PLD

All the garages I have encountered had a 3" conc lip around them so washing was just like any another slice of concrete. Sometimes there is a little splashing on the walls, but a *quick & light* rinse will get the dirt off the sheetrock. One trick I have found is this: When you are done, lay your hp line neatly around the perimeter of the garage. Now leave the garage and smoothly (not too fast) pull the hose out. It will act like a giant squeege and sweep all the water out of the room.

Most likely water in the oil. Could be bad seals, could be a cracked head. Either way you're looking at a rebuild. Get a new one, and drop the old one off at your local shop for re-work.

Nope. Pay a deposit, get a meter, and let 'er rip. To be honest, I think the meter is even an optional accessory. I've reported several thieves who pumped up dozens of times over several hours time. One was even using the hydrant in front of the house under construction to hydroseed ALL DAY. Call and wait. Call and wait. Not once have I seen a cop or a water dept official stop to check for a meter or a permit. I'm an honest guy, but they won't even take a few minutes to stop blatant theft 1/4 mile from the water authority office then why the heck should I take the time and effort to jump through their bureaucratic hoops over and over in each and every municipality I work in....

I think it's a excellent question. I'll give you an answer as soon as I have one. Last year, I fretted, fumed, and worked like hell on my online business. I'd be pretty good in winter, but my online business follows the same seasons as PW. No christmas rush for cat urine removal... >:(

Yep, that's a hydrant meter. Looks just like the one enclosed in my massive county issued cage....

Maybe for you. After the pre-lit goes up my wife has a 4+ hour ritual of decorating the tree... Our last year of a real tree was about 5 years ago. We went to a cut your own place. You know, over the river, through the woods, and all that stuff. It wasn't long before my wife locked onto a MONSTER. I tried to explain that that tree was much bigger than it looked out there in the big open field. Oh no. Nothing but that tree would do. So, we (I) began sawing through the 6" trunk... About an hour later and with much help from the lot attendants it was in the back of my Ford Ranger. Then I noticed the first thing that I found funny. That being, from the rear the entire vehicle was not visible. I would be driving a shrubbery home. Now back at the house we (read I) took the front door off the hinges, made several futile attempts to wrap it with blankets, rope, even saran wrap to shrink it's girth. Oh well, brute force it is... That worked pretty well. That is, if you ignore the gouged door frame and lovely green scratches on both foyer walls (which are about 6ft apart). With the tree in the house "successfully" I grab my macho tool guy tree stand, the "big beefy". The "big beefy" is a huge tree stand made of 1/8" rolled steel that weighs about 20# and has a piece of rebar for a bottom peg. I knew that one day it would be called on to hold more than a little twig of a tree, and today was that day. I drilled the required 5/8" hole in the bottom of the tree and attempted to affix the stand. It was then that I realized that the "big beefy" had met it's match. My prized tree stand would not even fit over the trunk, nor would it likely hold up the tree if it did. Off in search of a bigger "big beefy". I finally found one made out of 1/4" steel with about a 3ft leg span holding up the tree/advertisment in front of a tree lot. A bunch of negotiation (begging) and $75 later it was mine. Add another 50# to this tree... Once the tree was upright, you begin to appreciate that 12ft is quite tall. Oh well... I beat the tree, and I have the largest tree I have ever seen in my house to boot. I'm happy again. Time to decorate. Out comes the 8ft A frame and the boxes of decorations. The bottom was decorated first, and it looked great. Granted the wall side is bare because we do not have anough decorations, but that's ok. No one ever sees that side anyway. Up the ladder I go where I learn another lesson. Lesson #3 - Christmas trees taper, and big trees taper alot. I couldn't even reach the tree because the top of the A frame ladder was about 5 feet from the tree tip. We eventually resorted to screwing a plant hook into a old pool cue tip and using it to hang decorations. FWIW, the tree was over 12 feet tall (excluding the thin spindly twig at the top), probably weighed close to 200#, and was approximately 9ft across at the base. When I crawled under to fill the water bowl, only my legs below my knees stuck out. And I'm 6'1" tall... Anyway, I could continue on and on about this tree from hell and the 8hr "put up the tree" party, but I've already rambled long enough already. I'll just end the story by saying that removing the tree from the house was much easier than putting it in. Too bad that I couldn't figure out how to use my sawz-all to get the tree in! :)

Delco has a couple. The video is homemade and they are certainly not how-to guides but when I was just getting my feet wet it was nice to watch real PW'ers in action. It's not like you can stop at a competitive jobsite and hang out awhile. One BIG beef about delco's video. Their "something (i forget) and decks" video has not one single deck on it. I called to complain, and they said that they were sorry i was unhappy. No refund, no swap, no recommended alternative video. I was happy with the "something" and there was plenty of it so I kept it. But it was the LAST video I bought from delco. If you call, tell them why you won't buy their "decks" video. BTW, they still sell that same video as "XYZ and decks". Philip P.S. If anyone from delco is listening, you STILL owe me a deck wash video. Go shoot some and send it to me. Or remove "decks" from your video title. Either way, I'll be happy (and quiet).

Awhile back I posted about turning a house orange because of heavily iron laden well water. Well, I've recently run into a very similar problem. It started on a white vinyl house (again). After cleaning, the customer called to complain of stains on the front of the house that weren't there before cleaning. My guys swear that they were there prior to cleaning, but I don't remember them from running the quote. And they were prominent enough that I would have seen and noted them on the quote. My guess is that they appeared during soap up, and the guys never noticed them (or lack thereof) until they started rinsing and agitated. Anyway, when I went back to check it out the stains were prominent, brownish orange. As before, oxalic and an xjet (close range tip) solved the problem in seconds. What differred significantly this time is that the stains were in a variety of spatter and drip patterns. This was very different from house #1 which exhibited a nearly uniform coating over the entire surface. Some spatter was straight on and running down, others obviously at odd angles from impacting another surface before coming to rest. Anyway, I mentioned the spatter pattern because upon further investigation, it appears to be some sort of spray was applied to the bushes and spattered onto the house where it remained silently until it interacted with the chlorine. Perhaps the bush spray is heavy in iron compounds? FWIW, the bushes looked great. Too great. For as dense as they were planted, there should have been some sign of yellowing, bugs or other normal maladies. Heavily shaped, but no trimming mark. They looked like wax fruit. Too perfect. Obviously heavily tended by someone who knows their stuff. There are some commonalities in this issue that may be worth noting. Both were vinyl. Both were white. Both house mixes contained a mild caustic in addition to bleach. Both problems manifested themselves only on the front side of the house. House 1, however, only had vinyl on the front side. And there were some differences . Different water (40 mi apart). Well vs. muni water. Sunny front vs. shaded front. Bushes vs. open up close. Different "soap" added to the bleach. Anyway, HTH us find out what causes this to happen and predict it's appearance.

Yes. I have been with them about 3 weeks. So far, one lead a week, though their projections were 10-12/month. No closures yet. All were looking for better quality than low ball, but low ball prices. All got very reasonable estimates and balked in favor of do-it-yourself.

Iron treatments was what I thought. That sounds like the bushes I saw. Too green, too perfect. And the stain volume was significant and the droplets large. If it was fertilizer, this wasn't a pump sprayer job. Anyway, since you have landscape and "fast green" experience perhaps you can help with another problem I have. My labor failed to heed my repeated warnings about rinsing (and parking in the drive) and we have done some pretty ugly spotting/singing to a rose bush hedge and about 3ft dia of dead fescue from a chem spill. I've gotta call the HO back tomorrow. Is there anything I can do to give these bushes a shot in the arm? Do I need to do something to prep the soil before I re-sod the grass? I am hoping that a healthy dose of liquid fertilizer will neutralize the bleach and restore the soil ph.

Yep, my neighbor did it. The painters used a special and not to cheap paint for vinyl siding. I thought he was absolutly nuts, but it's been 2 years later and it looks great. It doesn't look like latex. If you didn't know, you'd never know it was painted. FWIW, it was sprayed on.

I'm a cold water guy with a portable. After 1/2 a season of pulling, I bolted it to the trailer and just spool out hose. FWIW, I park on the road and typically pull 100+ft of supply and 250ft of HP hose. In the long run, I find it easier than load, unload. And you will find places that you cannot take the portable for various reasons. So, you'll be carrying a long hose and snaking it some anyway.

Just a thought, but perhaps I am not experiencing it very often because I always spoil my unloader output to the ground or my open tank. Granted, the unloader generates backpressure, but in effect I never have a closed output.

Coming from a southerner who uses his share of colloquialisms this is definitely a new one. And very funny!

Awwww Adrian, I'm embarassed. Seriously though, Anytime. Just "paying it forward". Many here have done as much for me.

Backfires, counter rotation, and etc are typically a timing problem (valve or spark - see prev post by more knowledgable tech). The choke only comes into play because it can cause an a fuel-air ratio that prohibits combustion. In the next cycle, the cylinder fires for whatever reason (detonation, etc) out of sequence (pre-compression) and drives it into counter rotation. If it happens on rare ocassion, call it a fluke. If it happens regularly (as you have described), see a small engine mechanic. FWIW, the GX390 is a great motor. If it is giving you alot of grief, consult a professional. .

FWIW, I am in a relative small town (40k homes-150k residents). I have a local phone number (770-460-xxxx) forwarded to my cell 24x7. 770-460 is well recognized here as a fayetteville # and I advertise only that number. I have 1-2 customers a month that tell me that they called me because I had a fayetteville number. If you are in an area that hass a well recognized areacode-exchange, this may well offer you a boost in calls. Btw, that's 770-460-0469 if you are interested.

I was doing exactly that (and scrubbing between dips) that and I personally find the sprayer faster, easier, and uses a similar amounts of chems. But, easy as it is, it is too slow. Apply, wait, rinse, move up. And for 3 stories, it's being applied from a ladder (with a pole) and dripping into my face. I want to X-on wait 30 sec and X-off. Whole house in 30 minutes or less. As for my mega-wand, I took a stock pump sprayer and cut it 1/2 way between the nozzle and the trigger and added 35ft of hose. I took my gutter brush (that threads onto my x-pole) and drilled a hole through the back and passed the wand tip through. Now, I have a 16ft brush that can spray from the backside. Works well, I want better.

I'm running purple butyl caustic 50/50 with 10% truck wash. Melt is fine when applied with a pump sprayer, not strong enough to apply with an Xjet. Leave it on too long, and it is a nice paint remover.

Am I hearing that if I get hot water, I can clean shingle oil from gutters w/o a special gutter mix!?! Here's what I have been doing: I use my homebrew (butyl based) gutter mix that works really well, but the process itself adds some real time to a house. I use my pump sprayer with a 16ft wand, apply/wait 15-30 sec, and rinse with an xjet. Sometimes I have to do a 2nd pass on neglected gutters, but rarely do I actually brush anymore. Now for the question again: hot water = no black w/o chems? If I can do this with hot only, I will be out to buy a new rig monday morning. I could have saved at least 2 hours today alone. And if this is true, what are the drawbacks of going this route.

Ditto, works like a champ. I have had it jerk once before, but I think that was after a pull w/o choke (no start) and there was fuel in the cylinder waiting for a spark causing a counter rotation.

<sarcasm off> Mike, May I come and stand next to you next week? Perhaps some ofthat will rub off! :) I'm doing abour 1800-2k/week with a 1 man crew. </sarcasm off>

Here you go. In word and pdf format no less. Professional Fax.doc fax cover.pdf

I agree completely. if you will check recently, you will find a thread where I posed this same problem. Even at 12.5% after running through an xjet the solution is just too weak for a roof job. After the dicussion I switched to a 1:1 mix (6.25% on the roof) and it works great.

An online merchant (and their state) can only collect sales tax on an internet purchase of that business has a presence in your state. To do otherwise is illegal. You are probably being had for an X% markup in the name of "sales tax". Philip