. I have about 6K to spend on everything to start. That includes the power washer, surface cleaner, hot box heater, trailer for equipment, ladders, chemicals, advertising, and anything else I need. I have a Mi-t-m and Hotsy dealer in my area but the cold water machines dont seem to have sufficient water flow for flat work and the hot water machines are a little out of my price range. This is why I'm going to opt for a hot box with a cold water machine to start. Would this be a sufficient setup to get me started? If not, can you reccomend a better suited machine for my needs that isnt too much more expensive? *Mi-T-M model: CW-4004-3MV0, 4000 psi, 4.0 gpm, 13hp vanguard engine. About $2400.00 *NorthStar Electric Water Heater/Steamer — 3000 PSI, 115 Volt, 4 GPM $1400.00 on ebay. And can someone reccomend a decent surface cleaner in about a 20" size? I've seena few on ebay but not sure about the quality of them. Thanks, Eric.

Wow.. You guys were quick to Gene's defense without seeing this rig in person or the actual condition of his equipment. I would have spent an entire day just cleaning the spiderwebs and junk off of everything. Not to mention having to trash half of the stuff because it was in such poor condition. But hey, to each his own right? I'm VERY happy with my decision to not buy it and have been practicing with the machine I did purcahse. It's a new cold water unit I got from Bob at PT and it's more than enough for residential and wood restoration which is my main focus. I even bought a new surfacer and trailer without holes in the floor or completey rusted out matierals! Good luck to you on saling your rig Gene! ;)

I should have taken some pics but didnt even think about it. I called Bob and he's baffled too. I'll take some pics tonight and post them but he thinks it's something that just fell in the box.

Luckily the stuff I purchased came with some directions considering I got NO feedback from anyone on this board!

Well I went ahead and purchased some Supreme Performance stain/sealer from Tracy at Sunbright to try on my trailer. He exaplained how I should use it after I prep the wood for it but my main concerns are how long do i let the f-18 stripper dwell on the wood before i rinse it? Should I even use the wood brightener? if so, how long do I let that dwell?

Also, If this goes well, I want to stain and seal my newly installed fence and put my company logo on it. I think it will be a great way to advertise because I live on a large corner lot.

Yeah I showed up but let me just say that pictures can be and are deceiving. Gene, I wasnt wanting to be rude about it yesterday but you made it sound like you had all this great equipment when in fact the only thing of value that you had was the actual pressure washer and maybe the water tank. Saying that it was overkill was just an excuse to save face because I knew I wasnt going to buy it after I saw all of the junk you were selling with it. Everything you had looked like it had sat in your garage for years and probably didnt even work and you wanted to pawn it all of on me. I didnt want to haul your trash away and sure as hell wasnt going to pay you 3500.00 for it. You forgot to mention all the little things to me until I got there. Yeah, the trailer was heavy duty but I would have spent another 1000.00 to get in decent shape. It had a huge rusted out toolbox on it to cover up a big hole in the floorboard and tons of nasty rusted crap in the toolbox. You kept saying you were giving me all these "good freebies" but all I saw was crap you couldnt sale if you tried so why not give it to me to haul away. The surface cleaner was very disapointing and after seeing that, I had enough. Sorry man... But hey look at the bright side. You can sale it on ebay for 5 grand like you said you were gonna do if I didnt buy it. Good Luck!

Awesome. I will give you a call this weekend.

You still got it? If so, lets talk.