PLD

I've noticed this same senitment in this thread and the gutter cleaning thread. That being "I always (do/charge) XXX unless it's a second story." My demo's must be really different from everyone else. 95% of my jobs (and homes in my area) are 2 story. 50% are 2 story with a daylight basement (i.e. 3 story). At least 25% of the gutters cannot be reached with a ladder less than 40 ft. In fact, 50% of the gutter calls this week I declined because the gutters were 30+ off the ground. On that same thread, I've seen at least three posts that indicate they do gutter cleaning in 15-20 min/house or 5-10 homes per day. Not a prayer here. Less that 25% of the roofs are walkable. Most are 45^ or better, and many are pitches approaching 60-75^

If you're serious about bottled gas, consider scuba gear. A standard 80cuft tank will push over 300 gallons of chems before falling below 14psi. And last time I checked, refills were about $5.00/ea.

Nitrogen works great for beer! And Korny kegs are cheap to come by. Although, unless you de-pressureize after use you will likely carbonate your chem solutions. As far as chem vessels, very few containers not designed for pressure will hold up to 100psi. They may function at first test, but they'll be well beyond their safety rating and would not be safe to operate. Not that you really need a lot of pressure. 14psi will get you 33ft of lift and from what I can tell, the xjet operates on ~ -3.4psi. I'd consider low pressure provided by plain old air. A cheap 5 gallon static tank starting at 100psi would still be at 4psi (~10ft lift)after emptying 100+ gallons of chem. Granted dead air space and air waste will significantly reduce the actually useable output, but unless you're using 25+ gallons/day of chems or operating at 15+ft lift I doubt it will affect you. FWIW, I just bought a cheap ($30) compressor rated at 4cfm@45psi. That's enough power to provide 33ft of lift so long as you don't draw need more than 50 gals of chems/minute.

If you guys get any apartmenst you don't want send 'em my way. I've done two complexes and found them to be very profitable and easy to schedule. IN fact, if I could trade my resi's for 100% apts I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Research says only use a hyphen or other devices if it's the only way to get the name that says what you need to say. Think about talking to someone in their car without a pen. Our website is Double-U, Double-U, Double-U, dot, pressure dash pros, dot com. <or> Our site is pressure pros dot com. Similarly, do you want 1-800-pressure or 1-877-63hoses

You're not being a jerk. If it was an issue for them, they would have spent the $7.95 and registered it also. Go with the easiest to remember without writing it down. And that means no hyphens and no plural confusion/mismatch. If you are Pressure Pro'S, register pressurepros.com

Ditto. If I had only known, I would never have bought the cold unit. Not that it did not serve me well, because it did. But I could have paid for 2 skids in wasted time from using cold water on concrete.

Same here, but I usually get "I can't find them anymore" In fact, I did just such a gutter job today. And had the displeasure of letting the HO know that the budget guy had not been cleaning any gutters that were not easily accessible by ladder (such as gutters over a lower roof). Since this was a very nice, expensive home, that amounted to about 40% of the job...

Jarrod, Actually what you said that lit the torches was: "There is only 1 way to properly restore a deck - strip it, brighten it, & stain (seal) it." And while I use the same method myself, I would have to disagree with the sentiment. I wouldn't recommend stripping a deck with a turbo nozzle, or playing pool with a broom handle. But for someone who has experience with those methods, they may produce excellent results. I know that I certainly wouldn't bet against Steve Mizerack on a pool game if he was playing with a 2x4 and I had the finest queue made...

Look guys, I don't mean to start a ford/chevy/mopar turf war but this has to be said... I WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER DODGE PRODUCT. Why? My 99 Durango just started skipping and won't stop despite all the usual maintainance items. After some online research, I found out that the 1qt/week oil consumption and knocking on everything but 93 octane problems that I have been experiencing for the last 5 years are a well known design flaw that has been documented in several technical service bulletins. A half dozen trips to the dealer for assorted issues (inc'l this one specifically) and each time they claimed nothing was wrong and it was a mystery to them. $900 to replace a pan gasket, $500+ in wasted oil, and countless wasted hours all because a $2.00 factory gasket was crap. Now having been confronted with the issue head on they tell me that since I am NOW out of warranty the $8-900 repair is all mine. Buying a Dodge is gambling with a liar and a cheat and I cannot say this loudly or often enough: I WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER DODGE PRODUCT. :lgangry: FWIW, if you have a Dodge 3.6l, 5.2l, or 5.9l the TSB's I am speakng of are 09-06-99 & 09-05-00. And FWIW, as of the first bulletin we were less than 1 year/15,000 miles into our highly touted 7yr/100k mile warranty.

I disagree. Licensing has NEVER ensured competency in ANY profession. The states even require a competency test to obtain a license to drive a car, and you can't even count the number of licensed fools. Every gotten a bad haircut? Licensed. Bad stock advice? Licensed. Needed a second doctors opinion? Licensed.

Scott, I didn't. I guess some kids never grow out of the pyromaniac phase. I just am much more aware of my mortality and the relationship between basic physics and my continued survival. FWIW, my largest rocket is 19ft tall and weighs in at ~240lbs "wet". Max altitude is just about 30,000ft... There's nothing wrong with enjoying a big boom. Millions do every July 4th. It is a only problem when your need for the "boom" overwhelms your consideration of the safety of yourself and others that may fall into harms way as a result of your chosen form of entertainment.

Adrian, I don't know about your side of town, but there is a place near the airport that re-tips for $8.00/end. I've had 3 done with no problems whatsoever. Philip

Squirt, Before someone goes out and tries to smoke up the yard, please beware that you can make a heck of a lot more than a smoke bomb. Granulated pool chlorine and any liquid hydrocarbon is exceptionally unstable. The decomposition process generates heat, which generates vaporized fuel. Unenclosed, this usually results in a flare-like fire. Enclosed (as in a bottle), the pressure and heat rises, which increases the decomposition rate, which increases the heat and pressure rise... At some point, the either the pressure rises beyond the vessels bursting point, or the heat reaches the flash point of the heated, vaporized fuel, and a rather large explosion occurs. In this video, the kids put in far too much alcohol and the mix was cooled below the ignition point and the bottle only ruptured. Most likely, the cap failed first. Hence, the kid holding the bottle was not seriously harmed. Had this been done with a heavy hydrocarbon like brake fluid and done in the proper ratios, he would likely have been missing a hand. I have personally witnessed a brake fluid/chlorine bottle shatter a 10ft section of 8" pvc pipe (open at both ends) into two segments. Don't know the exact specs, but that is ALOT of pressure... One last thing, if you do succeed in smoking up the yard or garage please keep in mind that the "smoke" is finely vaporized hydrocarbon fuel and is very combustible. At the right mix ratios, it can be detonated to produce a rather significant fuel-air explosive.

First, a little techno-speak. A DNS entry (commonly called a domain name, URL, or URI) is just a human readable representation of an IP address. Hence, you don't move a domain name to a server. You POINT a domain name at a server. For example www.OdorDestroyer.com = 67.99.206.41 If you go register www.MikesSite.com and point it at 67.99.206.41 then any user who browses to either domain name will see exactly the same site. FWIW, odordestroyer.com and www.odordestroyer.com are not the same entry. Most people think they are because they are usually pointed to the same address. If you have the host register the domain name for you and they place themselves as the administrative contact, they effectively control the domain. You may legally own it, but if you have a falling out or they go under it may take you quite some time to get the issue resolved since the authorative regsitrar does not recognize you as the owner. Also, while rare these days you may find that a domain was registered and points to your site but is actually owned by the host and being leased to you. When it comes time to move you find out that you can go, but www.coolest-domain-ever.com stays behind. To properly secure your domain name Register your own name with a registrar, and put your host only as the technical contact. They can make all the changes they need to but you maintain ownership of the domain at all times. PS: Before we get into a long debate about domain names, I'm fully well aware that a domain/domain name and a URL not the same. However since most people never have more than one host in their domain, and for purposes of simplicity, I have avoided any discussion about DNS servers, root servers, and other things that would cloud the subject.

What's that you say? Forcing water into the brick contributes to efflorescence? :stupid:

This is the one that KILLS me. A customer passes on your bid and pays bottom dollar, gets a crappy job, and then calls you back. Now they not only expects a discount because the wall is less dirty than before, but they STILL think the first bid price was more appropriate than yours. I'm sorry, but a large percentage of the American public is just plain stupid...

Anyone have any experience with the Homier travelling tool sales? I went to my first, and despite mixed opinions there may be some gems buried in these "made in china" tool sales. First, I found two no-name gas engines for sale. A 9hp and a 13hp. They were priced at $199 and $259 respectively. Upon inspection, I noticed that they were IDENTICAL in almost every detail to honda GX engines. Particularly the GX390 which I use and maintain weekly. Same starter cover design, same air cleaner assembly, same throttle body/choke assembly. Same on/off switch, etc. Are these Honda seconds? It is doubtful that a no-name "made in china" company spent this much time knocking off every detail. Even if they are not high-quality, at 25% of the price they may be worth using while your main unit is in for service/repair. Second, I found (and bought) a $99 900w generator. Not enough for running the house, but it runs my pair of 300w halogens great. And unless I'm mistaken, it should run an AC burner just fine. Anyway, the point was that if you need more than an invertor, but less than a real generator, this may be the ticket. I know mine is waiting for our next camping trip or my next night time cleaning job. Finally, I found (but missed) a $99 125a wirefeed (flux core) welder. Now this thing would never be useful for tradesman, but for the occasional repair to a hose reel, hand truck, etc. (or for learning), it looked like a deal to me.

I know this probably belongs in the other forum, but since it will be best answered by the woodies, I put it here. That said; What can I do to keep the bleach in housewash from splotching/stripping/loosening oil stains? I've fought with this for years now, and it finally came back to bite me. A customer with a stained porch floor is upset because there are streaks in their previously uniform stain. Rinse, rinse, and more rinse and it still happens. Most difficult to deal with are TWP and anything from home depot. I swear you could completely strip TWP with only bleach. The only thing I haven't had a problem with to date is behr and acrylics.... Anyway, I've gotta go to the customers house tomorrow to discuss remediation. It's sure going to suck to restain a deck for free over a $165 housewash....

Just like pressure washers, you get what you pay for with web hosts. And the cheapest looks like a great deal till something bad happens. Then you find out what you didn't get for the bargain price (like insurance)... I pay $59.95/month at Cybrhost. Some of that is because Cybr is an expert at Miva Merchant tuning/support and I run Merchant. Some of it is for other e-commerce features that are not needed for most sites. And don't forget that I take nearly 20k hits/day.... A static, non-commerce, low volume site would be significantly cheaper, but beware of the "budget" hosts. They have been known to disappear overnight leaving you with no site, no files, no backups, etc when their equipment is re-possesed. Anyway, at a bare minimum you should be able to log into a command shell, tar up your entire site, and ftp it back home. And you should do this at an interval that coincides with your change frequency. I've written some scriots to automate it and I backup my whole site and download it daily. If something happens to Cybr (or our relationship), I can have my site up somewhere else (including my home) in 2-4 hours. I also recommend registering your own name seperately from your host. That way if something happens you can re-point your DNS records to another w/o their assistance or permission. HTH

Let's all not forget to pray for wisdom and guidance for the doctors who are caring for little Shelby. Sometimes it's easy to forget they are human too and could use a little help from above as well..

That is a very good thing. Stroke causes paralysis by destroying the neural pathways. If there is a reaction to pain, the nerves still have contact with the brain. Even if they are damaged, damaged nerves regenerate well because they have an active "core" to build upon/around. "Severed" nerves rarely rebuild because they lack a guild to lead them. I know it's hard to find a bright spot in this situation, but from what you have posted she really has some good things going for her. If this were you or I, the prognosis would not be good. But as a teenager, physical/cellular growth and development is very rapid. She's right around the pubescent/post-pubescent period, which is the most aggressive period of growth. She has some intact neural pathways and can experience pain. We'll keep praying, you just try and be strong.

I inherited a box (40#?) of emulsifier plus and some pails of "gutter cutter" from envirospec. I assume that "gutter cutter" is a nickname for another product from espec but I cannot see anything of a similar name. The previous owner mentioned mixing in a 55 gal drum and part of the deal was an open top drum and a drum mixer. All that said, can anyone tell me what I have and how to use it?

Morgan, Wow, that's a lot to handle. Just try and keep your mind on the fact that she's still growing and her little body is capable of change and adaptation that we only barely understand. You have the prayers of my family and I, and I'll be sure and pass this along. I do not know if I'm close enough to be of much assitance, but please let me know if there is anything I can help with.

The shop I take mine to uses a crimper attachment in a hydraulic parts press. It looks very similar to the handheld unit, albiet a lot beefier. Anyway, you just insert insert new uncrimped hose end into the bottom collar, put the top piece on, and press go. Looking at it, I see no reason at all why it wouldn't work (slowly) in a 5 ton benchtop press that runs about $50 at northern. For those who are curious, they have a chop saw fitted with an abrasive blade to cut the hose and homemade 3 pin "maze" (similar to a wire bending tool) to hold it still. Cut, insert new end, put it in the crimper, done. A quick $10.00 and worth every penny BUT the drive to the shop blows...