Chappy

I like that big one. Even with 8gpm though, I still have to go pretty slow with my 30" big guy. Just an aside on that video. There has to be a better way to clean wood. Hmmm. Also, can you imagine how your back would feel after cleaning that wall like that? By the way. Welcome back Craig. Havnt seen you in a long while.

On most work it is a flat rate, or sf rate. There are times one doesnt work and another does. On wood I break it down to prep labor, stain labor, and materials. I dont break down the materials though. How much plastic, and other disposables i use are my business, not thiers! ever gone to a auto body shop and they add a percentage for disposables? you gonna make them break that down? Every thing you use has a life span including the brushes, tarps, sprayers etc. unless you have that down to an absolute ammount per job, then you just include a guestemate with the actual stain price.

I dont think we'll ever get to those prices. When every other house has a pool and is used almost year round, SH will be readily available and relatively cheap.

This fence along with the rails and some benches was added to a deck I finished in Dec. Only needed cleaning so I used efc 38 and did not neutralize. Question is, How would you neutralize this fence as the spindles are copper? any acid will discolor them and may cause permanent damage? I did put a drop on one where it wouldnt be seen and got an instant color change.

thanks greg. I ordered some citric. I got it in the day after I did this job.

I didnt neutralize on this. the question is for future. what if i have to strip and use a strong stripper. then Ill have to neutralize.

I do not understand how anyone can figure that $8.50/hr is a living wage. thats $17000/yr full time. Where can you live for 17K per year. Even if your married and your spouse makes that. Where can you live for 34K per year? Its rediculous. Total political sham.

Hey, how did you take a picture of your own camera?? your amazing, Shane!!!!

That sounds about as complicated as it can get. How bout a pic of your set up.

Kind of lookd like what Celeste said. more opaque than an oil stain.

Now that its been srtipped off, its hard to remember exactly. I was stripping all my sample boards at the time, SpaNDeck, Floodpro, and Woodtux. just to see how they stripped. I used HD 80 and it cut right through the FloodPro Supreme. with no scrubbing and just garden hose. It had been on a piece of PT pine, well aged before applying the stain, and had been sitting out in the sun for about 6 months. Ill do another board soon and post a pic of it.

Flood Spa N Deck is very popular down here. I have used it 2 or 3 times. I tends to crack and peal. is almost impossible to strip and you cant blend the pealed area well. I did a sample board with the new FloodPro supreme water based. It looked kind of funny but stripped easily.

days inn, they just did a remodel there (within the last couple years anyway,) so should be nice. Some of the comments from other travelers is that the facilities on the island are very old and shabby. Well see.

this dock was trashed. Latex solid over acrylic. wood in seriously bad condition wher sealer already worn off. boards warped, splintered, cracked, checked, you name it. stripped with boosted hd80. although still only got off half the latex and almost none of the acrylic. primed with cabots problem solver and sealed with acrylic solid. all good for a couple days work.

were always in a drought in florida. 16million people with another 300-400,000 coming in every year. Everybody wants a green lawn. half the homes have pools. HOs are happy to rinse thier driveways instead of blowing the dirt off. It never seems like a real problem when your surrounded by water. And if Algore is right. Ill be on beach front property any week now. Global warming will seriously raise my property value. (I sit at about 25ft elevation)

I could probably have done some sanding and gotten away with it, but I really couldnt tell what was under the latex. I think it was a quick homeowner job to sell the house. the wood was in really bad shape. I even told the HO that hed be better off tearing down the part on the left of the rail, but he did a good job screwing down the warped boards.

Im going. probably not to all the classes though. Im making a vacation out of it with the wife and kids. She loves beach vacations even though she's lived 5 miles or less from the beach all her life. (Go figure) so

kory, did you ever do that one dock we talked about? how did it go.

I had priced this for solid stain, with the cabots problem solver, but after the customer called me and said "seems fair, when can you do it? i looked at my notes and had charged less than half what I had put into my notes! Bummer! By the way, the Osborne brush and the makita 9227 works wonders! 2 hours max on sanding and defurring this. 8 hrs to strip, 6 hours to prime and stain with an airless. then back the next morning to pick up the oil sorbent booms. there was also a fence to the left that was bare to start.

Paul, Half the wood you work with ive never even heard of! Ive only seen 2 Ipe decks down here.

this was also addressed here osborne brush

Dang Jeff, We actually do have something in common!!! I know its cold up north now but it must also be snowing in hadies too. lots of bands never get played on the so called classic rock stations, like ELP, Uriah Heep

Mindless blabbering is half the fun. plus you can stop reading at any time. speaking of which, what do you think of this da** Bush economy. less than 4% unemeployment, what a national shame.

In my market, $1.00 sf seems to be the breaking point for most people. I compete mostly with painters and many are $25/hr plus materials. On some though, with a good presentation and explanation of the work involved i can get higher. You must meet customers face to face to do that though. have your pics ready, something for them to look at while your doing your measuring and test spot. and keep talking about what your doing and why.

Im trying to help a painting contractor buddy on an IPE deck. he was going to clean and sand so the Ipe would absorb the stain. Ive convinced him to clean and brighten instead of sanding. His local paint supplier sells Sikkens Cetol DEK. Im trying to talk him into WTW. What gan you guys tell me about the Sikkens that I can use to change his mind.